Wednesday
Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.” But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk? The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him. Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.” For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. - John 5:8-18
This miracle of Jesus served to throw fuel on the fire of opposition from the Jewish authorities that was growing against Him. In fact, this sets off the persecution. Jesus had a running dispute with the Pharisees and the Jewis religious leaders over the keeping of the OT law, in particular they were upset about Jesus repeatedly breaking the Sabbath.
In Luke 6, Jesus and His disciples gets into hot water for picking the heads of grain and eating them (of all things) on the Sabbath. The Pharisees considered this harvesting, and therefore a violation the Sabbath law not to work. Later in that same chapter, Luke tells us about a time when Jesus was teaching in a local Synagogue, and He healed a man’s withered hand. Once again, the Pharisees got all worked up over this miracle “working” and Sabbath breaking. Again and again, Jesus is making the clear point that He has authority over the laws and traditions of man.
Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it? - Luke 6:9
The he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. – Mark 2:27-28
So, here is this man, healed after 38 years of being and invalid! He's just walking along (for the first time in 38 years!) carrying his little mat under his arm and the Jews see him and say, "Hold it right there, just what do you think you’re doing? It's the Sabbath day. It's not lawful for you to carry your bed." Now how is that for warmth and compassion? Here's a man been sick 38 years and they don't care about his healing, they only care about his carrying this mat around. He answers them in the only way that he can, he says, “The one who healed me told me to pick it up and carry it, what was I supposed to do?”
So they press him even harder and ask him just who this supposed miracle worker is. I love the way the NIV translates it, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?” Notice that they don’t say “Who is the man who healed you?” They would’ve choked if they had to ask that. You can see they don’t want to even entertain the possibility that Jesus might actually be from God.
The point of this whole controversy over the Sabbath is the authority and identity of Jesus Himself. He is the one who commands the wind and the sea. Jesus does not have healing power, He IS healing power! He does know the truth, He IS the truth! He does not know the Father, He and the Father are one! He is the Lord of all creation and the High King of Heaven. He is the one who speaks and muscles that have not been used in 38 years become instantly strong again. The Lord of the Sabbath does not need to rest, and the love and mercy and compassion of God never stop working!
Jeff Frazier
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