Jesus Asks Questions in a Synagogue at a Sabbath Healing

Jesus Asks Questions in a Synagogue at a Sabbath Healing.

The Grand Inquisitor. Messiah Jesus was a Master of asking questions: some were open-ended, others were very pointed; some were out of curiosity, others were challenging; some seemed rhetorical, others seemed painfully obvious; some were to reveal Himself, others were to guide the other into self-understanding; some were intentionally provocative, others were to kick-start a conversation; some questions were asked to explore a topic to deepen understanding and stretch toward the truth; some were leading questions that He designed to suggest a particular answer, and others were questions in response to questions asked of Him; some were hypotheticals to stimulate the imagination, other questions were used  by Him as stepping stones to think logically from one point to the next. Jesus used questions to dignify the listener, letting that person know that He is taking that person seriously and listening carefully. Many of His questions were acts of friendship and used to pursue a more profound intimacy with someone. Jesus asked very few yes-no questions, and since time was usually irrelevant for Him when He was with people, He rarely asked a “when” question. Several biblical scholars have studied the gospels with Christ’s questions in mind, and they have literally counted a total of 307 questions in His various conversations and teachings. It seems that a worthy spiritual exercise when considering the many questions of Jesus is that we ask ourselves… should I take His questions personally, as if He was asking us that question right now?

The First Questions. “So, is it okay to do a good deed on the Sabbath? Or would you rather have me do something evil? Should I save life or destroy it? Should I be helping people or leaving them helpless?”

The Sabbath Healing of the Man with the Withered Hand. (Matthew 12:9-13; Mark 3:1-6; Luke 6:1-6). Once again, Jesus is going to test the petty rules of the religious leaders. According to Jewish tradition, one cannot practice medicine unless it’s a matter of life and death for the patient. All eyes were on Jesus, because if the Pharisee could catch Jesus breaking the Sabbath law, perhaps they could sway popular opinion against Him. Jesus had His eyes wide open wherever He went. He saw a man with a paralyzed hand in the synagogue. Since it was his right hand (Luke 6:6), he was unable to find work in a meaningful and self-supporting way. This man needed both hands to function in order to support a family. So Jesus wanted to help him. All eyes were on Jesus in the synagogue on the Sabbath one day, because if the Pharisees could catch Jesus breaking the Sabbath law, perhaps they could sway popular opinion against Him. Jesus was not naïve to His opposition, so He had His eyes wide open wherever He went. So here He is in the synagogue and He observed a man with a paralyzed hand. Since it was his right hand (Luke 6:6), he was unable to find work in a meaningful and self-supporting way. This man needed both hands to function in order to support a family. So Jesus wanted to help him, as if this man were the only man in the world, “His one sheep, helpless in a ditch.” Jesus brought the man with the crippled hand to the front of the crowd, front and center. He wasn’t afraid to confront the religious leaders. The leaders would not answer Jesus’ questions. Jesus was clearly put out with these leaders. He was downright angry with them. They showed no concern about this crippled man or his daily needs. They were hard-hearted rule-keepers, not life-giving God followers. Jesus was angry, but He was also sad… Why can’t they see the emptiness of these traditions? Why can’t they put mercy ahead of rituals and tradition? So, right in front of everybody, the man held his hand out and Jesus healed him, right there in the synagogue for all to see. Now it’s the Pharisees’ turn to get angry. They were outraged that Jesus showed them up, embarrassed them to the crowd. Their anger, unlike Christ’s, is not righteous, however. They wanted to use their anger to kill Jesus. “The Pharisees went out and immediately began plotting how they might do away with Jesus” (Matthew 12:14).

Healing. So, right in front of everybody, the man held his hand out and Jesus healed him, right there in the synagogue for all to see. This seems a little like an “in your face” miracle, a healing done for the benefit of the man as well as to show who’s boss to the religious leaders. Is it okay to do an “in your face” miracle? Jesus healed this man on the Sabbath, when it was clearly not an emergency in most people’s eyes. Jesus could have waited a day, and then healed him. One might wonder why Jesus didn’t wait. Perhaps He had a special truth to teach, and this was the teachable moment.

