why did jesus heal on the sabbath
One of the reasons John may have chosen to include this sign is that there was virtually, no way this miracle could have been staged. received sight? Here Christ restated the greatest commandment of the Old Testament (see Deuteronomy 6:4-5). He is forcing the issue that the religious leaders were missing the original purpose of the Sabbath and that He is Lord over the Sabbath. When questioned further, the man admits that he doesnt even know who Jesus is or where to find him. If it was true then, is it true today? No, for two reasons. They considered all three actions to be "work" and therefore illegal on the Sabbath. The ancient Israelites' sad record shows they didn't listen. Sign up now for the latest news and deals from Bible Gateway! Neither the people who brought him nor the Pharisees who received him. Rather than considering a message of mercy and compassion in applying God's law, they conspired to kill the Messenger. When they dont work, we despair. I think Jesus works on the Sabbath on purpose. Jesus and His disciples did not observe the strict Jewish rules against doing any work on the It was without a doubt a genuine healing. Continuing in Luke's account: "He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. Some of the Pharisees voiced this conflict, while others tried to resolve Second, Jesus is the Lord of By showing the spiritual intent and application of God's law. Even walking through grass was not allowed, because some of the grass might be bent and broken, which constituted threshing, one of the forbidden categories of work. It is OK when truth challenges tradition. Presumably, this is supposed to help raise Jesus' profile and make it seem that his importance was recognized by the authorities. So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has boundthink of itfor eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?" "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets," He said. Our tradition says that sign gifts have died out. Sabbath comes from the word Shabbath which essentially, as listed above, means "a day of rest.". Clearly, he put himself on par with God. Mark 3:1-6. It was a time to be enjoyed, not endured. 10 key points from the Bible give a foundation for Christians asking what the Bible says about our work. As we act in faith to restore what has been broken (as doctors, nurses, auto mechanics, and so forth), we call people to remember the goodness of the creator God. . "Since Jesus is his son, he works every day, too. 1. Now that the stage has been set, the healing ensues. In this incident He continued to teach, as He did so many times on the Sabbath, of His redemptive work for mankind. Yet what we fail to see is that what appears to be impossible to us is possible for God. It is dangerous because those that believe that, logically believe that if they stop sinning, they will get well. Why was there a division among the Pharisees Who are recorded as being happy that the blind man The man countered, "This is a marvelous thing . Jesus Christ and the Sabbath What has Jesus done to deserve this? This is what it means to put God in a box. Jesus' approach was that when an opportunity to relieve suffering presents itself, the opportunity should be taken. Yet the Pharisees, who were among the most strict in their rules concerning the Sabbath, viewed the disciples' actions as "reaping" and "threshing," which were among the 39 categories of work forbidden on that day. Whether any particular work fulfills this description must be discerned by the person(s) involved. For example: they could swear on the door of the temple and that was not binding but to swear on the doorknob of the temple was. Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath'" (Mark 2:27-28). Cline, Austin. The man then accepted Jesus as the Son of God. it by siding with God made the Sabbath as a day of rest for mankind, not for Himself. . Jesus taught that the right thing to do is to help someone in need, that human need is more important than the law. At once, the Sabbath police (i.e., the Jewish authorities) confronted the man who had just been healed after a thirty-eight-year-long illness. God also said of His people, "Her priests have violated My law and profaned My holy things; they have not distinguished between the holy and unholy, nor have they made known the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they have hidden their eyes from My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them" (Ezekiel 22:26). His words and His deeds upheld the holiness and joy the Sabbath represented. . And he said unto them.Christ's answer appeals from intellectual and theoretical difficulties to the practical common sense of ordinary morality (cf. The basic reason that Jesus healed on the Sabbath was that people needed His help. While teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum, Christ was confronted by a demon-possessed man. How can he be first in the water when he is unable to walk? Doesnt each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? He said that, because of the Pharisees' distorted view, they had actually turned matters upside down. Perhaps the fact that Jesus commands him to stop sinning is an indication that he is now saved/a believer because unbelievers do not have the capability to not sin anymore. After determining that it was Jesus who had performed the healing and told the man to carry his mat, they "persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath" (John 5:16). I think that is wrong and dangerous. Why was there a division among the Pharisees Verse 11. The Feast of Pentecost, Passover and Tabernacles obligated all males to attend. No, for two reasons. Why did Jesus even bother to ask? Later we will see that raising a dead person is also not the result of the persons faith. To illustrate the extremes to which the Pharisees took their views, Jesus in the preceding verses used the example of circumcision. Jesus has the sovereign choice to deal with one out of a crowd. If you have any questions, please review our Privacy Policy or email us at privacy@biblegateway.com. Just like this man had used his resources for 38 years to get well, we usually depend on our own resources to solve our problems. A man with a chronic health problem came before Him. Let us