Back to the Bible: Matthew 12:9-21

Would Jesus heal a man on the Sabbath and again challenge the Jewish traditions? It would be difficult to miss the hardness of heart evidenced here. They knew Jesus could heal this man, they simply wanted to see whether or not He would. They could not be touched by Jesus’ teaching or his works.

When the man came forward, Jesus said that He knew they’d save a sheep on the Sabbath. The man was more valuable than a sheep. So, it would be lawful to heal Him.

When it came to actually healing the man Jesus doesn’t reach out, touch Him, or physically do anything. He told the man to reach out His hand and it became whole. They wanted a reason to accuse Him, but He healed the man in a way that they couldn’t point to anything He had actually physically done.

They made plans to do harm and to kill on the Sabbath and were critical of Jesus for doing good on the Sabbath. Such exposes the extent of their hypocrisy.

Jesus, aware of their hatred, withdrew. Many came for healing, but Jesus urged them not to make it known (perhaps to reduce tension).

This fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah. The Coming One would not cause a scene by loud shouting, but by instruction. He would not push down on the weak or fading. He would be victorious through His compassion.

Even Gentiles would come to trust in Him.

Lessons to Learn:

• Do you see their hard heartedness? How untouchable they must have been to know that Jesus would be able to perform the miracle but wanting to use it as an opportunity to condemn Him!

• Sometimes we might say that if we could have seen the miracles that our faith would be stronger. Of course, it would have been amazing to see any of the miracles that Jesus performed. But, keep in mind that even people who saw Him and His miracles firsthand did not necessarily come to faith. Some people would ignore the power on display in front of them because they were so devoted to their own will and their way.

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