The question sounded like a point of law, but Matthew tells us the real motive: "that they might accuse him." Gill says it was asked "not for information sake, as willing to be instructed in this point; for their determinations were, that healing was not lawful on such a day." Their rules allowed medicine only "in case of extreme danger of life," and a withered hand did not threaten life. So the question was a trap. Mark and Luke add that they "watched him" to see whether He would heal (Mark 3:2; Luke 6:7), and Luke says Jesus "knew their thoughts" (Luke 6:8).

Jesus answered with a question of His own: "What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out?" (Matthew 12:11). Then He drew the conclusion: "How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days" (Matthew 12:12). He said to the man, "Stretch forth thine hand," and "it was restored whole, like as the other" (Matthew 12:13). The Pharisees' answer was a plot: they "held a council against him, how they might destroy him" (Matthew 12:14).

"Withered" is xeros, a word Thayer uses of parts of the body "deprived of their natural juices, shrunk, wasted, withered." Luke says it was the man's "right hand" (Luke 6:6). "Accuse" is kategoreo, to make an accusation, the language of bringing a charge.

Gill explains the rules Jesus' opponents followed: they allowed help on the sabbath when life was in danger. He says Jesus' sheep example (Matthew 12:11) appealed to what was usually done among them, which no man would scruple to do. Gill adds that later Jewish rules were stricter, allowing only that food be given to an animal in a ditch, or that "bolsters and pillows may be brought," a rule he thinks seems to have been made after Christ's time, in opposition to His saying.

When Jesus is asked a trap question, His answer reveals the heart of God. Matthew Henry writes, "Christ shows that works of mercy are lawful and proper to be done on the Lord's day." Jesus did not argue in the abstract. He set a person above a rule, and then healed him. Mark adds that Jesus looked on them "with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts" (Mark 3:5).

Henry also sees a picture of grace: "By nature our hands are withered, and we are unable of ourselves to do any thing that is good." The man could not stretch out a withered hand by his own strength, yet at Christ's word "he stretched it forth" (Matthew 12:13).