DRAWING THE BATTLE LINES
“Another time he went into the synagogue, and a man with a withered hand was there. 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. Jesus said to the man with the withered hand, ‘Stand up in front of everyone.’” Mark 3:1-3 (NIV).
The Pharisees’ dispute with Jesus over His attitude to the Sabbath was turning into a running battle. It was almost as though Jesus was baiting them by purposely healing people on the Sabbath. The difference between what they thought was righteousness and what He taught and practised was becoming clearer and was widening into a chasm.
The Pharisees thought that “righteousness” was about not doing certain things. They had many rules about what they were not allowed to do on the Sabbath. For them, to be righteous meant that they didn’t break any of their rules. By contrast, Jesus was showing them both God’s heart and theirs by using the Sabbath as an opportunity to help people who needed help. His attitude was: “What kind of action suits the Sabbath best? Doing good or doing evil? Helping people or leaving them helpless?”
God is always filled with compassion for people who need help. To Jesus, it was far worse not to help people in need than to break a Sabbath ‘rule’. A lot of the time people do sinful things in order to manage their emotional pain, for example, becoming addicted to cigarettes, alcohol or drugs or engaging in bad habits. Jesus had more to say to the Pharisees who kept religious rules to cover up their failure to be merciful than to people who engaged in sinful behaviour to cover up their pain. He showed us what sin really is by showing mercy to people who sinned. To Him sin was not doing good rather than doing evil. The most wicked behaviour was to ignore someone in need rather than to commit adultery.
This speaks loudly to us because our most natural behaviour is to look inward and keep taking care of our own needs and our own “reputation”. This is what the Hebrew people called the “yetzer harah” – the evil eye. The eye of light keeps looking at God and sees other people’s needs. God’s greatest measure is: What do I do when I see another’s need and I have the power to meet it? To ignore people when we can help them is to act unrighteously. To take care of other people’s needs is the righteousness which flows out of the righteousness Jesus has given us by faith. We cannot have Jesus’ righteousness without it showing in the way that we act generously towards other people.
Every time Jesus healed someone on the Sabbath, He was acting out God’s righteousness by showing mercy no matter what day it was. He was showing people what it was like to be free of rules that forced them into behaving selfishly because they were always careful about their own behaviour.