Again Jesus went into a synagogue; and a man was there whose hand was withered. The Pharisees were watching Jesus closely to see if He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him [in the Jewish high court]. He said to the man whose hand was withered, “Get up and come forward!” He asked them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save a life or to kill?” But they kept silent. After looking around at them with anger, grieved at the hardness and arrogance of their hearts, He told the man, “Hold out your hand.” And he held it out, and his hand was [completely] restored. 

Mark 3:1-5 AMP

The pharisees here wanted to end Jesus’ ministry. However, Jesus fired back at them the word of God, and exposes them for using the word of God to benefit themselves. The pharisees had become uninterested in helping those around them and were more interested in cultural control and synagogue profit.

Jesus knows that the pharisees set this up. Regardless, Jesus asks the man with the withered hand to “get up and come forward.” Then Jesus asks the Pharisees about the Sabbath law and whether or not one can do a good thing on the Sabbath. The pharisees can’t respond, because they know that what Jesus is doing is right, even if it breaks their customs.

The man who Jesus healed did not ask to be found in the middle of all of this drama, but amidst that drama, came a powerful healing. If the man had tried to avoid this drama, he would have missed out on his powerful, spiritual healing. Similarly, we may lose out on powerful workings in our lives if we try to avoid drama.

Within drama, God can meet us and bring healing and restoration to our lives. Jesus proves, over and over, that He uses peoples’ differences, judgementalism, and messiness to perform miracles. Jesus doesn’t wait until we’ve cleaned ourselves up to provide his miracles, but He provides them in the middle of our messy drama.

God can get to us, even if we are sandwiched between drama. God may even purpose drama for our lives. It allows God to demonstrate His power in our lives. We should stop attempting to sidetrack the tough drama in our lives. When we try to avoid drama and conflict, we are missing the freedom that comes from overcoming that drama or trial.

The unfolding of our spiritual walk takes place in the gentle scene of Jesus in the manger and the battle between Jesus and the pharisees. We cannot love Jesus if we don’t love both Jesus in the manger and Jesus who takes a whip and drives people out of the temple.

When we think about the messy things in our lives, we have to come face to face with the reality that some of the Lord’s strongest work happens in the middle of our drama. If we avoid drama and conflict, we are avoiding God’s work in our lives. If we think that being in the middle of stress, tension, and drama is the worst thing in the world, we miss the opportunity to surrender to the Lord in those moments and exercise our faith.