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Jesus Rescues the Sabbath
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Jesus declared that in their blindness, His enemies had mistaken
the purpose of the Sabbath. He said, “If you had known what this
means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have con-
demned the guiltless.”
Matthew 12:7
. Their heartless rites could not
make up for the lack of the integrity and tender love that characterize
the true worshiper of God.
Jesus Deliberately Heals on the Sabbath
In themselves, sacrifices were of no value. They were a means,
not an end. Their purpose was to direct people to the Savior, to
bring them into harmony with God. The service of love is what
God values. Without this, mere ceremony is an offense to Him.
It is the same with the Sabbath. When the mind is absorbed with
tiresome rites, the purpose of the Sabbath is defeated. Just observing
it outwardly is a mockery.
In the synagogue on another Sabbath, Jesus saw a man who had
a withered hand. The Pharisees watched, eager to see what He would
do. The Savior did not hesitate to break down the wall of traditional
requirements that barricaded the Sabbath.
Jesus told the suffering man to step forward and asked, “Is it
lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?”
Mark 3:4
. It was a common saying among the Jews that failure to
do good when one had opportunity was to do evil; to neglect to save
life was to kill. So Jesus met the rabbis on their own ground. “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.”
Verses 4, 5
.
When He was asked, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” Jesus
answered, “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 12:10-12
.
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