#42 Lu. 6:6-11, JESUS HEALING ON THE SABBATH DAY

Introduction:

    In our previous text the Pharisees were watching Jesus on a sabbath day
to see if they could catch Him doing something that they could use to accuse
Him of breaking the law of the sabbath.  The reason they especially wanted
to accuse Him of breaking the law of the sabbath is that the law of Moses
pronounced the death penalty on anyone who broke the law of the sabbath.
    The Roman government, of course, would not allow the Jews themselves to
sentence anyone to death, but if they could find Him guilty of a crime that
under Jewish law would bring the death penalty, they were virtually certain
to be able to persuade the Romans to put Him to death. Of course, they were
unable to find any fault with Jesus.  They did, however, find something to
criticize in the conduct of His disciples.  They saw the disciples pluck a
few grain and rub the husks off in their hands so they could eat the grain.
The Pharisees then accused the disciples of breaking the law of the sabbath
just by plucking the grain and rubbing their hands together.  Jesus very
easily showed the folly of their accusation and declared Himself to be the
Lord of the sabbath.

I.  Jesus again in the synagogue

    In our text today the Pharisees are still at it.  They are still
watching Jesus to see if they can catch Him doing something that they can
use to accuse Him of breaking the law of the sabbath.  They still wanted to
find something that they could use to bring about His death.
    V.  6, "And it came to pass also on another sabbath, that he entered
into the synagogue and taught..."  It appears from what Luke says here that
this even took place on the very next sabbath.  It was not the same sabbath
but on another sabbath.  They Pharisees accused the disciples on one sabbath
and the very next sabbath Jesus was right back in the synagogue worshipping
God.  He knew that they Pharisees were His bitter enemies and yet even after
His unpleasant experience with them on the previous sabbath when the next
sabbath rolled around He went right back to the synagogue services where He
knew that they would be.  Jesus would not let the presence of wicked men at
the synagogue stop Him from going to the house of God to worship.  Let me
tell you that this ought to be a lesson for us today.  We ought not let the
faults and failures of somebody else at the house of God hinder us from
attending the worship services at the house of God.
    Luke said that He taught.  As on other occasions at the synagogue, Jesus
was asked to read the Scripture and to explain the Scripture that He had
read.  He had gained such a reputation by this time as a teacher sent from
God that it was almost unthinkable that the rabbi in charge would ask
anybody else to read when Jesus was present.  So He taught.  He read the
Scripture and He explained what the Scripture meant and how it applied to
their lives.

II.  A man with a withered hand present

    (V. 6), "...and there was a man whose right hand was withered."  I think
that it is safe to say that this man had not been present in the synagogue
services on the previous Sabbaths when Jesus was there.  If he had been
present at an earlier time, he would have been healed at that earlier time.
I think it is safe to say that this is the first time that He has been
in the presence of Jesus.
    This man was not afflicted with a life or death illness, but he was very
much in need of healing.  He would actually need both hands with which to
work in order to be able to make a living for himself and his family.  But
the right hand is especially important to most people because most people
are right handed.  He, too, must have been right handed, because Luke makes
a special point to tell us that it was his right hand that was affected.  It
was his right hand that was withered.  Jesus, the Great Physician, was
present in this synagogue service and there was a man in the congregation
who really need to be healed.

III.  The scribes and Pharisees still out to get Jesus

    Luke 6:7, "And the scribes and Pharisees watched him, whether he would
heal on the sabbath day; that they might find an accusation against him."
The scribes and Pharisees were also present.  They sat and listened to Jesus
teach the word of God and with their ears they heard every word.  Yet, in a
sense, they did not hear a word He said.  They heard with their ears, but
the truth of what He said just did not register with them.  Their minds were
already awhirl with thought.  All they had their minds on was the possible
healing of the man with the withered hand.  They wondered whether or not
Jesus would heal the man with the withered hand.  They were virtually
certain that He would.  They hoped that He would.  They desperately hoped
that He would.  Now ordinarily it would displease them no end to see Jesus
perform a miracle because they hated to see Jesus gain favor in the eyes of
the people.  But this time they were hoping that He would because if He did
they intended to accuse Him of breaking the law of the sabbath.
    Now let me point out to you that there was nothing in the Law of Moses
which forbid the healing of a man on the sabbath, but the Jewish rabbis were
so strict in their interpretation of the law, that they thought that it was
against the law of Moses for a doctor to treat a sick man on the sabbath
day.  The only exception that they made was in a case of life or death.  It
was obvious that this man's illness was not a case of life or death and so
they were just itching for Jesus to heal this man on the sabbath.  They
fully intended to charge Him with breaking the law of the sabbath and to set
about immediately to bring about His death.

