Jesus brought a hidden test into the open. His opponents were watching "whether he would heal him on the sabbath day; that they might accuse him" (Mark 3:2). Instead of waiting to be accused, He set the man in front of everyone and asked the real question. Barnes explains that "It seems to have been a maxim with the Jews, that not to do good, when we have an opportunity, was to do evil." By that measure, refusing to heal would itself be wrong. Matthew Henry hears a contrast in the words: "Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, as I design to do, or to do evil, as you design to do?"

"But they held their peace" (Mark 3:4). Gill says they were silent, not being able to return an answer "but what must have been in his favour." Jesus "looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts" (Mark 3:5). He told the man, "Stretch forth thine hand," and "his hand was restored whole as the other." Then the Pharisees went out and "took counsel with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him" (Mark 3:6).

The verb behind "held their peace" (esiōpōn) is in a tense that pictures an ongoing silence: they kept quiet. The word for "life" is psychē, the life or soul of a person. The ESV's "to do harm" translates kakopoiēsai, literally "to do evil."

The Gospels tell this scene from different angles. In Matthew, the opponents ask first, "Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath days?" and Jesus answers with the sheep in the pit (Matthew 12:10-12). Luke says the watchers were "the scribes and Pharisees," and that Jesus "knew their thoughts" (Luke 6:7-8). Mark alone records Jesus' anger and grief (Mark 3:5).

Jesus' question leaves no neutral ground. On the sabbath, as on every day, the choice is to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it. Mark shows the irony: Jesus used the sabbath to restore a man, and His accusers used it to plan how they "might destroy him" (Mark 3:6).

The scene also shows Jesus' heart. He was angry and grieved at the same time (Mark 3:5). Gill describes His look as stern, "though without sin, or any desire of revenge." Matthew Henry writes, "It is a great grief to our Lord Jesus, to see sinners bent upon their own ruin." And he warns about their silence: "Those are obstinate indeed in their infidelity, who, when they can say nothing against a truth, will say nothing to it."