Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?

 

 Now it happened that He went through the grainfields on the Sabbath; and as they went His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain.  And the Pharisees said to Him, "Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?"  But He said to them, "Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him:  how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him?"  And He said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.  Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath."  

And He entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand.  So they watched Him closely, whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him.  And He said to the man who had the withered hand, "Step forward."  Then He said to them, "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?"  But they kept silent.  And 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 as whole as the other.  Then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him.

 

- Mark 2:23-3:6 

 

Yesterday we read that Jesus went out again by the sea; and all the multitude came to Him, and He taught them.  As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office.  And He said to him, "Follow Me."  So he arose and followed Him.  Now it happened, as He was dining in Levi's house, that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many, and they followed Him.  And when the scribes and Pharisees saw Him eating with the tax collectors and sinners, they said to His disciples, "How is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?"  When Jess heard it, He said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."  The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were fasting.  Then they came and said to Him, "Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?"  And Jesus said to them, "Can the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them?  As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.  But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.  No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; or else the new piece pulls away from the old, and the tear is made worse.  And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined.  But new wine must be put into new wineskins."

 

  Now it happened that He went through the grainfields on the Sabbath; and as they went His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain.  And the Pharisees said to Him, "Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?"  But He said to them, "Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him:  how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him?"  And He said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.  Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath."  My study Bible comments on this passage that under the new covenant, the food which was at one time not lawful for anyone but the priests to eat is now freely given to all by the Lord of the Sabbath.  David prefigured this when he ate the showbread and also gave some to those who were with him.   

And He entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand.  So they watched Him closely, whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him.  And He said to the man who had the withered hand, "Step forward."  Then He said to them, "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?"  But they kept silent.  And 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 as whole as the other.  Then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him.  In accordance with some traditions developed by the scribes and Pharisees and built up and around the Law, healing was considered to be work.  Therefore it was not permissible on the Sabbath.  My study Bible says that they believed they served God by zealously keeping these peripheral traditions, but their legalism made them insensitive to God's mercy.   The Herodians are those supporters of the rule of the family of Herod, which ruled for Rome.  In this case they would be specifically associated with the court of the tetrarch of Galilee, Herod Antipas.  

If we take a close look at some details of today's reading, we might notice some interesting things to consider.  First of all, there is this great declaration which appears only here in Mark's Gospel.  Jesus says, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath."  This gives us a deep personal glimpse at the intentions of God, for it is God who established the Sabbath and declared its observance by God's people (Genesis 2:2-3; Exodus 20:8-11).  Christ's characterization of the Sabbath as made for man, and not man for the Sabbath, sets a precedent and a tone for our understanding of God's work and creation -- and also of God's love and care.  Our is a gracious God who loves us; this singular statement by Jesus qualifies entirely our relationship to God.  We have an a priori understanding that God loves us.  It may be up to us to take steps toward God in order to realize that love for ourselves, but just like the father in the parable of the Prodigal Son, it is God who already runs to meet us from a great way off, and has compassion for us.  God's compassion is another way of understanding what it means that the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.  Of course, we see this notion completely enforced through Christ's healing of the man with the withered hand in the synagogue under the glare of the Pharisees -- and in the detail we're told that Jesus looked around at them with anger, and was grieved by the hardness of their hearts.  My study Bible explains that righteous anger is a natural human emotion experienced in the face of sin.  It says that while there is certainly anger that is sinful (Matthew 5:22), there is also anger that is God-given and proper to humanity (Psalm 4:4).  Here, my study Bible says, Christ's anger is in response to people who profess God, but yet they have such hardness in their hearts they cannot rejoice in the healing of one of their brothers.  And there are a couple of smaller details we might not easily notice, but that tell us something if we look closely.  It might not seem of deep significance, but in the first part of the passage, the Pharisees object to the plucking of the heads of grain by the disciples as they glean the fields they're passing through.  This is sustenance, nourishment for them.  It is not work but a necessity for the good of a human being.  In the continuation of the theme, though the time spent in the synagogue and the challenge of the indignance of the Pharisees, what is it that Jesus heals for this man, after He has declared that the Sabbath was made for man?  He heals a withered hand, a hand that may also pluck heads of grain in order to feed and sustain a human being.  It may seem like a strange detail to notice, but we have to ask ourselves what Jesus does in restoring human beings to themselves.  He not only protects His disciples from scrutiny, and makes claims on behalf of the whole of mankind in terms of characterizing the Sabbath as made for man. He also -- in this immediate context of plucking the grain -- restores another to the capacity to gather and pluck should his need arise, to take in nourishment and sustain life.  So in varied facets of today's reading, we see God's compassion and its various expressions:  in the statement that the Sabbath was made for man, in the allowance for David to eat the showbread, in the aggrieved anger by Jesus on behalf of the man with the withered hand, and finally in defying the heartless Pharisees and incurring their retaliation by "doing good" on the Sabbath.  Christ's compassionate nature that we know comes full circle here, as He risks His own health and safety for the sake of saving and healing a human being.  This is the God that we know, the One who made the Sabbath for man, who restores us to wholeness, and goes all the way to save, even at great risk to Himself and the incurrence of His own suffering on our behalf.  Jesus, true author of the Law, introduces a question that defines God's law and intentions:  "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?"   We know that He came that we may have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10).  This is expressed in all that He does, even in the details.  May we all model His integrity of intention and purpose in all that we do as we seek to follow Him. 

