As Jesus continues His circuit ministry throughout Galilee, there are many people following, in addition to His disciples. One of those groups of people who were following Jesus was the Pharisee. They followed Him, not to learn from Him, but to criticize Him. One such occasion was when He and His disciples walked through a grain field on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, so that picked some grain and ate it. The Pharisees immediacy call Jesus’ attention to this and condemn the disciples for breaking the Sabbath. But they did not in effect break the Sabbath, they broke the religious establishments interpretation of the commandment to rest on the Sabbath and keep it holy. Jesus defends His disciple from an example in the Scriptures of David and his companions eating bread that was in the holy place, where only the priest were to go and eat the bread. He also defended them from the law that the priest work on the Sabbath. Both were considered innocent. But the final defense of His disciples was two-fold. Jesus is greater than the Temple and He is the Lord of the Sabbath.

On that same Sabbath Jesus enters into a synagogue where a man with a withered harem was attending. The Pharisees do not doubt Jesus’ authority or ability to heal the man. Instead, their answer to whether it is permitted to do good on the Sabbath is a resounding no. But Jesus heals the man on the Sabbath by stating even their interpretation of the law permits a person to help and animal out of a ditch. Jesus states that people are more valuable than animals and heals the man. The Pharisees response is not to praise God or acknowledge Jesus, but to conspire to destroy Him.

Do we add rules and regulations that prevent us from doing good, even on the Sabbath?

Find out more: https://fbcwest.net/Service/93475aa0-1a8e-4a28-8085-c685ba083820/The-Call-of-the-Twelve-Apostles