examine a few of these passages in detail in order to gain a better understanding of why . Well, of course the man wanted to be healed! Shabbat - Jews for Jesus Have you not heard? They demonstrate the powers of the age to come (Hebrews 6:5). The only other source of information about this would be God, but if God caused the authorities to pay more attention to Jesus, how could they be held morally culpable for their actions? Just think what would happen He blames Jesus. Jesus' teaching in these verses is summarized in The Anchor Bible Dictionary: "At times Jesus is interpreted to have abrogated or suspended the sabbath commandment on the basis of the controversies brought about by sabbath healings and other acts. These Herodians are only mentioned twice in Mark and once in Matthew never at all in Luke or John. For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out'" (Luke 4:33-36). Jesus would have none of this attitude. Jesus used the Sabbath to point people to Him as the Healer and Savior of mankind. Jesus makes a foundational pronouncement . We may be doing Gods work, but we do not share the divine identity as Christ does. It was without a doubt a genuine healing. 10On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues,(A) 11and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. nor do any work, but hallow the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers . Yet . . Yes, it was the Sabbath day but Jesus cast the unclean spirit out of the man nonetheless. . Scholars have not succeeded in tracing the origin of the seven . Only after everything necessary would come to pass would any of God's law pass from existence, said Christ. What is the crime? was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. This is another Sabbath miracle. . In this example, we see that Jesus Christ understood and explained the Sabbath's true intentthat it was created to be a day of rest from normal labors, a blessing and benefit to all humanity. Jesus Christ again made it clear that He was the Messiah, the very Son of God. Biblical decision-making principles for tough situations at work. The sermon on the mount goes through this in detail. Speaking to His disciples, He said, "I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day . Indeed, they are seeking a means to destroy him thus, it isnt just a conspiracy against him, but a plot to have him killed. Although there were 613 commands in the OT, they had added prohibitions to the law as a hedge around the law so that people would not break the law. Why did he have to do it on a Saturday? In our lives, there may be times when we face seemingly insurmountable obstacles to God meeting our needs or answering our prayers. Jesus spent time with His disciples on Sabbath, healed people on the Sabbath, and taught His followers to serve others on the Sabbath (Matthew 12:11-12). Jesus Heals on the Sabbath (John 5) The healing of the man at the pool of Bethsaida brings to the surface a controversy familiar from Matthew, Mark, and Luke: Jesus' penchant for healing on the Sabbath. His lengthy argument is crisply summarized in John 5:17, My Father is still working, and I also am working. The principle is clear. One day, Jesus was invited to dine at the home of a leading Pharisee. He could have healed this man and others like him on any day of the week. By clicking Accept All Cookies, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. And demons also came out of many, crying out and saying, 'You are the Christ, the Son of God!' Jesus is showing the Jewish tradition to be invalid by commanding the man to carry his pallet on the Sabbath. Secondarily, the story is also about peoples need to respond to Jesus disclosure of his true identity with personal trust in him. Sign Up Today! "Since Jesus is his son, he works every day, too. Used by permission. Even the Pharisees' strict regulations allowed for the feeding and watering of animals on the Sabbath. This is just another example of how archaeology continues to affirm the factuality of scripture. In the excerpt below from the Signs of the Messiah, Andreas J. Kstenberger unpacks the John 5 passage in which Jesus heals a paralyzed man, then faces persecution. We carry out the commands of God by the power which God supplies. And they were astonished at His teaching, for His word was with authority" (Luke 4:31-32). But God continues some work without ceasing. He responded. Was the New Testament Written in Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek? Jesus and the Sabbath | Adventist Review According to the Gospel accounts, Jesus healed more people on the Sabbath than on any other day. Cline, Austin. The healing of the man at the pool of Bethsaida brings to the surface a controversy familiar from Matthew, Mark, and Luke: Jesus penchant for healing on the Sabbath. . The Pharisees were an excessively strict branch of Judaism holding considerable religious authority during Christ's time. Isaiah prophesied of this time: "Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. When asked, "Which is the first commandment of all?" "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath," Jesus said (Mark 2:27, CSB). Love means giving your life for others as Jesus did and taking positive action on their behalf, not merely ignoring them or even harboring contempt in your heart toward them. Had He done so, He would have sinned (1 John 3:4), yet Jesus never sinned. How? And if this alteration of one of the 248 parts (by Jewish calculation) of the body could be done on the Sabbath, He argued, "Why are you angry with me for healing the whole man on the Sabbath?" God created all things through Christ, is restoring them to his original intent through Christ, and will bring them to their appointed goal through Christ. Jesus' Sabbath encounters, if read for what they teach, only enhance the continued validity of the seventh-day Sabbath. God keeps the creation going even on the Sabbath, and therefore Jesus, who shares the divine identity, is permitted to do the same. Presumably, their interests would have been secular rather than religious; so if they were to bother with someone like Jesus, it would be for the sake of maintaining public order. Hes just telling us why these people hung out at this pool. . Jesus Christ heals her too on the Sabbath day. Now, on that Sabbath, the