The objective of this lesson: to remind ourselves that Jesus placed people above accepted rules and regulations.
Typically, people in every age have concluded God is more focused on "rules and regulations" than He is on people. The issue is not obedience. No one has the right to rebel against God. However, the matter focuses on two considerations: (a) what is the source of the rule and regulation? (b) How is rebellion defined?
The point of this lesson is not an attack on the Bible's concept of obedience. It is an emphasis on the importance of people to God. It always appears to be a tendency of conservative religious people to declare that perceived commands are more important to God than are people. It is as if commands form a sort of spiritual obstacle course that exists to prove a person's faith exists. It is as if God expects us to do meaningless pursuits to demonstrate our confidence in Him. Hopefully, God's own son shows us there is no conflict between doing good to people and obeying God's commands.
In Jesus' day, there were lots of rules and regulations regarding the proper keeping of the Sabbath day. Exodus 20:8-11 [in the original giving of the Ten Commandments] contained an injunction against anyone in a Jewish household [whether slave or natural family member] working on the Sabbath day.
Sabbath regulations were endless (How far may you walk? May a lame man wear his peg leg? May you cook an egg in hot sand on the roadside? May you take an animal to water? May you light a lamp?) Most of the regulations concerned work (When does a walk become a journey? If a part of the peg leg rubs, is the act of rubbing work? If the egg changes from a liquid to a solid, does work occur? If one leads an animal, is it an act of work? If a lamp's wick burns, does charring the wick produce work?) No question was too small to consider when the Jewish community defined work.
However, work is not defined. In fact, the Law of Moses no where gave a comprehensive definition of work. That is why they did not know [without inquiring of the Lord] what to do with the man gathering wood on the Sabbath in Numbers 15:32-36.
Though there were many human regulations defining work in Israel, there was no comprehensive definition of work in scripture.
The situation was full of opportunity for human rules about what was and was not work. The Misnah, Shabbath 7:2 gives the 39 main classes of work. The intent should be familiar--it was the attempt to supply a workable definition to make a commandment obeyable.
Human believers do not hesitate to create their reasoned definitions when scripture is silent. Nor do they hesitate to bind their reasoned definitions as though the definitions were scripture itself.
However, obedience is composed of two considerations: (a) the act and (b) the attitude. The act of compliance without the attitude to comply is as spiritually meaningless as is the attitude of compliance that rejects the act of compliance. When obedience is reduced to mere acts, one can comply by going through the motions even when his/her heart is rebellious. Obedience involves both the will and the body of the person.
It is essential for the Christian to understand that biblical obedience involves both the act and the attitude. For example, if a person is immersed by a believer in a baptistery in a church building for the remission of sin, the immersion is meaningless if the one being baptized does not have the attitude of faith in Jesus Christ. Obedience is not a matter of completing some divine obstacle course fashioned by God. Obedience is a matter of (a) surrender to God in appreciation of (b) what God did for us in Jesus' death and resurrection.
If you have not noticed, please take note of how often religious leaders in Israel felt resentment toward Jesus because they declared him a failure in complying with Sabbath regulations. Examples are found in Matthew 12:1ff; Luke 13:1, 14:1-6; John 5:1-10, 7:21-24; and 9:16.
One of the major sources of opposition by religious leaders against Jesus centered in what those leaders regarded to be Jesus' Sabbath violations.
Notice the example in today's text is the opposite of our concern. We would question the performance of a miracle. They did not. They were concerned about what they considered a Sabbath violation. Performing a miracle was fine. Just do it some day other than Saturday.
Do note in today's text that their concern and our concern are exactly opposite. With us, the matter of concern would focus in some manner on the concept of miracles. With them, the matter of concern focused on their concept of Sabbath violation.
To Jesus' opponents, performing a miracle was an act of work unless the person's life was in immediate danger. The man with the withered hand did not face a life situation that placed him in immediate danger. From their perspective, the withered hand could be healed the next day. There was not a need for healing the man's hand on the Sabbath.
Their concern in the miracle (on this occasion) was what they defined to be an act of work. On this occasion, the source of the power that permitted the miracle to occur was secondary to the fact it occurred on a Sabbath. To them, "when" the miracle occurred was an undeniable evidence that the miracle was not God's act. In their system of right and wrong, they could not see God at work when He was at work!
