Luke 6:9

‘And Jesus said to them, “I ask you, Is it lawful on the sabbath to do good, or to do harm? To save a life, or to destroy it?” '

Jesus could see the workings of their hearts. He knew exactly what they were thinking. And He knew that they had it in their minds to have Him killed. So while to the ordinary people His words were about the man and his condition, and He was asking whether he should heal (do good) or refrain from healing (do harm and fail to help the man in his distress), the Pharisees knew that He knew their hearts and was speaking of them. It was they who were there to do harm to Jesus, and even to kill Him, and they were using the Sabbath day in order to attain their end. The words, ‘to save life or to destroy it' refers pointedly to them.

His words contrasted what He was about to do, with what they were about to do. He was going to do good, they were aiming to do harm, He was going to help a man live again, they were planning to have Him put to death. But He longed to help them too and He was pleading with them to consider and to ask themselves who was really in the right.

But His words also emphasised why He was here, it was so that through His word others too would begin to ‘do good' and to ‘save life. So that others would cease to be withered. This was central to His message. As He would heal this withered hand, so did He long to restore the withered trees (Ezekiel 17:24) and withered bones (Ezekiel 37:2) of Israel (and none more withered than those He saw before Him). He longed that He might prophesy to them that they might live (Ezekiel 37:4).

‘Is it lawful.' The Pharisees were very keen on describing something as ‘lawful' or ‘unlawful'. They had only recently asked His disciples the same question in the grainfields. So Jesus gently hits back. They were concerned about what was lawful so He wanted them to consider whether they thought that what they were planning to do was lawful. As a technical phrase which they used for their final warning they should have taken especial note of it.

‘On the Sabbath.' That day which God had set aside as life-giving and blessed. Surely if any day was a day for doing good, that one was.

‘To do good or to do harm.' This was the crux. What should the right thinking person do when these alternatives were offered? Standing in the sight of God should he do good, or should he do harm? There were no doubt many common people there. They would be with Him. They would instinctively know the answer and may well not have realised what a fix the Rabbis were in. (And the Rabbis knew it).

The way the question is put is also illuminating. The Pharisees would have stated that they did not do harm by not healing on the Sabbath, they simply did nothing. Jesus reply is that not to do good when it can be done is actually to do harm. Doing nothing is doing harm. The tree that bears no fruit is no more use than the tree that produces bad fruit (Luke 13:6). It is cast into the fire (Luke 3:9; Matthew 7:19). ‘To him who knows to do good, and does it not, to him it is sin' (James 4:17).

‘To save life or to kill.' That was not a question about the man with his withered arm, as though he were in danger of death. Rather He had the aims of the Pharisees in mind, otherwise He could have stopped after ‘to do harm'. The crowds simply saw it as an added example to justify doing good on the Sabbath, but the guilty men present could hardly have avoided seeing the further implication.