Human Beings are Sacred. This healing in the synagogue on the Sabbath was quite the object lesson. Jesus is offering those in the synagogue audience a reminder of the profound value of a human being. The fact is, people are worth much more than any animal because God made human beings in His image. Every human person carries God’s holy fingerprint. Therefore, all of human life is sacred, and we all participate one way or another in the sanctity of human life. Every person we see is sacred, set apart to represent and reflect a holy God. In their quest to obey all their traditions, the Pharisees forgot something crucial to Scripture… that man with the crippled hand is sacred. They overlooked this man, and forgot he was an image-bearer, and therefore had a sacred center that can never be fully erased.

The Second Question. “Jesus said to them, ‘What if one of you has only one sheep and it falls into a deep ditch on the Sabbath? Will you not take hold of it and lift it out? Of course you would! Does it make sense to you that a common sheep is valuable enough to be rescued on the Sabbath but not a human being?” How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Surely kindness to people is as legal as kindness to an animal! For this reason, the Law allows a person to do what is good on the Sabbath.’” (Matthew 12:11-12).

How Much More. One classic method of rabbinic teaching was called the “Kal v’Chomer (pronounced as it looks, except the c is silent).” This was a commonly used strategy of reasoning and persuasion used throughout the Hebrew Bible and Jewish tradition. Breaking down that Hebrew phrase, “kal” means “Of course, obviously Yes.” And “v’chomer” means “all the more so.” The Hebrew understating of this teaching strategy can be described in many ways: light to heavy; lesser to greater; simple to complex; minor to major; lenient to strict. The kal v’chomer is a strictly logical process used everywhere in Jewish culture, from the courtrooms to the corner conversations to the synagogues. It is used by a speaker when he or she wants the listener to logically arrive at an inescapable conclusion. If A is obviously true, then it stands to reason that B is true as well. This process is often spoken of as the “How much more” argument. If A is commonly accepted, then how much more is it likely that B should be accepted as well?

Lesser to Greater. Like all effective rabbis, Jesus used this traditional strategy of argument when He read the room and believed that His audience was up to a logical argument. He would say, ‘If something is true in a minor matter, then how much more true will this major matter be?’ Jesus made successful use of Kal v’Chomer in His public ministry. ‘If this is obviously good, then that must be good as well.’ This is a commonsense type of reasoning that Jesus used many times in His speaking. There are at least eight different times He used this ‘lesser to greater’ approach to persuasion. In fact, because St. Paul loved to use this type of argument, and was probably taught it by the Master Rabbi Gamaliel, the New Testament has well over twenty different passages that include Kal v’Chomer reasoning.

Thoughts about Jesus and the Sabbath:

• “As an observant Jew, Jesus loved the Sabbath. Nowhere did He teach that Sabbath was to be broken. He encouraged the people to have biblical balance, to bypass only those rules that were the traditions of the religious folk and not of God. Jesus affirmed the keeping of the Sabbath. He desired that His people get past the traditions that had obscured the true meaning of Sabbath. Jesus wanted them to experience the blessing of rest, the remembrance of the Creation, the reflection of the covenant God had made with Israel, and the realization that Sabbath was a picture of eternity.” (Dr. David Stern).
• “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27).  In other words, the Sabbath was made for the sake of the people, and not people for the sake of Sabbath. The Sabbath was made to serve us, we weren’t made to serve the Sabbath. The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath. An old rabbinic saying is, “Shabbat is committed into your hands, not you into its hands.”
• “I am the Lord of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). He co-created the 7th Day rest. He was not afraid to be picky when it came to many of the pointless sabbath rules that were in place during His time. He loved doing works of mercy on the Sabbath, especially in His healings. As the Lord of the sabbath, we find our Sabbath rest in Him. He invites all of us to find our rest in Himself. “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matt. 11:28-29).
• Seven Sabbath Healings. Jesus did not hesitate to show mercy through healing on the Sabbath. In fact, He engaged in 7 Sabbath healings. Seven, God’s favorite number in the Scripture; seven to show that He desires the sick to return to Edenic wholeness; seven to show He healed in the spirit of Creation; seven to show He wanted to honor Creator Father on the Day set apart to honor Him; seven to continue Creation through human renewal and  flourishing; seven to show that doing good on the Sabbath is acceptable to the Lord of the Sabbath; seven to remind all people that mankind was made in the image of God and deserves the dignity of good health.
• “More than the Christians keep the Sabbath, the Sabbath has kept the Christians.” ( a recent rabbinic observation).

