12:13,14
Having given the “theology” of the situation, and it genuinely was theology for Jesus demonstrated that the heart of God was to heal people, Jesus demonstrated the reality of this. He told the man to stretch out his hand. The man did so, and the hand was completely healed. It is interesting to note that Jesus actually did not do any “work” on any half-sensible definition. The reaction of the Pharisees was typical of what their reaction would be throughout the gospels, they tried to work out how they could kill Jesus. Sin can utterly blind a person, or group of people.
As an aside on healing. It is true that there are many charlatan “healers” today (and always have been). There are also many who are well-intentioned but perhaps over claim. However, we should note that the heart of God is to heal, God delights to heal. So the supposed sensible position of more or less saying the gift of healing does not exist has a hard job finding Biblical support, and needs to answer the question “how does this it in with the heart of God?” Sickness and healing is a complex matter, and there are no easy answers.
12:15,16
See how Jesus reacted in the previous incident. He tackled the matter head on, there was no beating about the bush. Now see how He reacts to the knowledge that the Pharisees are out to kill Him. Jesus withdrew. He took what we might call the pragmatic course. There is a time to tackle head on, there is a time to withdraw. If we always tackle head on we will do some foolish things, if we always withdraw or take the pragmatic option we will also do some equally foolish things. If we look at successful generals or politicians, one of their qualities was that they knew which battles to fight. And things started to go wrong for them when they started fighting every battle.
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