He could have waited and healed the man later, couldn't He? He knew the Pharisees were watching to see if he would heal on Sabbath, an offense in their sight, so why provoke them?
Mark, I guess, is trying to continue the theme of "new wine in new wineskins" ie. the new kingdom of God is to be lived out from very different motives. He already quotes Jesus saying "the Sabbath was made for man", now he's showing what "for man" means.
But is this really worth making people so mad that they would work together with their political enemies to destroy Him? He obviously thought so!
I really like the fact that He asks a question that would entrap his enemies. Obviously the Sabbath is a day to do good and to save life, even to the Pharisees keeping the Sabbath so God will notice them. But they are far too busy trying to catch Him breaking their little rules. So they won't answer.
This really irks Him. He looks angrily at each one.
I like this Jesus. Yes... there is a big problem here. They are concerned about looking good, God with doing good. God with saving life and they with immediately, on their precious Sabbath, going out to plot, with the Herodians of all people, to destroy Jesus.
Jesus is angry because they have hard hearts. My Strongs defines hardness as stupidity or callousness, blindness. They were blindly defending themselves and their ideas in the face of reality. We usually can't treat long-term brachial palsy these days, this man's hand could not be healed by a human. Couldn't they see that their little test proved that Jesus is indeed Lord?
So I guess Jesus is saying:
- Sabbath is a day of forgetting how I look and doing what others really need
- Others really need salvation
- My hardness of heart bothers God, when my plans and positions take precedence over people
- Jesus is more concerned with having his enemies and me face reality than He is with His own preservation.
Hey, this has been another great Bible time for me. Thanks, Jesus! Make me more self forgetful and more healing.
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