And when he had looked around at them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he said unto the man,
Stretch forth your hand.
And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other.
All Commentaries on Mark 3:5 Go To Mark 3
Bede
AD 735
And anticipating the calumny of the Jews, which they had prepared for Him, He accused them of violating the precepts of the law, by a wrong interpretation. Wherefore there follows: “And He saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath-day, or to do evil? "And this He asks, because they thought that on the sabbath they were to rest even from good works, whilst the law commands to abstain from bad, saying, “Ye shall do no servile work therein;” or because He did those miracles for the saving of a soul, or because the healing itself of the hand signified the saving of the soul.
But mystically, the man with awithered hand shows the human race, dried up as to its fruitfulness in good works, but now cured by the mercy of the Lord; the hand of man, which in our first parent had been dried up when he plucked the fruit of the forbidden tree, through the grace of the Redeemer, Who stretched His guiltless hands on thetree of the cross, has been restored to health by the juices of good works. Well too was it in the synagogue that the hand was withered; for where the gift of knowledge is greater, there also the danger of inexcusable guilt is greater.
