Jesus is getting heat from the religious elite in this text. In the preceding paragraph, he just got chewed out for plucking grain on the Sabbath, and now, all eyes are on him to see if he's going to heal a man with a shriveled right hand on the Sabbath. He's on the verge of seriously breaking Jewish law, which is sin, and which in some cases, is punishable by death. So Jesus turns it back to them and asks, what's legal to give life or to take it? They miss the point, because as soon as Jesus heals the man, instead of celebrating and giving thanks to God for this miracle, the Bible tells us that they're "furious" and begin their plans on what they're going to do with this sinner.
There's the letter of the law, and then there's the spirit of the law. Jesus reminds us that the law was made for us; we were not made for it. Extreme legalism is the same as fundamentalism. And it chokes the life out of, well... life.
Readings: Numbers 36:1-Deuteronomy 1:46; Luke 5:29-6:11; Psalm 66:1-20; Proverbs 11:24-26
