GOSPEL REFLECTION, WEDNESDAY, 2ND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME, 21 JANUARY 2026

Mark 3:1-6.  It is still early in  Jesus’ public ministry in Galilee, but now he meets the fifth controversy with the religious authorities.  He is under surveillance by them, with representatives keeping an eye on him at his public healings and exorcisms.  They seem never to be absent, in fact.  Conflict and opposition grow between Jesus and the religious authorities, as we see in this fifth encounter.  It is the Sabbath.  Jesus is in synagogue.  The authorities are there to see whether he would perform a healing so that he could be accused.  A man with a withered hand was there, likely unable to work and earn a living because of it.  Jesus sees the man and calls him to come closer.  Turning to the Pharisees Jesus asks whether it is lawful for him to heal on the Sabbath, challenging them to answer, but they kept silent.  Jesus looked at them with anger, realising their lack of compassion.  He tells the man to stretch out his withered hand, and it was restored to health.  The Pharisees left immediately and, meeting with other opponents of Jesus, conspired how to destroy him.  Jesus is now a marked man.  Opposition to him will continue to increase until he is put to death.

Here we have a key to Jesus’ actions.  They foster Life over Death at all times and in all circumstances; well-being over illness and disease; health and freedom from evil forces.  In his time, it was thought that all illness and affliction resulted from sin, so healing the man with the withered hand is to set him free.  In the gospels these incidents not only heal the afflicted, they clearly reveal to those ready to see, that he was Messiah – they are steps in the revelation of who Jesus really was, but even the religious authorities of the time were not able to comprehend.  Do the religious people of our time, despite their outward religious life, fully comprehend who Jesus is, in the depths of their inner being?