Stretching out our hand is done for several reasons. We stretch out for help, we stretch out to greet, we stretch out as a response and we stretch out to help. There are negative forms of stretching out our hand as well. Jesus usually stretched out his hand to help. In his public ministry that was for healing. The healing in many ways was not just for the restoration of health but was also for the courage of wanting to be healed.
In St. Mark 3: 5 it says, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.” Our limitations, sickness and weaknesses are also the failure of our community and society to want us to recover and do well. So, when we meet someone who is sick, it is not an individual failure and shortcoming but a community failure and shortcoming. This was also the reluctance of the Pharisees in agreeing to Jesus healing on the Sabbath. The very fact that there were people to be healed, was a failure of the Pharisees and the entire community. Keeping this under wraps would also save them from much embarrassment.
It was not just that Jesus was healing on the Sabbath, but that every healing was a questioning of the authority of the Pharisees. If Jesus can, why can’t you? Why are there so many people who are sick? Does your lack of ability to heal mean that you are not people of God? No one would have had a problem if Jesus would have healed in secret. But Jesus more than getting a name for himself wanted to show that he is the son of God.
Those who needed healing also had to understand that they had to question the unjust society they were living in. Questioning is done by raising or stretching out our hand and making ourselves seen and heard. Receiving healing need not be a passive act but is also a stretching out, a putting out and an asking for. It is not a shameful thing but a seeking for one’s right to be healed. Jesus is asking us to stretch out our hand. To stretch it out with dignity and courage. Amen.
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