Healing the Man with the Deformed Hand, 12:9-14
9 Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, 10 and a man with a deformed hand was there. Looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” 11 He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” 13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. 14 But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill (Matthew 12:9-15 NIV adapted)
Implied in Jesus' answer in the preceding section to the criticism against himself and his disciples for plucking and eating the ears of grain was that—like David of old, and the priests in the temple in his own day—they were on "the King's business." So here we will see what that business was. Jesus and his disciples enter a synagogue on the sabbath day, and encounter there a man with a withered arm. In the Old Testament the law prohibited a man with any physical disability to serve as a priest, but there was no exclusion of such a person from the synagogue worship. Still, there was something contradictory in Jesus' mind between a person truly seeking to worship God, and his not being whole. Jesus' critics could see that it was his intention to heal this man, even though the man had not requested it. These men were always looking for ways to catch Jesus in a violation of God's law. So they put the question to him: "Does God's law permit healing on the sabbath?" They have in mind that, since according to the rabbinical traditions incidental plucking of grain could be considered professional labor as a harvester, so also incidental acts of healing might be considered plying the trade of a physician on the sabbath day. If Jesus admits this, he will at least be kept from doing what he clearly wants to do to the man with the withered hand. If he denies it, he can be accused as a lawbreaker.
Jesus' answer does not appeal directly to a scripture passage. Instead, he asks them if they would not rescue one of their sheep that fell into a pit on the sabbath. It is almost certain that they would have agreed. Yet this act would not be to save the sheep's life, since spending a day in a pit without food or water would not kill the sheep. Rescuing the animal would simply be a kind and sensible thing to do. It would be both irrational and insensitive to refuse, just because it was Saturday! So also, the withered many might wait until the "doctor's office" was open on the morning after the sabbath to be healed. But is that kind and reasonable, when Jesus has the power to heal and the man needs it? This man had worshiped for years in their synagogue as a disabled man, and these critics had never lifted a finger or a prayer to seek his healing. Now they quibble that Jesus should wait another day to heal him! So the final principle that Jesus gives is this: "It is (always) lawful to do good on the sabbath."
Jesus is talking about what is “lawful,” not what is required … if it were absolutely true that failure to do good is always evil, there would be no possibility of any rest at all. Jesus’ rhetorical question therefore has a narrower focus: Was the Sabbath a day for maleficent activity—like their evil intentions in questioning him—or for beneficent action, like the healing about to be done? (Carson, Matthew).
If it is not only legal, but good to do good on God's holy sabbath, how much more so is it good to do good on every day of the week. Jesus' critics were looking for pious excuses not to help people in need. We too must be careful not to use pious excuses to avoid doing good for our God.
Check back tomorrow (Tuesday) for the next segment of Matthew 12.
