More storms on the sabbath

[Journey with Jesus – Day 8]

As he performed more miracles Jesus became more and more popular – but not with everyone. Members of the Pharisees became more and more outraged at the way Jesus seemed to flout the Jewish laws. They were particularly bothered by the way he seemed to have total disregard for the rules about keeping the sabbath. It was a day set aside for rest and worship. All work was banned. And yet, in their eyes, Jesus didn’t pay any attention – and neither did we. One time we were walking through the grain fields. I was hungry, so was Andrew, so we began breaking off heads of grain to eat. Of course, someone noticed – we were being watched, as was becoming more common at that time – and a group of Pharisees we recognised from the synagogue came up to Jesus. They pointed at myself and Andrew and said angrily, “Look, why are they breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath?”

Jesus replied straight away, “Haven’t you ever read in the Scriptures what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He went into the house of God (during the days when Abiathar was high priest) and broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of bread that only the priests are allowed to eat. He also gave some to his companions.”

Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!”

Well, that did not go down well, but you could tell the Pharisees didn’t have anything clever enough to say. They just shook their heads. You could tell they were adding this to their list of Jesus’s apparent transgressions. The thing was, these sabbath rules had gone too far. They had added a whole list of rules to the ones that had always existed and they sucked the joy out of life. God had given us the gift of the sabbath for our benefit – to help us rest and worship. The sabbath is there not to serve us, not the other way round. Jesus was showing us how crazy it was to be bound by these rules.

A week or so later we were in the synagogue for the sabbath and there was a man there whose hand was deformed. He was sitting at the front of the synagogue. Jesus spotted him and we spotted some of Jesus’s opponents – some of the same who had challenged us the week before – in the congregation watching intently. I nudged Andrew, “Do you think this is a set up?” I murmured. It felt dodgy, like this man had been put there deliberately to test what

Jesus would do.

“Probably,” Andrew replied, “You know what they’ll do if he heals him – they’ll accuse him of working on the sabbath.”

“Exactly!” I said.

Meanwhile, Jesus strode to the front of the gathering and addressed the man with the deformed hand. “Come and stand in front of everyone.” The man stood up obediently. “Thank you,” Jesus said, “It’s ok – you’ve done nothing wrong, you’re not in trouble.” Then, he turned and looked directly at the critics, and in a louder voice asked, “Tell me this – Does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?” But they wouldn’t answer him. He was met with stony silence, so he tried again. “Look, if any of you had a sheep that fell into a pit on a sabbath, you wouldn’t just leave it there, would you? No, of course not, you’d take hold of it and lift it out.” Nodding towards the man, Jesus continued, “A person is far more precious and valuable than a sheep isn’t he? So it’s lawful to do what’s good on the sabbath, isn’t it?”

Still silence. Jesus looked around at them angrily and shook his head. You could tell he was deeply saddened by how hard their hearts were – how could they be so stuck in their ways? Jesus, of course, wasn’t going to forget the man whose suffering was at the heart of this issue. Why should this go on any longer, even if it was a sabbath? So he said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” So the man held out his hand, and it was restored! We had seen Jesus perform many miracles but still the sight of a once deformed hand becoming instantly straight and strong was an amazing one. The delight and disbelief on this man’s face was a picture to behold and with tears in his eyes, Jesus embraced him.

We heard a commotion soon after as the Pharisees left, apparently outraged at this flagrant and deliberate breach of the rules. We later heard from one of our number, Joanna, whose husband Chuza worked for Herod, that they’d met together to plot how to kill Jesus. We didn’t really believe it – why would someone want to kill someone who was doing such good? The idea that Jesus would die was simply impossible.

Jesus knew of the threat and took it seriously enough, so he left the synagogue and went to the shore of the lake. A large crowd followed us from all over the region – news had spread about the wonderful things Jesus was doing. In fact, there were so many people gathered that we worried that we’d get crushed. We were prepared and had a small boat ready for Jesus. From there he was able to minister to all who needed to be healed – they came to touch him so they may be healed – and many were healed and restored. Those who had been beset by demons were also set free.

It was incredible being part of what Jesus was doing – he was bringing God’s justice to those who needed to receive it. It was just as the prophet Isaiah had foretold … bruised reeds were being tended too, and smouldering wicks were being fanned into flame. People from all over were discovering hope once more. All we could do was marvel at was God was doing through his servant. We felt at the cusp of a new dawn for our nation and couldn’t imagine Jesus’s light ever going out.