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Hands in Prayer

Daily Devotional • January 18

The Confession of St. Peter

Praying Hands (Dürer), Artavazd Talalyan

A Reading from Mark 2:23-3:6

23 One Sabbath he was going through the grain fields, and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. 24 The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” 25 And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food, 26 how he entered the house of God when Abiathar was high priest and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions?” 27 Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for humankind and not humankind for the Sabbath, 28 so the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

1 Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. 2 They were watching him to see whether he would cure him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. 3 And he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come forward.” 4 Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. 5 He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. 6 The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

Meditation

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus makes two moves on the Sabbath day that encounter resistance from those who set themselves up as his enemies. He first passes through the fields with his disciples, and, after they are chastised for picking grain to eat on the Sabbath, he defends them by citing the actions of King David. “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath,” he says.  

More remarkable still is his subsequent choice to heal on the Sabbath. First, let’s reflect on the particular malady presented here. The man had a withered hand, and such a malady means that he is physically unable to work. The hands are the means by which men and women make their livelihood in the world, and to not have the use of them renders an individual unable to participate in producing things for others. This not only leads to poverty of finances, having nothing to sell, but also to a poverty of spirit, hyperaware of one’s dependency upon others for charity that one can never return.

And yet, if “man” were made “for the Sabbath” as the enemies of Jesus contend, could there be a more ideal state than this man? Here is someone who would be unable to break the commandments of the Sabbath even if he desired to do so! He has been stripped of his ability to work, and, therefore, his ability to sin against their ordinances.

It is obviously farcical to reason like this, and shows the poverty of thought among the enemies of Jesus. Having dispensed with it and declaring that the “Sabbath was made for man” — specifically, for mankind’s restoration — he restores the hand of the man unable to work. It is not mentioned in the text, but I believe it is likely that the man then puts his newly restored limbs to another practice that is frequently depicted using hands—to prayer, and to thanksgiving. 


James Cornwell is an assistant professor of psychology and management who lives in the Hudson Valley north of New York City. He and his wife, Sarah, have five children.

Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:

The Diocese of Leicester – The Church of England
Trinity Church Wall Street, New York

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