July 8, 2023
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Reading along with us in Mark? Here’s today’s reading:
Mark 3 (NIV)
Jesus Heals on the Sabbath
1 Another time Jesus went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. 2 Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. 3 Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.”…..Continue Reading
Awed once again about the attitude of the Pharisees.. trying to catch what Jesus would do regarding a law of Moses. They don’t even care if healing is taking place. They just care about the law. I see the same pattern these days among Christians, specifically in America.. They want to politically and socially influence the culture to be “Christian”. They boycott this and that. The tendency is they are going far and far away from the mission field by doing so.
It always baffles me that the Pharisees and the keepers of the law could not recognize what was happening right in front of them. They were so threatened by what they knew they refused to be open to the obvious fact that Jesus was the Savior that came to save them. Instead they were so set in their ways that even doing something as miraculous as healing all they saw that it was the sabbath!
We all need to be careful not to miss God in situations because we are expecting things in a different way!
“We all need to be careful not to miss God in situations because we are expecting things in a different way!” ……so true !
It becomes more clear here, that Jesus, who always does (and says) the Father’s will is acting from a perfectly renewed mind. This is something that we do not have this capacity to do in this life…..something only He was able to do, being tempted in all ways yet without sin. And as such, He always sees life through the Father’s eyes, and yet as a man personally knows the struggles and weaknesses of mankind. His perfect view of situations was so difficult for the pharisees and others (just like us) to comprehend…..Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?”But they remained silent….and “Who are my mother and my brothers?”
His perspective was always an eternal perspective through the eyes of the will of His Father. Because of the Spirit of God which dwells in us, we have the ability to get glimpses of this through our efforts to renew our minds,…yet it sometimes seems so difficult to retain as we are bombarded by carnality. So often, even His closest disciples did not understand His ways and words.
Mark 3
“And he saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill? But they held their peace.
5 And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other.”
Jesus is waiting for the obvious answer and they do not answer. He is angry and grieved by the hardness of their hearts.
Jesus was angry and grieved after He healed the man with the withered hand because the Pharisees and Herodians just didn`t get it. Their hearts were so hardened that they could only see that the sabbath was broken and not the miracle that was done or His teaching. They decided to form a plot to kill Jesus. The Herodians were members of an aristocratic Jewish group who favored the policies of Herod Antipas and thus supported the Roman government. Apparently they lived in Galilee, where Antipas ruled. [Holman Bible Dictionary ]. Jesus after this withdraws to the sea but the crowd follows after them. He commands the demons not to make Him known. Then He and the 12 disciples go up a mountain and ordains them that they should go forth to preach, and have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out demons. Then the list is given of the 12 disciples. At the end of this chapter verse 31 when Jesus family shows up and He is told that His mother and brethren are calling for Him ,He tells the multitude around Him that whoever shall do the will of God is my mother, brother, or sister. That would be us. God bless all who will do His will and follow Him.
How blind legalism makes us to make the rule of the Sabbath more important than helping someone, and then making a big deal about the healing and yet feeling justified in making a plot to kill Jesus with those you disagree with on many other points. A common enemy does make strange bedfellows. But Jesus is undaunted and continues with His ministry of teaching, healing and driving out demons. And people are coming from all over to hear, see and be healed. And Jesus tells the demons to be quiet because He doesn’t want to be promoted by them. Other times he encourages silence because He is calling people to have faith and relationship with Him and miracles can work against those things. The miracles in many ways were there to add credence to the teaching.
And how neat that Jesus would choose these 12 guys to be His closest followers. Clearly He didn’t care about pedigree, wealth, education, or particularly religiosity.
And theses teachers of the law will just come up with anything to discredit Jesus. And what a great caution against division as well as a declaration of Jesus’ ability to overcome satan. And when it comes to the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, if the Spirt’s job is to testify of Jesus, to discredit Him or call Him a liar (blaspheme Him) is to reject His message. So a believer cannot commit the sin because their belief shows they have responded positively to the Spirit’s message. All unbelievers by definition commit this sin, because they are rejecting God’s personal witness to them.
So the Pharisees are more concerned with following a law than healing a man who was struggling because of the loss of the ability to use his hand. So much so that they wanted to kill Jesus for it. That is so awful! Jesus knew their hearts and he was deeply distressed about it too.
The impure spirits could not even keep quiet when they were told do so; they cried out to the Lord saying “You are the Son of God”. And Jesus loves us so much that he considers us to be his brothers and sisters. How wonderful is that!