The Sabbath - 2
(Bible Study - July 1999) The Lord Jesus’ miracles on the Sabbath include seven healings recorded in the Gospels. These healings form the backbone of his assault against Pharisaism. We will inspect the sequence of healings to note the designed increase in overt antagonism.
The Sabbath Healing Ministry of Jesus Christ, the Lord of the Sabbath
1. Demoniac in the Synagogue [Capernaum] Mark 1:21-28, Luke 4:31-37.
2. Peter’s Mother-in-Law [Capernaum] Mark 1:29-31; Mt. 8:14-15; Luke 4:38-39.
3. Man with the Withered Hand [Capernaum] Mark 3:1-6; Mt. 12:9-14; Luke 6:6-11.
4. Man Paralyzed Thirty-Eight Years’ [Jerusalem] John 5:1-18, 7:23-24.
5. Woman with Eighteen Years Infirmity [Judea, near Jerusalem?] Luke 13:10-17.
6. Man with Dropsy [Jerusalem?] Luke 14:1-5.
7. Man Born Blind [Jerusalem] John 9:1-41.
The list above shows in probable chronological sequence the seven healing miracles the Lord Jesus did on the Sabbath. The first three occurred in Galilee, the last four in or around Jerusalem. The first two had no opposition from the Pharisees. The last five all had significant opposition as the gospel accounts record interaction between Jesus and his adversaries concerning the healing. In each event, the Pharisees accused Jesus of breaking the Sabbath. As we move through the exposition of each occurrence, we will see the escalating conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees on the issue of the Sabbath.
Proclamation of the Sabbath healing ministry
Doubtless Jesus did his first miracle early in his Galilean ministry when he taught in
a Capernaum synagogue. Luke records this healing shortly after his record of Jesus’
reading of Isaiah in a Nazareth synagogue. Significantly, the text he read prophesied his
Sabbath ministry. Isaiah spoke of the Messiah who would "proclaim release to the
captives, recover the sight of the blind, and set at liberty those who were
oppressed" (Isa. 61:1,2). Jesus did all these on the Sabbath, opening the eyes
of the blind and unloosing those who were captive to their infirmities. When the Lord
Jesus proclaimed, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your
hearing," he may have meant to emphasize today as the Sabbath. He may
also have intended to use the text from Isaiah as a general proclamation of his teaching,
of which his Sabbath healings became figurative enactments of liberation. In either case,
the Sabbath proclamation is recorded immediately before the record of his first Sabbath
miracle.
1. The first Sabbath healing
Immediately after proclaiming the Messianic stamp of his ministry in Nazareth, the
Lord Jesus found his life in danger. The Jewish leaders reacted sharply to his citations
of the Bible’s providential blessings to faithful Gentiles. They took him to the edge
of a cliff, but he escaped (Luke 4:28-30), and showed up, presumably the very next
Sabbath, in the Capernaum synagogue (v. 31).
His teaching alone astonished the audience on several Sabbaths (Luke 4:32), but the crowd could have had no idea what they were to witness on one Sabbath. Mark uses his characteristic "immediately" here describing the man’s appearance before the Lord Jesus. Possibly the man had just entered the synagogue, or perhaps he had just had a convulsive episode. Unlike a later synagogue healing, he does not appear to have been "planted" by the Pharisees.
This miracle leaves the man’s infirmity somewhat vague; it is the only healing where we don’t know the malady Jesus healed. The record only states "an unclean spirit," a phrase usually associated with mental disorders. The man probably had a chronic mental condition, but the immediate occasion sounds like an acute episode. Chronicity would become a key issue in the Sabbath healings, as Jesus pointedly performed cures on the Sabbath that could have waited. The first two miracles have the least overtly challenging aspect here, as Pharisaic tradition allowed for suspension of the Sabbath laws in the case of life-threatening emergencies.
In this first healing, Jesus performed no "work," that is, he did nothing physical at all to or with the man. In the other healings, he had at least some physical activity or contact with the healed individual. In his final healing, he would overtly do "work" (by the Pharisees’ definition). Thus, he commenced the Sabbath healings in the least intrusive manner. He only spoke the word, and the unclean spirit came out of the man. He proved that he had the power to heal. Anything physical or ritualistic he might do at later healings would be added to denigrate the Pharisaic Sabbath.
Neither Luke nor Mark records any opposition or gainsaying of anyone in the synagogue. This was the first and last Sabbath healing that Jesus did in a public setting without opposition. News of the miraculous healing spread rapidly (Mark 1:28), and the Pharisees would make their presence known the next time Jesus healed on the Sabbath in a synagogue.
2. Peter’s mother-in-law
All three synoptic gospels record this Sabbath healing. Matthew, who didn’t
record the previous episode, places this healing in a collection of healing miracles
(Matt. 8:14-17). Luke, as always, has the most thorough medical description, noting that
Peter’s mother-in-law had a high fever. However, though she may have been very sick,
or perhaps in a life-threatening situation, it also appears that in this instance the Lord
Jesus could have waited a short time for the Sabbath to end. The healing probably came in
the late afternoon, for the details "after they left synagogue" and "when
the sun was setting" frame Luke’s narrative.
In this, the only private Sabbath healing, Jesus took hold of the woman, and she served him when she recovered. Had the Pharisees seen this, they doubtless would have objected vehemently, even if they gave allowance for her acute condition. Once healed, she had no business -- by their value system -- "serving" on the Sabbath. She’d have been holier sick in bed than useful to the Lord.
3. The man with the withered hand
This third miracle receives extraordinarily detailed coverage in the synoptic Gospels
(Matthew, Mark and Luke). Reconstructing the incident from a compilation of the three
accounts yields a dramatic confrontation, not fully revealed in any one of them. This is
the first miracle directly opposed by the Pharisees. We have good reason to believe they
precipitated the confrontation by bringing the man into the synagogue for the express
purpose of testing the Lord Jesus’ interpretation of the Sabbath.