IV.  The response of Jesus to the situation

    V. 8, "But he knew their thoughts..."  Jesus knew their every thought.
He knew what they intended to do.  He knew that they intended to accuse Him
and have Him put to death.  All that Jesus had to do to defeat their purpose
was to refrain from healing the man on the sabbath.
    Now Luke says nothing about the question which the Pharisees asked
Jesus.  Luke does not tell us, as Matthew did, that they asked Jesus if it
were lawful to heal on the sabbath day.  Neither does Luke tell us, as
Matthew did, that Jesus asked them, in turn, which man among them would not
pull a sheep out of a pit on the sabbath day.  Luke just gets right down to
the heart of the matter and tells us that Jesus called for the withered man
to stand up and to come to the front.  (V. 8), "...and said to the man which
had the withered hand, Rise up, and stand forth in the midst. And he arose
and stood forth."
    It took some faith and bravery on the part of the man to get up and come
forth as Jesus had invited him to do.  He surely must have known by this
time that the Pharisees were against Jesus.  He may not have known that they
were plotting the death of Jesus, but he could hardly have missed the
hostility which they expressed toward Him.  If he stood as Jesus has
instructed, he will certainly not gain their favor.  If he did not stand he
would not be healed.  He chose to stand and to take a chance on having them
to be his enemies.  He stood and came forth.
    Even yet the scribes and Pharisees thought they had Jesus in a trap.
They still expected to charge Him with breaking the law of the sabbath if He
healed this man and they were certain now that He would.  But instead of
immediately healing the man Jesus directed another question to them.  V. 9,
"Then said Jesus unto them, I will ask you one thing; Is it lawful
on the sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy
it?"
    With this question Jesus had them on the spot before the congregation.
The congregation would take the question this way:  If Jesus refused to help
this man on the sabbath day, then by His refusal to help, He would be
destroying this man.  He would be destroying him, not in the sense of
literally killing him, but in the sense of contributing to the downfall of
the man.  The man would still be unable to make a living for himself and his
family.
    But Jesus was touching the conscience of the Pharisees a way that the
congregation would know nothing about.  You see Jesus was about to heal a
man on the sabbath day whereas they were actually plotting the death of
Jesus and they were doing it on the sabbath day.  The Pharisees would catch
the point of His question because they knew this.  The congregation would
not catch this point because they did not know that the Pharisees were
plotting His death.
    At any rate, there was but one way that the Pharisees could answer the
question if they dared to answer it at all.  They would have to acknowledge
that it is better to do good on the sabbath than to do evil and that it is
better to give life than to kill.  Even if they chose not to answer the
question then by their silence they would acknowledge before the people that
it is acceptable to do good on the sabbath.  There is no indication that
they answered at all.  By their silence they killed their chances of
charging Jesus with breaking the law of the sabbath.  They could not
acknowledge before the people that it would be acceptable to do good on the
sabbath and then turn right around and bring charges against Jesus for doing
good to this man.
    V. 10, "And looking round about upon them all..."  Mark said that He
looked on them with anger.  He was not angry that they were plotting to kill
Him.  He was angry that they had no compassion whatsoever on this poor man.
They could care less for the well being of the man with the withered hand.
    (V. 10), "...he said unto the man, Stretch forth thy hand. And he did
so: and his hand was restored whole as the other."  Instantly the man's hand
was healed.  It was made perfectly whole.  It was strong and flexible and
usable.  He could work his fingers and he could bend his wrist.  He would be
able to work again.  I am sure that at this point he was exceedingly glad
that he had the courage to stand forth.

