1Another time he went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. 2Some 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. 3Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Stand up in front of everyone."
4Then 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.
5He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. 6Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.
BACKGROUND READING:
Exodus 20:8-11
Exodus 31:12-18
Colossians 2:16-19
Hebrews 4:1-13
Dig Deeper
The tendency for most people when it comes to observing religious regulations like the Sabbath is to take a bit more of a liberal view of it in reality than the one that they claim to hold in public. When asked, people will usually uphold the ideal, while in reality, living out a far lower standard. What is perhaps shocking about Jesus when it comes to the issue of the Sabbath is that he takes a surprisingly leniant stance. Whenever he is faced with the question of Sabbath observance, he upholds the unique view he had on the Sabbath, rather than affirming the ideal, while living something differently. His actions and his rhetoric were equally liberal in Sabbath observance.
Jesus’ stance on the Sabbath is usually made worse by the fact that most modern Christians are a bit confused by the whole subject, especially what it means for the Christian today. Most Christians have a sense that the Old Testament Sabbath observance is no longer necessary, but do tend to believe that one day off a week is a good idea. We’re just not sure how to best achieve that or if it is an actual command or a suggestion under the New Covenant.
To really understand the situation here, though, we have to move beyond what the Sabbath might mean for us and look at what it meant to the first-century Jew. There were certainly elements of social pressure and legal punishments for breaking those societal standards, but it meant more than that. Observing the Sabbath was like a national flag. It was a mark of being Jewish that set them apart from all other nations and people. It pointed ahead to the time when God would come in his kingdom and restore all of creation. It looked back to the original creation and to the Exodus from Egypt, and specifically marked out those who observed the Sabbath as the special people of God. It was seen as marking out the march of time, under God’s control, as time rolled on from the original Sabbath when God rested right up until the final Sabbath when God made all things new. These were God’s faithful people who held the hope of the age to come.
So why does Jesus always seem to drive a huge hole right through it? It is because it had become a weapon rather than a source of rest. It had become a sign of the Jewish nationalism that had become exclusive rather than inclusive. The purpose of Israel was to be a light to the world but they had, instead, come to see themselves as the children of the light, while the rest of the world remained ‘rightfully’ in the dark. Rather than the Sabbath being a sign of Covenant that pointed to the age to come when God would rule, it had become a list of oppressive rules designed to show which people were the right kind of Jews.
Mark doesn’t tell us exactly what Jesus did in healing this man’s hand, but whatever it was, it seems that he didn’t break Sabbath observance in any way. Their problem with him seems more ideological than any real violation on his part. Jesus is distressed at their stubborn hearts. This was a common charge for prophets to level at law-breaking Israelites of their day. They are unable to see what God is doing right in front of them, so he asks them, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill? The answer in Jesus’ mind is obvious, and if they don’t see that, then their interpretation of Sabbath observance is clearly wrong.
At the end of this account, Mark hands us a very curious detail. He says that the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus. Why would these two groups that did not get along well do this? It is because the Pharisees were an unofficial body and had no power of themselves. If they were going to get anything done in stopping Jesus, they had to make alliances, even if meant making alliances with traditional enemies of theirs. They were truly willing to live up to the old saying, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." This is certainly a foreshadowing of events to come when Caiaphas and Pilate worked together to crucify Jesus. The Pharisees would, in fact, continue the same strategy when the Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus, received authority from the chief priests to carry out the persecution of the Church.
Devotional Thought
What does observing the Sabbath and keeping it holy mean for us today? If we consider the passage in the background reading from Hebrews 4, how can we think about and observe the Sabbath?
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