If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not true. There is another who bears witness of Me, and I know that the witness which He witnesses of Me is true

 

 "I can of Myself do nothing.  As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.

"If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not true.  There is another who bears witness of Me, and I know that the witness which He witnesses of Me is true.  You have sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth.  Yet I do not receive testimony from man, but I say these things that you may be saved.  He was the burning and shining lamp, and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light.  But I have a greater witness than John's; for the works which the Father has given Me to finish -- the very works that I do -- bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me.  And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me.  You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form.  But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe.  You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.  But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.  I do not receive honor from men.  But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you.  I have come in My Father's name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive.  How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God?  Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you -- Moses, in whom you trust.  For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me.  But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?"

 

- John 5:30-47 

 

In our current reading, Jesus has just healed a paralytic.  But that day was a Sabbath, and the religious leaders begin disputing with Jesus.  In yesterday's reading, Jesus answered and said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.  For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel.  For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will.  For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father.  He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.  Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.  Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.  For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man.  Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth -- those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation."

 

 "I can of Myself do nothing.  As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me."  My study Bible explains that the divine will is common to the three Persons of the Trinity -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit -- for all fully share the same divine nature.  When the Son is said to obey the Father, this refers to His human will, which Christ assumed at His Incarnation.  Christ freely aligned His human will in every aspect with the divine will of the Father, and we are called to do likewise ("Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven" - Matthew 6:10, The Lord's Prayer excerpt).

"If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not true.  There is another who bears witness of Me, and I know that the witness which He witnesses of Me is true.  You have sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth.  Yet I do not receive testimony from man, but I say these things that you may be saved.  He was the burning and shining lamp, and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light.  But I have a greater witness than John's; for the works which the Father has given Me to finish -- the very works that I do -- bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me.  And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me.  You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form.  But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe.  You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.  But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.  I do not receive honor from men.  But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you.  I have come in My Father's name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive.  How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God?  Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you -- Moses, in whom you trust.  For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me.  But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?"  My study Bible asks, how could Christ's witness ever be untrue?  It cannot (see John 8:14).  On the contrary, Jesus is anticipating the argument of the Jewish leaders and voicing their thoughts (as He does in Luke 4:23).  In Jewish tradition, a valid testimony requires two witnesses (Deuteronomy 17:6).  Jesus offers four witnesses here in this passage to confirm His identity as Messiah and as Son of God.  There is first, God the Father (verses 32, 37, 38).  Second, John the Baptist (verses 33-35); third, Christ's own works (verse 36).  Finally, the Old Testament Scriptures, through which Moses and others gave testimony (verses 39-47).

Jesus gives several witnesses to His identity, after the religious leaders express their outrage that He has made Himself equal to God by calling Himself God's Son.  What this passage invites us to do is to think about Scriptures in a particular way.   Christ's teaching, and the witnesses He offers, invite us to consider the Scriptures not simply as writings that come from and concern the past, but which speak to us about something.  They tell us something.  Moreover, as Jesus says, they point to Someone.  They bear witness, so that we can recognize evidence and action of that same Someone in the present time.  If this seems confusing, let us look at the way that Jesus uses the word of God, the word of John the Baptist, the testimony or evidence of His own works, and finally the Scriptures through which Moses and others (such as the prophets) gave testimony.  In this way, Jesus points to sources that testify not only to these religious leaders of His time, but to us also.  Moreover, we have even more Scripture to draw upon now to consider the things that point to Christ and to God's work in the world and in our lives today.  We have the Gospels, and the whole of the New Testament, including the Epistles and the Revelation.  Throughout all of these Scriptures there is testimony about God:  about God the Father, about Christ, about the Holy Spirit.  We have the stories and testimonies of the disciples in the stories of Christ's ministry, His acts and works and His word, we have the letters of St. Paul, St. John, and others, and finally we have the Revelation which also gives us the words spoken in another revelation of God.  In all of this literature, we have a living sense of what God is and what God does, and from it, we can understand and recognize God's work in our own lives.  Do we know that Christ is merciful?  Do we understand our need for His word in our lives, for grace in our lives?  Do we understand that we are helped in our faith, that there are fruits of the Spirit that can manifest in our own lives -- such as, for example, a capacity for forbearance we didn't think we had which manifests through prayer and through faith?   Do we find ourselves growing in love, or in patience?  Do we develop a sense of what it is to abide in Christ, and to endure through difficulties?  All of these things are pointed to and testified to by the witness of Scripture, and they tell us so that we can recognize God's surprising work in our own lives.  They are testimony to what we can discover and witness for ourselves.  Perhaps this is the most important thing we do when we read and study Scripture, especially within the tradition of those witnesses over the past twenty centuries:  we may come to discover and recognize where and how God works in our own lives, even the small surprises that are revealed in response to prayer, the insights that are gifts to us.  Most importantly, we come to realize the results of dependence upon God, a life of seeking to live in Christ's word and truth, and how transformational that is, how we may be guided through adverse and difficult circumstances.  Let us keep our eyes and ears open for witness testimony, through the voice of the Word, the Scriptures, through those they have recorded for us, the saints and the faithful we come to know, to the witness of our own lives which echo what we can recognize.  If we have ears to hear and eyes to see, our God is a living God, and God's grace is alive and at work, always with us.