“And he entered again into the synagogue; and there was a man there which had a withered hand.”
Another time Jesus went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there — the withered-hand healing is the fifth consecutive controversy in Mark's Gospel, following the paralytic's forgiveness, eating with sinners, fasting, and the Sabbath grainfield. The setting is again a Sabbath synagogue — the same arena as the first exorcism in chapter 1. The man with the shriveled hand is present but passive: he does not ask for healing. The Pharisees are watching, and the watching is hostile. The scene is a theological trap, and Jesus walks into it deliberately — not because he cannot avoid it but because the kingdom's work cannot wait for political convenience.
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