people of Nazareth were the first to hear, directly from Him, that He was the Messiah. "You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you," Christ answered. Rather, the man had been indisputably and irremediably crippled and stood in desperate and verifiable need of healing. By saying, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing," Jesus claimed to be fulfilling this prophecyand thereby proclaimed Himself the expected Messiah! Jesus was almost certainly not alone in arguing that God was at work on the Sabbath, but his deduction about justifying his own work is unique. John is not saying it is true or not. . Jesus did not break the Sabbath law, although He did act against the Pharisaical interpretation of the law. The Jewish leaders who opposed him and took offense at his perceived infraction of their Sabbath rules fell short, as did the man who went off physically healed but spiritually still remained in his sin. Also, we fall apart if we don't rest. Jesus has just graciously and powerfully restored this mans ability to walk, and he repays Jesus by reporting him to the authorities. #39 was that you cant carry your bed on the Sabbath. He does, however, defend his actions on the Sabbath in a manner similar to his earlier argument: the Sabbath exists for humanity, not vice-versa, and so when human needs become critical, it is acceptable to violate traditional Sabbath laws. Many people see only what they want to see regarding His approach to the seventh day. As stated earlier, some see only what they want to see in these versessupposed proof that Jesus broke the Fourth Commandment. Isa 35:5 speaks of the blind seeing and the lame walking. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.' Jesus Heals on the Sabbath (John 5) Father, Son and Spirit: The Trinity and Johns Gospel, Encountering John: The Gospel in Historical, Literary, and Theological Perspective, The First Days of Jesus: The Story of the Incarnation, Upon This Rock I Will Build My Church: Matthew 16:18 & the Temple. The Greek word pleroo, translated "fulfill" here, means "to make full, to fill, to fill up . It seems that they were almost hoping he would do something wrong so that they could accuse him and when he heals mans hand, they run off to plot with the Herodians. God. The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. This was another sign that the Messiah was present. The "rest" described in Exodus and throughout Scripture is above all a state of peace and fellowship with God. John 5:1-18 records a Sabbath healing not mentioned in the other Gospels, thereby adding another dimension to Christ's activities on the Sabbath. Earlier in this booklet we reviewed how God warned Israel not to forget His mighty works and laws. This is the first commandment" (Mark 12:28-30). The aftermath of Jesus healing the lame man, In the inexorable dynamic of this Johannine narrative, what started out as an innocuous encounter and subsequent healing has slowly but surely morphed into a messianic sign, a pointer to Jesus authority as the Christ and Son of God. Rather than in the synagogue, this incident took place in the home of a prominent Pharisee where Jesus had gone to share a meal on the Sabbath. In Jesus terms, we need mountain-moving faith (Matt 17:20), or better, we need faith in a God who can move spiritual mountains that we find not only impossible to move ourselves but that we cannot even imagine God can move. Theology of Work Project Online Materials by Theology of Work Project, Inc. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. The Pharisees viewed the disciples' conduct as "not lawful on the Sabbath" and criticized them for it. It was the Sabbath, and everyone at the Pharisee's house watched Jesus very carefully. . Calling her to Him, He laid His hands on her, "and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God" (Luke 12:12-13). No question, Adventists keep the same Sabbath day as do practicing Jews. Persecution - they plan to kill him. by Andreas J. Kstenberger for a deeper look at Jesus signsand what they teach us about Johns message and intent. One of the Israelites' most flagrant sins leading up to their national captivity was the violation of God's Sabbath. The religious authorities' definition of "work" that could violate the Sabbath command was vastly different from any ordinary definition of work. Jesus Upheld the Law In truth, Jesus kept the law of the Ten Commandments (which includes the Sabbath commandment- Exodus 20:8-11) in every way. He wasn't the only person claiming to be able to heal people and challenging religious conventions. They despised My judgments and did not walk in My statutes, but profaned My Sabbaths" (Ezekiel 20:12-16). "Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and lead it away to water it? Perhaps the lesson is that Gods sovereignty, plan and purpose are bigger than human need. This is an indication of the deliberate manner in which the Fourth Evangelist has crafted his account. Sign up for our FREE weekly e-newsletters! The point here, I believe, is simply that if Jesus encountered a person who required healing, he didnt allow the fact that it was the Sabbath stand in the way of the healing. If the controversy is familiar, however, Jesus self-defense takes a slightly different angle. When Jesus says My Father is working now (on the Sabbath) and I am working, it is an obvious claim to deity. 10. Healing of the Man at Bethesda Jesus cures a man on the Sabbath - Catholic Courier All rights reserved worldwide. . It is important to understand that their hedge commands were not really a hedge at all. He rested from His work of forming the world on the seventh day to show us that we should also rest from our normal work. Some manuscripts leave this out. A brief view of the biblical record of His actions and teachings will help us understand how Christ viewed the Sabbath. We all need to examine our hearts if we desire to learn the lesson John wants to teach us through the story of the invalid and the Jewish authorities who were intransigent toward Jesus because of their sinful, hardened hearts. Yet tragically, the authorities were unwilling to consider this possibility because their hearts were hardened due to their own sin.
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why did jesus heal on the sabbath
