The Crippled Plant

The Gospels tell us the story of a man with a crippled hand who was in the synagogue on the day of worship, when Jesus comes in and the Pharisees hold their breath to see what He will do. Will He heal the man? On the day of rest? 

By God, if He does so, then they've got Him. 

Blasphemer. 

How many times have you heard this story? How many times have you read it? How many times have you pictured in your head a big ol' church gathering with a crippled man right in the middle of it, the way we might gather around someone in prayer? How many times have you thought in your head that this crippled man was much like the infirm among us - surrounded by friends, by those who wanted nothing more than for him to be healed, by those who were looking for a miracle for him...faithfully? Daily. Weekly. 

I confess that I have had similar visions in my head as I have tried to picture this moment. 

I confess that it was only very recently that I realized I was wrong. 

Think back to the time, the place, and the people we are talking about. There is no Christ yet. There's a Jesus, but there is no Christ. No redemption. No restoration. 

There are Jews. And there are hundreds of laws about purity and procedure and ritual cleansing and what is clean and what is unclean. There are hundreds of laws about who is allowed where and when and under what circumstances. There are hundreds of laws about who is allowed to worship God with the community and who must be cut off. 

And I'm telling you - in those hundreds of laws, there were plenty of them that said that crippled man is not allowed in the synagogue. That crippled man is not invited to worship. He's defective. He's not whole. So he's not clean. 

Certainly, even if you have a place for such a man in the life of the synagogue - if, by some mercy, you let him draw near, he's left on the outskirts of everything. Furthest away. Removed from the crowds. At the very least, removed from the Pharisees, who want nothing to do with a man like this. They wouldn't be caught dead with a cripple. 

...until he serves their purpose. 

So when we read this story, we have to understand - this crippled man was a plant. The Pharisees brought him in special, just to trap Jesus. They invited him there just to make a spectacle of him. Knowing that if their attempts to trap Jesus failed for some reason, at least they'd have their purity laws to fall back on and still create a scene. This crippled man was there because they invited him there. Maybe even dragged him there. At least one of the Gospels suggests that the Pharisees are the ones who made sure that Jesus saw this man, put him right dead center right in front of this "Rabbi"'s face for the sole purpose of seeing what He would do. 

On any other Sabbath, that crippled man would be wholly excluded from the Pharisees' worship. Make no mistake about that. 

Does that change the way you read the story?