Mark 3:1-6 Again Jesus entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. 2 They watched Jesus to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him. 3 And he said to the man who had the withered hand, "Come forward." 4 Then he said to them, "Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?" But they were silent. 5 He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. 6 The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.
Here is one more place where Jesus really confuses me until I stop to think about it.
He says in the sermon on the mount "blessed are the peacemakers." But here, Jesus is seemingly anything but a peacemaker. He runs into a man with a withered hand. It would be such a nice thing to do to heal him. But wait! It is the Sabbath. Jesus is going to break the law if he heals the guy on the Sabbath. The Pharisees will see it, get mad, and begin to plot to destroy Jesus! Yep, their hearts are so hard that they are going to try and destroy Jesus because he heals a guy on the Sabbath! That is just how Pharisees roll. They rolled that way two thousand years ago and they roll that way today too. You point out that their culture isn't (their hearts aren't) right in God's eyes and they will plot to destroy you.
So what choice does Jesus have? He doesn't have to heal the man on the Sabbath. The man can be healed 24 hours from then. Jesus wouldn't be breaking a law after the Sabbath is over. No big deal to wait. Right? Why not be a peacemaker - respect the Pharisee's laws - fit in with their culture - and heal the guy tomorrow? What difference is one day going to make to the man or to Jesus? And it will appease the Pharisees. Peace will be made and all will be well.
However, instead of making peace with the Pharisees by fitting in, Jesus creates conflict! He intentionally creates conflict. This is not the act of a peacemaker. Or is it?
To top it off, Jesus chooses to create this conflict around the act of healing. This is significant. In the gospel of Luke, Jesus is constantly healing people by telling them to "go in peace." Jesus brings peace when he heals! When Jesus transforms our bodies and our hearts, he creates shalom - peace - a divine wholeness. Jesus is never more of a peacemaker than when he transform us.
One can only imagine the shalom Jesus brought to the man with the withered hand when he healed him. Peace came upon the man as he is healed. And when we offer transformation (whether it is supernatural or not - whether it is physical or spiritual) we bring about the peace of Jesus. Jesus encourages us to bring this kind of peace to the world: "Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called the children of God!" This is real peace - real shalom. A far cry from making nice-nice.
On the other hand, there was no peacemaking with the Pharisees in this story. Jesus intentionally created conflict. Which goes along with something Jesus also says in the gospel of Luke, "Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!" Had Jesus appeased the Pharisees in this story, he would have only pacified them temporarily. Without the transformation that Jesus offers, they still would not have experienced shalom. In fact, "Jesus looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart." Jesus does not bring false, temporary, imperfect peace. He realized their hearts must be transformed to experience his peace - and without that transformation, he could only bring division. And so they went out to plot his destruction.
Jesus teaches us about being peacemakers in this story. His shalom comes to those who let their hearts (and bodies) be transformed. This is true peacemaking. He offers no phony, no pretense, no "go along to get along" appeasement to those who are too attached to their old ways and to their own comfort zones to allow him to transform them. To those, he brings division.
Do we ignore Jesus' teaching that being a peacemaker is far more than just appeasing others?
Peacemakers know Jesus' transforming power is what brings about true shalom. What kind of peacemakers are we? Ones that encourage transformation or ones that just make nice-nice? Are we willing to create conflict rather than appeasement? Oh my, that is a hard one! And what if it means others will conspire against us to destroy us?
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