He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out?  How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus. 

Matthew 12:11 – 14

The Jews who were most fastidious about keeping the Law viewed Jesus as a law-breaker.  For them, this showed that he could not possibly be the person that his followers claimed him to be, the promised Messiah.  The fact that Jesus did not conform to the practices and laws that the Jewish Pharisees held to raised a wall of fear and hatred between them and Jesus.

For example, the Pharisees had dozens of laws that determined what they could and could not do on the Sabbath.  For Jesus, this indicated that they had no idea at all about observing the Sabbath as the law of Moses instructed them.  The teaching of Moses simply said that the Jews should rest from their labors on the Sabbath and they should keep it holy.  That was not enough for the most committed Jews, like the Pharisees, who spelled out in detail how to rest and how to make the day holy.

Jesus exploded their essential belief that they earned God’s favor by obedience to the law, which meant, for them, the many, many restrictions on Sabbath activity.  By concentrating on keeping the day holy, they developed a view of God that prohibited any work on the Sabbath at all, even good deeds and works of mercy.

I grew up with a detailed understanding what we could do and what we could not do on Sunday (our Sabbath).   As a family, we all understood that and fit in. The idea of a Sabbath rest is hugely beneficial but when it becomes a battlefield of what is permissible and what is not, that is where the problem lies.  It seems like many variations of Christianity have more to do with obeying a law set by people than the real meaning which is to worship God and be refreshed.

Jesus loved the Sabbath, no doubt, but he taught its real meaning.  I need to keep this in mind when it comes to judging how my fellow believers look at the Sabbath.

This little encounter that Jesus had with the Pharisees seems pleasant enough, in my mind.  So why did they go “out and plotted how they might kill Jesus?”  That is serious!  So it goes. I have to think about that, and invite you to do the same.  Little has changed.