Lord of the Sabbath
This incident follows the eating of the grain, the only other specific "violation"
(other than the healings) of the rabbinical Sabbath traditions cited in the Gospels. Jesus
countered the Pharisees’ accusations by referencing the priority of the priests’
service over the Sabbath. Jesus continued by saying that something greater than the
temple, which the priests served, was here. He himself was that something, and he
declared, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath, so the Son of
man is Lord of the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27-28).
The temple, representing ritualized religion, held its servants in bondage to its rituals and sacrifices. Jesus, representing grace, came to manumit those who would accept the gospel of grace. The Sabbath was not Lord over Jesus; he was Lord of the Sabbath. The Jews who rejected Jesus remained in bondage to the Sabbath, which represented their bondage to the law. It was Lord over them. So the title "Lord of the Sabbath" brings to mind freedom in Christ through the grace of the New Covenant.
Inviting confrontation
All three gospel accounts place the grain-eating incident immediately before the
healing of the man with the withered arm, but only Luke says it was on another Sabbath.
Also, only Luke has the detail, "whose right hand was withered."
He may have suffered an injury, or he may have had a congenital deformity. If it was the
result of an injury, it would take months or years to develop the severely shriveled
condition that the word "withered" describes. In either case, it was a
long-term disability issue, not an acute health problem requiring immediate intervention.
The man could have waited a few hours till sunset had Jesus not chosen to rock the boat.
However, this situation demanded rocking the Pharisees’ boat. It seems the Pharisees were now out looking for a confrontation, so they brought the injured man into the synagogue, and, as the records state, "they watched to see what Jesus would do." They knew he could heal the man on the Sabbath. Jesus knew he had to heal the man on the Sabbath. Being Lord of the Sabbath, he must heal the man and teach the proper use of the Sabbath, and show the Pharisees that he had no regard for their Sabbath traditions.
So the first clash took place in the Capernaum synagogue. Here we must integrate the three gospel records to get the full dramatic impact. Matthew has the incident starting with the Pharisees asking Jesus, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?" Mark and Luke omit this; instead, they have Jesus calling the man to the front of the hall, and questioning the Pharisees. Luke adds that Jesus knew what they were thinking, reinforcing the suggestion that they had placed the man in the synagogue as a test. Mark records Jesus asking the Pharisees, "Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill?" Going back to Matthew, we have a third question, Jesus asking the Pharisees if any of them would not pull a sheep from a pit on the Sabbath. Of course, they would answer yes; the rabbinical traditions covered the various aspects of this issue. Then Jesus said, "How much more value is a man than a sheep! Therefore, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath."
Reconstructing the sequence
Reconstructing the event from the records, we would place the Pharisees’ question to
Jesus as the instigation. They asked him about the legality of Sabbath healing
(Matthew). Jesus retorted with his own question about whether it was lawful to do good
on the Sabbath. The Pharisees, as was usually the case, asked Jesus the wrong question.
The legality of healing on the Sabbath was only an issue within the rabbinical traditions.
The real issue was, is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath. Of course doing good is lawful
-- in fact, God requires it. That is why Jesus wouldn’t -- to avoid upsetting the
Pharisees -- delay the healing until sunset. He had to do a non-emergency cure on the
Sabbath to destroy the traditions of men which negated the law of love.
So the Pharisees asked, "Is it lawful to heal?" Jesus retorted, "Is it lawful to do good?" Then he called for the man to come forward. All eyes fixed on the two men at the center of the synagogue. We can imagine the tension as the Lord’s piercing eyes looked around and through the assembled rabbis. What would happen next? The silence broke with the command from the Lord of the Sabbath: "Stretch out your hand!" At once, for the first time in years, the man extended his atrophied, shriveled arm, now fully muscled like his left. As the man gaped, overcome with awe and joy, he saw a look on the Lord’s face no one ever saw before or since. Unable to answer his questions for fear of inculpating themselves in their own hypocrisy, and inert to the wonderful blessing the Lord had bestowed on the man, the Pharisees generated in the Lord Jesus a unique reaction. This is the only reference in the Bible to Jesus being angry. "He looked on them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart," reads Mark’s record (Mk. 3:5).
The Pharisees did not see a healing. They did not see a figurative emancipation from the thralldom of the flesh. They did not see the power or the goodness of God. They did not see the fulfillment of grace. They could only see an infraction of their Sabbath traditions, although it would be hard for us say exactly what they saw wrong, for Jesus only spoke the words, "Stretch out your arm." But such it is when the legal mind finds itself confronted with good works. The work itself means nothing. Beneficence means nothing -- only formalities and tradition count. No wonder the Lord was grieved at their hardness of heart.
Then, in the culmination of their perfidy, the Pharisees immediately congregated outside the synagogue and held counsel (with the Herodians, no less!) to plot to destroy Jesus. They did evil on the Sabbath. Jesus had just asked them about the "legality" of doing good vs. doing harm, or saving life vs. killing. They held their peace for fear of being exposed as hypocrites. Now they proved their hypocrisy beyond measure -- they plotted on the Sabbath to kill the Lord of the Sabbath, because he had done good.
So the first of five direct Sabbath healing confrontations ended in what was to become a familiar pattern. Jesus, having done good and having proven his Scriptural authority to do so, left the hardhearted religious establishment so bewildered and embarrassed they plotted to kill him. However, the Lord, in full charge of his own life, moved his campaign against the law to the heart of the law, Jerusalem.
Next, God willing: The Sabbath Healings, continued.
David Levin