“Jesus and the Sabbath”

Mark 2:23-28; 3:1-5

One Sabbath day as Jesus was walking through some grain fields, his disciples began breaking off heads of wheat.

But the Pharisees said to Jesus, “They shouldn’t be doing that! It’s against the law to work by harvesting grain on the Sabbath.”

But Jesus replied, “Haven’t you ever read in the Scriptures what King David did when he and his companions were hungry? He went into the house of God (during the days when Abiathar was high priest), ate the special bread reserved for the priests alone, and then gave some to his companions. That was breaking the law, too.”

Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made to benefit people, and not people to benefit the Sabbath. And I, the Son of Man, am master even of the Sabbath!”
Jesus went into the synagogue again and noticed a man with a deformed hand. Since it was the Sabbath, Jesus’ enemies watched him closely. Would he heal the man’s hand on the Sabbath? If he did, they planned to condemn him.

Jesus said to the man, “Come and stand in front of everyone.”

Then he turned to his critics and asked, “Is it legal to do good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing harm? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?”

But they wouldn’t answer him. He looked around at them angrily, because he was deeply disturbed by their hard hearts.

Then he said to the man, “Reach out your hand.” The man reached out his hand, and it became normal again!

Holy Bible, New Living Translation, (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.) 1996.

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