Thoughts About the Sabbath:

“Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the 7th day God had finished the work He had been doing. So on the 7th day He rested from all His work. And God blessed the 7th day and made it holy (set apart from the other days, sacred), because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done.” (Genesis 2:1-3)’

“Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day. Six days you may labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.” (Exodus 20:8-10)

• Sweet Communion. Rabbinic tradition maintains that God created the first human beings on the eve of the Sabbath so that they could celebrate Sabbath together with Him. The Sabbath was literally created for people so that God and man together could celebrate its time of rest and renewal, and could experience that sacred time in intimate communion with God.
• God told Isaiah in ch. 58:13-14 that if believers find their delight in the Sabbath, then most likely they will then find delight in the Lord Himself. Then the contrary must be true… if they don’t delight in the Sabbath, then they will have a difficult time delighting in the Lord. As if to confirm this passage, Bible historians have stated that whenever the Sabbath was ignored or profaned in Israel, there soon followed spiritual decline and a withdrawal of God’s blessing.
• The ancient rabbis believed that there was indeed an act of creation on the 7th day, that the universe was not complete after God’s work. On the 7th day, God completed the universe by creating rest, sanctifying that day as holy and set apart unto the Lord. The world was created in 6 days, say rabbinic sources, but its survival depends upon the holiness of the 7th day.
• “God created the 7th day, not because He was tired, but because He was satisfied. He knew that creation was very good, complete, so He rested with satisfaction.” (Howard and Rosenthal).
• “Six days a week we live under the tyranny of things of space. On the Sabbath we try to become attuned to holiness in time. It is a day on which we are called upon to share in what is eternal in time, to turn from the result of creation to the mystery of creation, from the world of creation to the creation of the world. The Sabbath is the most precious gift mankind has received from the treasure house of God.” (A. J. Heschel; this and all further quotes by Heschel are in his magnificent book, The Sabbath).
• Excerpts from Psalm 92. Ancient Jewish tradition declares that Adam composed this psalm on the first Sabbath after creation. And so Psalm 92 was sung as part of the Temple worship liturgy every Sabbath day. It has been included in Sabbath liturgy in Judaism ever since… “A psalm. A Song for the Sabbath day. It is good to give thanks to the Lord, and to sing Your name, O Most High, to proclaim Your mercy in the morning and Your faithfulness in the night. For You made me rejoice, O Lord, through Your work; of the work of Your hands I sing with gladness. How magnificent are Your works, O Lord! Your thoughts are exceedingly deep. You are on high forever, O Lord!” 
• The eternal aspect of Sabbath has been described by many authors in various ways: A taste of the world to come; a window to eternity; a rehearsal for the end of time; possessing a holiness like that in the world to come; Sabbath and eternity are of the same essence; to observe Sabbath is to celebrate the coronation of a day in the spiritual wonderland of time; a picture of eternity; a taste of heaven on earth.
• “All our life should be a pilgrimage to the 7th Day. The thoughts and appreciation of what this day may bring to us should be ever present in our minds. Our lives are a Sabbath day’s walk. The Sabbath is the Day of days. The Sabbath is not for the sake of the weekdays; the weekdays are for the sake of the Sabbath. Sabbath is last in creation and first in intention. What we are depends on what the Sabbath is to us.” (A. J. Heschel).
