Withered

In Mark 3 there is a story about a man with a withered hand in a synagogue. Jesus shows up and the Pharisees scrutinize Jesus to see if He will heal the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath.

You know that man suffered with that withered hand. Everywhere he went I can imagine people stared at the withered hand. He probably felt embarrassed. He most likely tried the best he could to hide the withered from view hand when possible.

To make matters worse, in his day people thought physical maladies were a sign of God's judgment in a person's life due to sin. Staring is bad enough, but for people to judge on top of that, only makes the matter worse.

What is withered in your life? Some suffer form physical issues. The physical problems are visible to all. Some are too fat. Some too skinny. Some have huge noses, bug eyes, bad hair, and some no hair at all. No matter the problem, many have them. Many have them and are embarrassed by them. They have suffered from the way they look all their lives.

Our society puts great value on physical appearance. If physical appearances are sub par there is emotional suffering and the feeling of lack of self worth. I wish I could shout with a mega phone in the ear of every person with low self esteem; YOUR SELF WORTH IS NOT BASED ON HOW YOU LOOK. YOUR VALUE IS DETERMINED BY GOD WHO LOVED YOU ENOUGH TO SEND JESUS TO DIE ON THE CROSS. THE CROSS IS THE PROOF OF YOUR WORTH. YOUR WORTH IS DETERMINED BY GOD. YOU ARE LOVED. YOUR SINS CAN BE FORGIVEN. FIIND YOUR IDENTITY IN THE CROSS OF JESUS CHRIST !

Many people suffer with a withered heart. They were abused, taken advantage of, mistreated, wounded and they suffer with a broken and withered heart. They have great difficulty loving people. They are not trusting of other people. They go through life with their guard up and incapable of giving or expressing love in a healthy manner. Hurt people often hurt other people. Find someone who systematically hurts other people and look far enough back and you will most likely find that person got hurt deeply at some point.

Some live life with withered souls. They have committed such heinous sins they believe they can never be forgiven by God. Some men and women have given themselves away sexually and perversely so often they believe they are damaged and dirty. Others have abused their bodies with drugs and alcohol to such an extent they believe they can never be sober or clean again. No matter the sin many live with withered souls. Everyday they live with shame and condemnation. They have no hope of reconciliation with God. They have no faith that God loves them and is willing to forgive them no matter what they have done. He can, will, and has forgiven people for such sins as adultery, abortion, fornication, fabricating the truth, stealing, and every sort of sexual perversion.

In the Mark 3 story Jesus asked the man to come forward. Don't you know as soon as he stood to make his way forward every eye in the place focused on him and most likely his withered hand. Why would Jesus single this guy out. Next, Jesus asked the guy to stretch his withered hand forward.

This was a crisis moment for the man with the crippled and withered hand. To put that hand forward meant everybody would stare at the very thing that had caused him so much pain and humiliation over the years. Surely the man must have been tempted to keep the hand to his side hidden from sight.

Only when the man chose to put the hand forward did Jesus heal it and restore it fully. Could it be today Jesus is calling you to put your withered things forward to be healed and restored. He still does that. He heals people of poor self esteem through the cross of Christ. He heals broken hearted people and restores hearts that have been crushed so they can love others. He forgives sinners of all sorts of sins. He does all that and more.

What is withered in your life? Will you give it to Jesus and trust Him to make you whole again? He is more than able to do so.