Matthew 12:9-10

Now, who was doing the provocation—Christ, or them?

There's a broad principle there. It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.

There is an obvious difference and the contrast is so clear between Christ on the Sabbath and the Pharisees. They weren't there to worship God. They weren't there asking these questions out of loving concern. They were there as accusing authorities, who wanted to judge Christ by their regulations.

It's good to remember the historical context of this. There was, at that time, a circumstance that had been going on for a number of years (and really was not to conclude for another one or two hundred years, or something like that), in which the Jews were compiling a code of regulations by which they hoped to make it virtually impossible for a person to sin.

I have a book in my library, called The Code of Jewish Laws—which is a compilation of these laws. This book is over two inches thick, small print, and there is one regulation after another in which men (with all kinds of zeal, misdirected and misguided) tried to give people advice as to how they could keep the law of God.

It turned out that eventually there were 1,521 regulations regarding the keeping of the Sabbath. These people did it in sincerity—a misdirected zeal. This was getting under way at the time of Christ. But what happened was that they turned the observance of the day into a legalistic ritual rather than a loving service towards God and towards fellow man.

Now, think about the context here. Think about the actions and the words that you have read so far in Matthew 12 and in Luke 3. Is Christ doing away with the Sabbath observance, or is He restoring it to its original, divine value and function? Remember the principle that is given in Matthew 19:8. The reference is to divorce and remarriage, and Jesus said, "But from the beginning it was not so." So it is here. He is showing God's original intent for the Sabbath.

He isn't saying, "You don't have to worry about breaking it." He's not saying, "I'm going to do away with this day in the future anyway, so it doesn't matter what we do." Instead, by what He says and does, He focuses their attention on the action that He makes. And the action He makes is what? To relieve somebody of a burden, to deliver him from a withered hand. Do you see what the Sabbath is for? It is a day of redemption. It is a day of deliverance. It is a day of freedom. It is a day of healing. It is a day to do kind acts. It is a day to help your fellow man in some way. It is a day to relieve them of some burden, as much as lies within us.

To add emphasis to this, it is good to recognize that Jesus' healing here was not done to a man whose life was in danger. He had a chronic problem. His hand had been withered for how long? We don't know. It apparently was not something that was done just before that. Rather, it was a chronic problem; and it easily could have waited until the next day. Jesus could have said, "Come back tomorrow." But instead He purposely showed what the Sabbath was for. It was for healing. Physical [healing] or spiritual [healing]—it doesn't matter. It is a day of healing.

This man was chronically ill; and, brethren, that is the way that we are spiritually. We are chronically ill! You might remember Jeremiah 17:9-10, where it says that the heart is incurably sick. "Who can know it?" he says. And so the Sabbath, then, is a day given to free us from the chronic problems of human nature.

By Jesus' example—His reaction, His words—it becomes very clear that God not only intends that good be done but to fail to do it [good] when the opportunity presents itself implies evil and killing. Why do you think that He was angry? He was ANGRY because they were failing at doing something to relieve this man of his burden. Instead, they were using him as something to provoke Jesus into what they would think of as sinning—so that they might accuse … . . .