• “Sabbath creates a space within our lives to be truly free… from restlessness, from burnout, from the pressures of work and bosses; freedom from production, from consumer society, from constant availability. Sabbath is a time dedicated to, not what is urgent, but what is important.” (Jonathon Sacks).
• “Sabbath implies that time has an ethical dimension. We rest in order to honor God and His creation, which suggests that not to rest dishonors both. So must we say that the speeding up of everything is not only psychologically harmful but also morally wrong?” (Judith Shulevitz).
• “The Sabbath is spirit in the form of time. There are few ideas in the world of thought which contains so much spiritual power as the idea of the Sabbath. The Sabbath is holy by the grace of God. The Sabbath is a palace in time with a kingdom for all. Sabbath is the true happiness of the universe.” (A. J. Heschel).
• “Sabbath is the day on which we learn the art of surpassing civilization. How proud we often are of the multitudes of instruments we have succeeded in inventing, of the abundance of commodities we have been able to produce. Yet our victories have come to resemble defeats. In spite of our triumphs, we have fallen victims to the works of our hands. It is as if the forces we had conquered have conquered us.” (A. J. Heschel).
• “The Sabbath is a bride, and its celebration is like a wedding. The Sabbath is welcomed with joy and love. Some rabbis saw the Sabbath day as a living presence, and when it arrived they felt as if a guest had come to see them.” (A. J. Heschel).
• The eternal aspect of Sabbath has been described by many authors in various ways: A taste of the world to come; a window to eternity; a rehearsal for the end of time; possessing a holiness like that in the world to come; Sabbath and eternity are of the same essence; to observe Sabbath is to celebrate the coronation of a day in the spiritual wonderland of time; a picture of eternity; a taste of heaven on earth.
• “All our life should be a pilgrimage to the 7th Day. The thoughts and appreciation of what this day may bring to us should be ever present in our minds. Our lives are a Sabbath day’s walk. The Sabbath is the Day of days. The Sabbath is not for the sake of the weekdays; the weekdays are for the sake of the Sabbath. Sabbath is last in creation and first in intention. What we are depends on what the Sabbath is to us.” (A. J. Heschel).
• “Sabbath creates a space within our lives to be truly free… from restlessness, from burnout, from the pressures of work and bosses; freedom from production, from consumer society, from constant availability. Sabbath is a time dedicated to, not what is urgent, but what is important.” (Jonathon Sacks).
• “Sabbath implies that time has an ethical dimension. We rest in order to honor God and His creation, which suggests that not to rest dishonors both. So must we say that the speeding up of everything is not only psychologically harmful but also morally wrong?” (Judith Shulevitz).
• “The Sabbath is spirit in the form of time. There are few ideas in the world of thought which contains so much spiritual power as the idea of the Sabbath. The Sabbath is holy by the grace of God. The Sabbath is a palace in time with a kingdom for all. Sabbath is the true happiness of the universe.” (A. J. Heschel).
• “Sabbath is the day on which we learn the art of surpassing civilization. How proud we often are of the multitudes of instruments we have succeeded in inventing, of the abundance of commodities we have been able to produce. Yet our victories have come to resemble defeats. In spite of our triumphs, we have fallen victims to the works of our hands. It is as if the forces we had conquered have conquered us.” (A. J. Heschel).
• “The Sabbath is a bride, and its celebration is like a wedding. The Sabbath is welcomed with joy and love. Some rabbis saw the Sabbath day as a living presence, and when it arrived they felt as if a guest had come to see them.” (A. J. Heschel).

Jesus and Torah. “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the Law till all is fulfilled… For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the Kingdom of heaven.”  (read Matthew 5:17-20).

