Lk 6:6-11
A new order: Luke’s account of the healing of a man with a withered hand is borrowed from Mark’s Gospel (3:1-6). The setting is a conflict over the observance of the Sabbath regulation which forbade healing on the Sabbath. The preceding section dealt with the issue of gathering grain on the Sabbath.
Luke’s Gentile community would not have been interested in such a debate about Jewish Sabbath observance. However, Luke is interested in the new lifestyle that Christianity demands. His focus is found in Jesus’ question, “Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?” (v 9).
The answer to the question must be given by the members of Luke’s community. The answer is obvious. The lifestyle of a follower of Jesus demands that human needs be placed above legal observance. Of course, it is lawful to do good—not evil—on the Sabbath, to save life, not to destroy it. Works of mercy mark people as followers of Jesus. This is the new order which Jesus established.