Scripture Reference: Mark 2:1-3:6
Why Is He Breaking the Rules? – Continued
Please read Mark 2:23-3:6 for the background to this section.
From Last Lesson: Jesus’ response however will be forthright. Jesus knows exactly what is at stake here; he knows what they are waiting for and what is likely to follow.
Once again Jesus asks a question, a dual question. The Pharisees can’t really answer, because, in their hardened minds, a healing today would be an “evil,” not a “good” thing, and “to kill” is just the idea that is starting to form in their minds. So they say nothing, and keep watching as Jesus immediately heals the man. For the first time in many years, perhaps, he is able to straighten that useless hand, and as he does so, it is instantly restored to full health. A man is set free from a condition that has devastated his life; it has happened publicly, in the middle of a crowded synagogue. It’s wonderful and, to the Pharisees’ disgust, it has happened on the Sabbath day, and that travesty in their minds, is all that matters.
The Pharisees are, in fact, so appalled that Jesus is breaking their Sabbath rules that they are even prepared to kill him. They immediately begin to make plans with their temporary political allies, the supporters of Herod, to kill Jesus. The Pharisees are worried that their religion is being subverted. The Herodians are worried that Jesus will start a revolt and the Romans will come and crush it, along with everything else in their path. Neither group is bothered about the true identity of the man they so easily condemn. The reason is clearly stated. It’s the stubborn “hardness of their hearts.” Their religion of rules and respectability has taken the place of a living faith in God.
Jesus’ response to that unbelief is a model for His people today. Look again at verse 5. His enemies have been looking at Jesus, studying His every move. But now He returns the compliment and, as He gazes around the room, he is filled with two emotions: he is angry, and he is filled with grief at their hard hearts. When our friends reject what we tell them about Jesus, over and over again, how does it make us feel? We live in a world where everyone’s opinion is said to count for the same. “If it works for you, that’s fine, but don’t push your ideas onto me.” That most often is what we are told. Jesus, however, never accepted that attitude. When He meets such hardness, He responds with both anger and grief; anger that people can be so hard, so indifferent to God’s grace, so closed to His love; and deep distress at what this hardness is going to do to them. Do we feel pain that so many are rejecting our Savior, or have we believers become a little hard-hearted ourselves, so that nothing really upsets us any more? If we truly care for the lost as Jesus did, it’s going to cut us deep into our heart.
There is also a powerful warning in these stories for those who are still spiritually fossilized. Whatever their appearance, however long they may go on coming to church, meeting with Christians just as if they too were genuine believers, the day is coming when every one of us will stand before Jesus Christ and our genuineness or deadness will be clearly exposed. Revelation 20:11-15 speaks of a great White Throne and One sitting on it, and all the dead, great and small, are standing before that Throne to be judged. Long ago, on that day in the synagogue, Jesus looked round at the people with hardened hearts, the ones who were rejecting Him, and He was angry. How will He look at you, then, on that great day? The good news is that Jesus can bring even a fossilized, stone-dead heart back to beating life.
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD 
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