Walk Of Life – Day 15, June 2022 – Thoughts From The Words Of Christ

Jesus Lord Of Sabbath – Healing of a man with withered hand  (Matthew 12: 1-14, Mark 3: 1-6, Luke 6: 1-10)

Israel had seen many prophets who delivered God’s message to the nation. Every prophet would perform miracles or healing in keeping with the Law of God. But Lord Jesus spoke with great authority and challenged the way in which the Law was followed in Israel. This offended the Pharisees a lot. They followed Lord Jesus very closely and questioned him on many occasions but failed to find any fault in him. On one Sabbath while they were passing a field, the hungry disciples picked up some grain and ate them. The Pharisees who were following were quick to point out that it was unlawful to do so on a Sabbath day.

• Sabbath is a day of religious observance and abstinence from work, kept by Jewish people from Friday evening to Saturday evening, and by most Christians on Sunday. This is followed as God rested on the seventh day and made it holy. Genesis 2:1-3
• Day of rest – God blessed this day even before Adam and Eve were sent out of the garden. Knowing that man will sin and will be punished to toil daily for food, God made this arrangement for man so that he can rest and be protected from overwork of laborers by their employers. Everyone employer, servants and livestock alike had to follow the day of rest according to Exodus 20:10.
• Day set apart for the Lord – God also wanted man to spend that day completely in fellowship with him. To do so you have to stop working and doing your daily business. You need to refrain from doing and thinking what pleases you and speaking idle words. Only then God says that the blessing will flow in your lives in Isaiah 58:13, 14.

Not keeping the Sabbath was punishable by law by death. Exodus 31:14. So the Pharisees used this law to find fault in Lord Jesus. But patiently Lord Jesus tries to make them understand that  “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” Mark 2:27.  He gave two examples to explain this.

• When David and his men were hungry they went to Ahimelech, son of Abiathar the priest and asked for food. As there was no other food apart from ‘The Bread of Presence’ which was replaced by fresh loaves, the priest gave that to David as food knowing that by law only priest were allowed to eat it. At that time, David’s need for food was more important than the priestly regulations. And God did not punish them both as David and his men had kept themselves clean. 1 Samuel 21:1-6
• Exodus 20: 8-11 says no one should work on the Sabbath but the priests by performing sacrifices and duties in the temple were doing ‘Sabbath work’ and thereby would not keep the Sabbath law, although they were considered innocent. He wanted the Pharisees to understand that the purpose of the temple was to bring people nearer to their maker and not following religious rituals.

“So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” Mark 2: 28. Lord Jesus said that He is much greater than the temple made by human hands. For the temple did not have the ark of the covenant which was lost during the exile of Babylon. Lord Jesus had restored God’s  presence in the temple by being there. But for them Lord Jesus words were just heresy as God had blinded them and they did not recognize Lord Jesus as their awaited Messiah.

To trap him openly, the Pharisees made a man with shriveled hand be in front of Lord Jesus in the synagogue hoping that He would heal the man. This man’s one hand had shrinked and had become useless. Knowing their thoughts Lord Jesus called the man in open and asked what is right to do on Sabbath. To do good or evil, to follow rules or the help the one in need. Seeing that the Pharisees still disagreed in silence, Lord Jesus got angry. In his final attempt to make them understand, He told the man to stretch out his shriveled hand and restored it.

But instead of thanking God or praying to God for wisdom which they were lacking they made political alliance with the Herodians to plot and kill Lord Jesus. Their positions and status in the community was more to them then the purpose for which God had placed them as teachers of the Law to bring people to God. Today as we serve in the house of God, we too can fall into the same trap. May the Lord help us to always recognize that our goal as a disciple is not to gain power or positions on earth but to save people from death and secure our positions in heaven.