“Now it happened that He went through the grainfields on the Sabbath; and as they went His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain. And the Pharisees said to Him, ‘Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?’” Mark 2:23-24.
The incidents we are examining here in Lord of the Sabbath, Parts 1 and 2 are also covered in Matthew 12:1-14 and Luke 6:1-11 so reference will be made to these passages for the things that they add to the narrative.
“And He entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand. And they watched Him closely, whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. Then He said to the man who had the withered hand, ‘Step forward.’ And He said to them, ‘Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?’ but they kept silent. So when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other.” Mark 3:1-5.
This is a different Sabbath from the one concerning the grainfields incident.
“Now it happened on another Sabbath, also, that He entered the synagogue and taught. And a man was there whose right hand was withered.” Luke 6:6.
So, at least one week later the Lord entered the synagogue followed by a gaggle of scribes and Pharisees, wherein we find that a man with a withered right hand is seated.
“And behold, there was a man who had a withered hand. And they asked Him, saying, ‘Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?’ – that they might accuse Him.” Matthew 12:10.
There are some who think that this man’s deformity came about during his adulthood, one commentator going so far as to say that tradition has it that he was a plasterer. If this was the case and the fact that most folks are right handed, it is possible that this man’s entire livelihood was wiped out with the withering of his hand.
Yet the important question here is, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” The legalistic heart is a callous one concerned only with is it lawful.
“And He said to them, ‘Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?’ But they kept silent.” Mark 3:4.
“Then He said to them, ‘What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.’” Matthew 12:11-12.
“So when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other.” Mark 3:5.
The moment must have been electric as the crowd in the synagogue saw the power of Jesus Christ who was announced by John the Baptist to be the long promised Messiah.
Jesus even pronounced it Himself that He was Messiah, confirming it with signs and wonders that no prophet had ever done.
The healed man also must have looked on in wonder as his hand was made whole, and then rejoiced that God had blessed him so.
What a charged moment as every eye was on Jesus in wonder eager to hear what He had to say. And what was the Pharisee’s response?
“Then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him.” Mark 3:6.
“Then the Pharisees went out and took counsel against Him, how they might destroy Him.” Matthew 12:14.
“But they were filled with rage, and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.” Luke 6:11.
The rage or madness of these Pharisees caused by Jesus’ healing of a man on the Sabbath drove them to plot with the Herodians how to destroy the Lord.
“For the wicked boasts of his heart’s desire; he blesses the greedy and renounces the Lord. The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God; God is in none of his thoughts.” Psalm 10:3-4.
“His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and oppression; under his tongue is trouble and iniquity. He sits in the lurking places of the villages; in the secret places he murders the innocent; his eyes are secretly fixed on the helpless. He lies in wait secretly, as a lion in his den; he lies in wait to catch the poor; he catches the poor when he draws him into his net. So he crouches, he lies low, that the helpless may fall by his strength [or by his mighty ones].” Psalm 10:7-10.
“The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord [YAWEH] and against His Anointed [Jesus Christ], saying, ‘Let us break Their bonds in pieces and cast away Their cords from us.’ He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall hold them in derision. Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, and distress them in His deep displeasure: ‘Yet I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion.’” Psalm 2:2-6.
The very persons who questioned the Lord’s right to heal on the Sabbath were perfectly willing to plot to destroy an innocent man on the same day.
This is the end result of how Satan’s religion works. Every freedom that God gives us in Christ, the devil attempts to corrupt or take away.
In the Israelite’s case the evil one loaded them down with heavy loads that produce pride or frustration depending on the individual. The religious are filled with pride because they feel that they are keeping all of the law and forcing God to accept themselves.
Those who are frustrated see themselves as truly sinful people, who seemingly cannot please God; a fact which Satan constantly reinforces by telling them how sinful they are for not keeping some of the 600 plus laws which he loaded the Jews down with.
Satan’s religion keeps them from coming to a God who truly loves them, enabling him to drag them off to hell with his lies and doctrines of demons.
The devil’s religious doctrines have done about as much harm to the Christian church as it did to Israel. He immediately sent in false apostles who contended that Jesus was not God incarnate.
By injecting many different doctrines he was able to fragment the body of Christ into numerous denominations, and with each denomination came a different heresy or error, such as infant baptism, or keeping the Ten Commandments.
He split the church up into the priesthood and the laity, taking the church from a group of Christians who were fully involved, to those who sat quietly in their pews and listened while those of the priesthood expounded the Scriptures to them, not always correctly.
This latter made the injection of heresy even easier when godless men were selected to be priests.
“But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed.” 2 Peter 2:1-2.
At one point Satan’s primarily godless Christian church was able to become an institution sitting on kings and excommunicating, torturing or killing innocent people, usually Jews and true Christians.
Though the battle has raged back and forth between victories for Christ’s church and near victory for Satan’s church, the doctrines of godless men are still peppered throughout the church.
It is not just the church that is under attack, you are under attack. You must not share Christ with anyone, you will offend them. You must not talk of an eternity in hell, it might frighten them.
In many places you can lose your job if you say God bless you, or if you do not agree that homosexual marriage should be legalized.
It has almost come to the point where Christians will have to identify themselves to each other by drawing a fish on the ground as they did during the Roman persecutions.
The threat is very real and unless Christians pray that the conservatives take control of the government soon our freedoms will be taken from us within months.
God gave us a Constitution which guarantees our right to vote for our leadership, not have it dumped on us through trickery or voter fraud as in socialist or communist countries.
If He gave us the right to vote and we do not, we will have only ourselves to blame when pastors are arrested for speaking out against homosexuality, evolution, Islam, socialism, or a liberal politician.
And when they come for Christians for some infraction of the dictators rules against speaking the name of Christ, Christians will have no one to blame but themselves.
Finally, Satan attempts to force Christians into accepting his religion by attacking them in their minds.
When we speak at church, he comes around and whispers, don’t you feel like a fool, you sure made one out of yourself this morning. See how everyone is looking at you that proves you made a fool out of yourself, you need to leave this church before they ask you to leave.
More lies, you did not go to church this morning because you were sick, but you seem okay now, God is disappointed in you.
You have not read your Bible in two days, God is disappointed in you.
You did not give enough money to the church this week, God is disappointed in you.
You failed to talk to someone about Jesus today, God is disappointed in you.
You became angry and used profanity, you are not a Christian, God is disappointed in you.
You have had sinful thoughts today, you are not fit to come before God in prayer, God is disappointed in you.
You apologized to your friend for offending them but you did not mean it, did you, God is disappointed in you.
You are a great disappointment to God, why do you even try, He is done with you.
God is never disappointed in the sincere heart. In fact He is never disappointed in any of our failures; He just wants to help us because He loves us dearly.
Oh, and do not be disappointed in yourself if you are not perfect, Jesus did all that for you. Just fix your eyes on Jesus and let Him lead the way. The Lord of the Sabbath is able to be Lord of your life.
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.” 1 Peter 5:8-9.
Lord of the Sabbath, Part 2 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 12-13-18, updated on 4-17-21.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.