In Mark chapter 3 Jesus encountered a very interesting incident when he was in the temple or synagogue. He saw a man the withered arm in the synagogue, and the Pharisees were waiting to pounce on him seeing whether he will break the Sabbath for doing the work of healing the man’s withered arm.

Mark 3:1–6

¹ He entered a synagogue again; and a man was there whose hand was withered. ² And they were watching Him closely to see if He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. ³ He said to the man with the withered hand, “Get up and come forward!” ⁴ And He said to them, “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do harm, to save a life or to kill?” But they kept silent.⁵ After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored.⁶ The Pharisees went out and immediately began conspiring with the Herodians against Him, as to how they might put Him to death.

Jesus knowing what they got in mind , asked them this question: “ Is it lawful to kill or to save life on Sabbath day?”  all these guys were in silence and then Jesus was grieved with the hardness of their heart.

Hardened Heart

Now I will pick up this word hardened heart; it is the biggest problem. So let me finish this story , Jesus went on and told that with the man with the withered arm to stretch out his hand, and he did and was healed instantly!

 Jesus saved life but these Pharisees were prepared to kill life for the sake of keeping those are the Old Testament in what hypocrites do! And if their kids fell into a well their cow fell into the well or whatever on Sabbath, they will save them!

But here it is a fellow Israelite, a fellow Jewish men, a fellow brother in the synagogue with a withered arm, they will refuse him to be healed.  

Withered Arm—takes a huge miracle to be healed

Though the Lord Jesus Christ is not with us today we have the Holy Spirit with us today to heal!  With the withered atm,  it will take a huge miracle to do that even with charismatic churches! My point is that people’s hearts are hardened , and that is that is absolutely the root problems so many sins in life.

With hardened heart, people find excuses to skirt around the Word of God

It’s not that people don’t want to follow God but they find excuses to do  they plan to do and defy the bigger picture who God is . He would not try to keep the laws at the expense of destroying lives. Jesus wanted to save and heal, and the law is fulfilled by him on the cross if you want the law. He died on the cross and fulfilled that law or the wrath of God the condemnation of God fell upon him so that we can be here, so that we can be saved now.

I do want to talk about the hardness of hearts if you apply that today to Christians today, there are many cases of Christians they skirt around the more important things of the Bible because of hardened hearts. You see when the hearts are hardened, people find a way to skirt around.

Given with people’s hardened hearts, they would not listen to the word of God. The real thing about the word of God is to love the Lord your God with all your heart.  But if they love something else more, it becomes an impediment , a hindrance to a Christian’s own desire to do something that’s contrary.

We are disappointed that Christian could possibly find a way to skirt around that to justify himself or herself just like the Jewish Pharisees were doing as they tried to justify themselves by saying they said you can’t heal the guy on Sabbath. So Sabbath is more important than a man’s life?? Go let the guy be withered hand stay withered.

Watch against Hardening of heart

It’s disgraceful that we may laugh at the hard reality, but this is exactly many of us do it in life with justification to expense with what is important because of hardened hearts!  Hardening is the most dangerous thing because it doesn’t happen overnight seriously.

No one could deconstruct from and disbelief in Christ Jesus overnight it’s always a process a little bit, a little bit and not much and the devil is working overtime to sow doubts to sow all these things to this to your hearts. That’s what he did to Eve, as he sowed the dubious seduction offering. This is something folks what we need to watch! Don’t let your heart be hardened because there’s a lot of ways we can skirt around this thing.

Individualism does not even work for himself or herself

Let God be God and don’t let your emotions be go wild. Your individuality, your sexuality doesn’t define you. Tim Keller said “ It is my individual choice I will make decision for myself as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone. It is selfish and a destructive thing because you think you can do something at your own.  No!  You are going to cost so much pain to people around you who love you, by making such foolish decisions contradictory to the word of God!  You think it’s just you, and wanted others leave you alone! But do you understand that it’s not really true ? Just yourself ? Because it’s very selfish very self-centered because you cause hurts to a lot of people close to you. Maybe a lot of people going to bear the pain for the rest of their lives! Get that philosophical thought individualistic postmodernism people work for yourself is wrong! Love and submit to the Word of God so don’t harden your hearts, don’t let your hearts be hardened!

Solution is to Meditate upon the Word of the Lord

Meditate on the Word of God daily, and God’s blessings will follow you.

Psalm 1:1–3 ¹ Blessed is the person who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, or sit in the seat of scoffers! ² But his delight is in the Law of the Lord, And on His Law he meditates day and night. ³ He will be like a tree planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season, And its leaf does not wither;And in whatever he does, he prospers.