IN these verses we continue to see how the Pharisees opposed Jesus and hated him, and sought to get at him and discredit him over the law concerning the keeping of the Sabbath. The problem was not the 4th commandment which Jesus upheld, but the false understanding of this commandment which was taught by the Pharisees. God gave the 4th commandment as a blessing. The Pharisees had turned it into a burden. It is always the way of works to turn the law of God into a burden.

In these verses the Pharisees seek to place Jesus on a spot so that they could condemn and discredit him. In the previous verses the Pharisees used the action of the disciples to criticise and condemn Jesus.

Let us notice the attitude of the Pharisees to Jesus. They hated him. This seems on the surface as strange. Jesus was holy, undefiled and separate from sinners. He did no harm to anyone, and sought only love and care for people in their need. Yet he was hated by the religious people, the Pharisees. The truth is that not all that appear to be servants of God are in reality God's servants. The Pharisees set themselves up as servants of God, but their religion was all outward. Inside and in their heart they were children of Satan. Their attitude to Jesus expressed the opposition of Satan to Jesus and to God. What every true Christian needs to take to heart is that the treatment Jesus received must be expected by the true follower of Jesus. The world will hate us and oppose us in the same way it opposed Jesus. The more active we are in witness and service for Jesus, the greater will be Satan's activity against us.

The opposition of the Pharisees was no match for Jesus. They tried to discredit Jesus by getting him to heal a sick man on the Sabbath, so that they could then condemn him for breaking the rules concerning the Sabbath. Jesus does not attempt to show them how wrong and defective their understanding of the Sabbath was, but simply showed them that they were guilty of breaking their own rules concerning the Sabbath. He exposed their hypocrisy. They were ready to criticise Jesus for healing a man, when they were ready to save their animals on the Sabbath.

Jesus heals the man's hand. He does good, and does not allow the Pharisees, or anyone else, prevent him from doing what is good. The example of Jesus here is for us to follow. We must not allow the judgment of the world, and fear of the world from preventing us doing the will of Christ. How often we hold back a clear witness to the truth for fear of what others will say, or how they will react. By doing this we let the devil win, and hide the truth from perishing souls, and by this we are failing them and holding back salvation from them.

Jesus established here the right view of the Sabbath, or Sunday, for us. Jesus does not say that the 4th commandment is to be given up. In fact he supports the command as from God and as a blessing. What Jesus does tell us is that it is permitted to do good on the Sabbath, and this is not breaking the sanctity of the day.

There is no authority in this incident for those who would treat Sunday as any other day. Jesus tells us that we are not desecrating Sunday by doing good, but he does not say that keeping Sunday holy is not important. In fact Sunday is a very precious day. It is given to us by God so that we may have one day in the week which we can give to God and the good of our souls. We have to get on with the business of life in this world during the other six days, and in this we have little time to care for our souls. The care of our bodies takes over our life, so God has given Sunday so that we may have time to care for our souls, and realize the importance of our soul.

It is for this reason that we have Sunday worship on this day. Left to ourselves we would find it very difficult to use Sunday to worship God and seek the health of our soul. Sunday worship is a means of grace to help us to give time to God and to nourish our souls.

It is so sad these days that this privilege is so neglected. In the Church of England, at least, evening services are more and more going out of fashion, and even when there is a evening service, it is far less well used than the morning service. I believe this to be true for the other denominations also. The reason for this is the low spiritual state we are content with, but it is also because of the poor quality of ministry which turns people off Sunday worship because there is so little nourishment for the soul in the services.

Let us realize what a blessing Sunday is, and make use of this day, and not neglect gathering ourselves together for worship and teaching.