10 and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat."
11 But he replied, "The man who made me well said to me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.'"
12 So they asked him, "Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?"
13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
How like the Pharisees to jump on the infraction rather than the miracle. This poor man had suffered paralysis for thirty-eight long years - imprisoned within his own vessel - and was now set free - not only able to get up but also miraculously able to walk and carry his own mat. Yet despite this wonder, these legal zealots of their day were determined to focus on the breaking of the law rather than the miracle stemming from the mercy. Boy it is certainly easy to fall into a legalistic mind trap. Before we know it, our religion becomes a set of rules ordered and policed by those in authority rather than a living relationship with the Creator God that Jesus came and died to offer us.
“Being the Sabbath, whoever carried a burden through the streets made himself very remarkable, and everyone would enquire what was the meaning of it. Christ would thus witness against the tradition of the elders. The case may be such that it may become a work of necessity, or mercy, to carry a bed on the Sabbath; but here it was more, it was a work of piety. He would thus test the faith and obedience of his patient. Those that have been healed by Christ’s word should be ruled by his word.” Matthew Henry
I am reminded of another encounter with Jesus regarding the breaking of the Sabbath. Mathew tells us in his gospel:
1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. 2 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, "Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath." 3 He answered, "Haven't you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread--which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. 5 Or haven't you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple desecrate the day and yet are innocent? 6 I tell you that one greater than the temple is here. 7 If you had known what these words mean, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the innocent. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." Matt 12:1-8 (NIV)
Splitting hairs over technicalities, the Pharisees failed to grasp both compassion and mercy for people’s basic needs – negating what the Sabbath was even created for. The Sabbath was instituted for mankind’s benefit and refreshment not for the adherence to some manmade burdensome regulations pertaining to it. We find in Mark the following verse:
27 Then he said to them “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” Mark 2:27 (NIV)
“Nothing graces the Christian soul as much as mercy.” Ambrose
Interestingly, just as David, God’s anointed, was being hotly pursued by the forces of Saul’s dying dynasty, so too Jesus, God’s new Anointed One, was being hounded by the forces of yet another dying dynasty.
“We must be aware of the various ways sin pulls us to wrong thoughts about God, righteousness, grace, ourselves and sin itself. Only the truth of God’s word and meditation in prayer can reveal the deceitfulness of sin. Sin works against God. Sin will either deceive us into thinking God is a cruel taskmaster, or, if that will not work, will deceive us into thinking He is like a doting grandfather who really does not care what we do. Sin affects every Christian’s view of God and leads us to worship idols, figments of our own imaginations, and not the true God. Sin will deceive us concerning grace. We will either be deceived into thinking it is too good to be true, or we will buy into cheap grace and think that ethics are unimportant.” Dr. Bob Flayhart
Hounded by the taunts of the Pharisees stating the law forbade his actions, our protagonist defends his obedience to these religious leaders by repeating what Jesus had commanded him. His reasoning was right on target. He who could perform such a miracle as to make the lame leap would certainly not be so unkind as to command him to do something sinful. Industriously overlooking the miraculous as perhaps a ground for their faith in Christ, the Pharisees rather resolved to turn their focus on Jesus as a mere man. Christ, however, allowed the miracle to commend it, and the man on whom it was performed to justify it. Miracles are finger marks of God – signs given by the Master for our learning and pondering their significance in recognizing Jesus’ Oneness with the Father. Jesus affirms this in the gospel of John:
37 Do not believe me unless I do what my Father does. 38 But if I do it, even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father." John 10:37-38 (NIV)