V.  The final response of the scribes and Pharisees

    V. 11, "And they were filled with madness..." The scribes and Pharisees
were exceedingly angry.  Yet there was not one thing they could say publicly
against Jesus.  They could not charge Him with breaking the law of the
sabbath as they had intended to do.  They could not even say anything to
discredit Him with the people.  They had silently acknowledged that it is
lawful to do good on the sabbath and they could not deny that Jesus had done
good.  All they could do before the people was to silently fume and fume
they did.  They were about to explode.
    But once they got away from the crowd and could talk among themselves
they immediately began anew to plot the death of Jesus.  (V.  11), "...and
communed one with another what they might do to Jesus."

VI.  Some things I want to point out to you

    Now let me set forth some very important truths.  The first thing that I
want to point out you is that the scribes and Pharisees are not the only
ones who are watching the Lord's work with a very critical eye.  It is true
that they cannot see Jesus watch Him personally.  But they watch the work of
the Lord's churches.  They watch the work of God's preachers.  They even
watch those who are not really God's preachers but who are just in the
ministry for money and prestige.  Not many of God's preachers make an
excessive amount of money in the ministry, but there are some preachers who
are only after the money and they manage to get a lot of publicity and make
a big name for themselves and then they also make a lot of money for
themselves.  The super critics make no distinction in the two kinds of
preachers.  They just criticize all preachers and all churches and all
Christians.  The chief reason the are so critical is because they feel
somehow that this justifies them for not believing in Jesus Christ as their
Savior and surrendering their own lives to Him.  They are just like the
scribes and Pharisees who had refused to believe that Jesus is the Christ of
God and the Savior of men.
    Yet the acknowledged unbelievers are not the only ones who are very
critically watching the work of the Lord and using their criticism as an
excuse.  There are professed Christians who have ceased to come to church
because of a critical attitude.  They find some real or imaginary fault in
some preacher or deacon or at least somebody in the church and they use that
as an excuse to stop coming to the house of God.  Let me point out again
that Jesus did not stop coming to the synagogue services just because the
scribes and Pharisees were there.  Neither will Jesus accept it as an excuse
when a church member finds fault with somebody else in the church.
    Another thing that I want to point out to you is that nobody sets
himself against the Lord and wins.  The scribes and Pharisees didn't win
against Jesus.  They were never able to win against Jesus.  Even later,
when they were able to persuade the Romans to put Him to death, they still
did not win.  Three days and three nights later He arose from the grave.
Today a man may refuse to believe that there is a God at all.  Those who do
acknowledge that there is a God may refuse to believe that Jesus is the Son
of God.  They may refuse to believe in Jesus as Savior.  Some may
acknowledge that Jesus is the Savior but neglect to trust in Him as Savior
until it is too late.  But nobody sets Himself against Jesus in any of these
ways and wins.  In the day of judgment Jesus will be their Judge and Jesus
will have the last word.  Jesus wins every time.
    The only way to win with Jesus is to turn to God in repentance of your
sins and seek forgiveness of your sins through the Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ.  When you trust in Jesus as your Savior you win.  You do not win
over Him.  You win through Him.  It is Jesus who gives you the victory.
What every man, woman, boy and girl needs to do is to make sure that you

have trusted in Him.  Make sure that you are saved.

Conclusion:

    To you who are already saved, I say: Let nothing stand in your way of
faithfulness at the house of God.  No matter what others do or don't do, you
be faithful to attend church.  Just as Jesus was faithful to attend the
worship services at the synagogue you be faithful to attend church.
    To you who are not yet saved, I say:  Let nothing stand in your way of
trusting Jesus Christ to save your soul.
    To you who just will not trust in Jesus I say:  I feel for you.  My
heart goes out to you, but I am sorry to say that you will spend eternity in
the Lake of Fire and Brimstone.