Also note from the moment Jesus entered the synagogue, the religious leaders watched him. If Jesus performed an act of healing, they would accuse him of Sabbath violation.
They did not wish to understand anything they did not already accept! They only wished to find reason to accuse!
Before healing the man, Jesus asked a question: "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save a life or to kill?" Within 150 years of that occasion, Jewish religious leaders ruled it was acceptable to God for the Jewish people to defend themselves on the Sabbath if they were attacked. This ruling came after Jewish slaughters inflicted by Syrian forces on Sabbaths because [at that time] Jews would not fight on Sabbaths. Basically Jesus asked if it was right to defend life on a Sabbath day, and was it also right to do good on a Sabbath day? When no one answered his question, he healed the man with a withered hand.
It is amazing how we will defend the system by changing perspectives if a change in perspective will enable the system to endure. Jesus' question was profound and relevant. God looks at needs much differently than do we.
Jesus was grieved because the religious leaders were so devoted to their system that they would not think. That kind of hard-heartedness in these people who were suppose to reflect God and His views angered Jesus. He performed the miracle because it was in keeping with God's will to do good to people on the Sabbath even if the person's life was not in jeopardy.
The impact on Jesus of his anger and grief are significant. His was not an anger that came from resentment, but an anger that came from grief. The first anger focuses on self. The second anger focuses on others.
To God, people are more important than the rules and regulations He gave. He gave the rules and regulations to benefit people! To do good to people in need was in keeping with the intent of God's rules and regulations! Again, Jesus declared/showed that people matter to God. Again, Jesus revealed that the focus of God's rules and regulations was the good of people.
God's rules and regulations always focus on the eternal need of the person or people--whether the person or people see the need or not.
We need to exercise caution. Obedience is not a mindless, rote set of acts we do merely to demonstrate God's supremacy. Neither is obedience a form of rebellion that dares to dictate to God what we consider good. Both views of obedience fail to understand (a) God's focus is on His concern for people, and (b) God is the source of all good [He determines good, not we].
We need to exercise great care to define the motivation for and the act of obedience to God in Jesus Christ as does God.
One of the great failures of Christians today is our failures to motivate people to accept God because we wish to be in relationship with God. A Christian does what is right because doing what is right reflects the nature of his/her Father (Matthew 5:16; 5:43-48; 9:8; 15:31; Mark 2:12; Luke 7:16; Acts 4:21; 2 Corinthians 9:13; Galatians 1:24). Our religious heritage is so deeply rooted in the horrors of hell and the wonders of heaven that too often we cannot conceive of a spiritual motivation that does not include fear or beauty.
The highest motivation in all things spiritual is God's worthiness. God totally deserves praise, honor, and glory. The objective of Christianity is not "me centered" and self serving. It is God centered and God serving.
In the first century, devoted children wanted to be like their father. Devoted spiritual children [sons and daughters of God] want to be like their spiritual Father. They admire their Father. It is that admiration that generates a spiritually mature motivation. That is not to suggest that the consequences of evil behavior or the blessings of godly behavior are unscriptural motivations. It is the declaration that there is a motivation that goes beyond the fear of punishment or the rewards of surrender. That motivation lies in the understanding that God genuinely merits our praise and glorification.
The Christian man or woman finds his or her highest spiritual motivation in the personal desire to constantly move toward God's character. That is the desire of godliness. In the words of Job 13:15, "Though He slay me, I will hope in Him." For what God did for us in Christ, we will endure a "thorn in the flesh" as a messenger from Satan (see 2 Corinthians 12:1-10).
For Thought and Discussion
They tend to think God is more focused on "rules and regulations" than on people.
Obedience focuses on the act and the attitude.
People tend to comply by performing correct motions with ungodly motives (see Acts 8:13-24).
They often declared Jesus to be in violation of Sabbath regulations.
To them, performing a miracle was an act of work and thereby a Sabbath violation (unless the person's life was in danger).
"It it lawful on the Sabbath day to do good or to do harm, to save a life or to kill?"
Jesus was grieved because these religious leaders were so devoted to their system that they would not think.
We urgently need to realize that obedience is not a mindless, rote demonstration or God's supremacy, but neither is it a form of rebellion that seeks to dictate to God.
The failure to motivate people to accept God because they wish to be in relationship with God.
Link to Student Guide
Lesson 6