“1 Now He entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a paralyzed hand. 2 In order to accuse Him, they were watching Him closely to see whether He would heal him on the Sabbath. 3 He told the man with the paralyzed hand, “Stand before us.” 4 Then He said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do what is good or to do what is evil, to save life or to kill?”
But they were silent. 5 After looking around at them with anger and sorrow at the hardness of their hearts, He told the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out, and his hand was restored. 6 Immediately the Pharisees went out and started plotting with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him.”
Mark 3:1-6
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Jesus is always good at challenging our base assumptions. The Holy Spirit is the One who confronts our hearts when we are thinking in wrong ways. But the Pharisees didn’t have that indwelling, and simply sat there that Sabbath in their sins. They looked at a man who needed compassion, and they could only see his supposed ‘sins’ and an opportunity to trap Jesus. When they quit seeing people as people, they left the realm of good understanding and God-honoring thought.

We cannot afford to look at people as anything other than people. Our hearts cannot afford the loss that comes from dehumanizing others. When Jesus looked at the hurting man in that synagogue, He saw a hurting man. Not just an opportunity, not just a ‘sinner.’ He saw a person that mattered, a person that needed to be shown love, compassion, mercy and grace.

A heart that mirrors the heart of Jesus is the only acceptable way to go when we deal with other people. But that takes work, that takes an effort. We must look behind the surface, and seek out what is really going on in a situation, in a heart, and seek out the path that Jesus would take through prayer and a heart that listens for the Spirit’s lead. This requires us to slow down, seek out God and not rush through situations we encounter every day, and that is almost the hardest part. Seek out His leading, His heart and treat others as Christ would.