Jesus and Torah’s Original Intent. Jesus never shied away from entering a rabbinic debate about the Law and its implications for daily life. He wanted to reveal a fuller understanding of Torah. He wanted to explain the spirit of the Law and its original intent instead of being content with the superficial letter of the Law by the rabbinic authorities. He wanted to broaden the implications of certain Jewish laws, offering His own distinctive interpretation on specific verses. By sharing examples of how He interprets Scripture, Jesus wanted to provide an example of how other verses of the Law could be interpretated. Jesus wanted to show His disciples how to move from ritual obedience of the Law to an inner, heart-felt reverence and faith. Jesus wanted to raise the moral and ethical standards by revealing a righteousness of the heart and not the outward righteousness of mere observation of the commands. Jesus said that disciples must show a greater righteousness than the scribes and Pharisees. The greater righteousness involves a relationship with Christ instead with the dead letter of the Law, and allowing Him to change your heart and life.

Strengthening the Law. When Jesus claimed that He wanted to “fulfill’ the Law, not “abolish” it, Jewish hearers would have understood His terms in a particular way. To “abolish” meant to cancel a law through misinterpretation or by sheer disobedience. To “fulfill” meant to preserve it, to sustain that law by properly interpreting it. So Jesus is engaging in a rabbinic debate about proper interpretation of the Law. Someone had evidently suggested that through His unique interpretation He is in effect canceling the Law, nullifying what has been accepted and in writing for centuries. Jesus disagreed. Hebrew scholar David Bivin paraphrased Jesus’ response this way… “Do not suppose that I have any intention of undermining Scripture by misinterpreting it. My purpose is to establish and maintain the knowledge and observance of God’s word. My intent is not weaken or negate God’s written instruction, but to sustain and establish it through correct interpretation. I would never invalidate the Torah by removing something from it through misinterpretation. Heaven and earth would sooner disappear than something from the Torah.” (Bivin, New Light on the Difficult Words of Jesus).

Jesus loved Torah. He was an observant Jew who cherished the Law. He accepted the authority of God’s Word in what we now know as the Old Testament. He felt strongly about the importance and permanence of Torah. He basically said that the Law of Moses would never cease to exist. When Jesus said in M. 5:18, “Truly, assuredly, neither the smallest letter of the alphabet nor the tiniest little mark on one letter would ever be removed from Torah,” He started out with “Amen.” That word that has a root in the word for truth means truly, assuredly, so be it, this is the truth. This was unusual, because most times someone would say Amen at the end of a prayer or special teaching, affirming the truth about what’s been said. But Jesus used Amen before He even said anything. Jesus is revealing His authority to speak the truth, declaring His words to be truthful before He says it. Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life.

Jesus Is the Living Torah. Another way to understand Jesus “fulfilling” the Torah is that He is indeed the Living Word. He is the Law. He is the Author of all that is true. He fulfilled Torah by fulfilling the OT prophecies about Him, through His teachings saturated with truth, through His actions performing God’s will. Jesus was the perfect fulfillment of the Law.

Deeper Meanings. In His words that immediately followed His comments on the Torah, Jesus repeatedly used the formula, “But I say to you.” He is declaring something rather outrageous in the eyes of the rabbinic authorities. Jesus is claiming that He has equal authority to the established Law. He is saying, You may have heard the Law means this, but I am here telling you that the Law actually means that. He is declaring total, divine authority. He is claiming that He knows the original intent of the Law, as if He wrote it Himself. He is telling those around Him that He knows why it was written in the first place. I am here to tell you the Word hidden behind the Word, Jesus is saying, the intended meaning that God was thinking about all along. I don’t want to alter the Torah in any way, Jesus declared, I want to reveal the deeper meanings hidden in the legal meaning. I want to clarify the Law so you truly understand what it means. “Like other rabbis and teachers, Jesus developed His own approach within the parameters of ancient Jewish faith and practice. He sought to reform and revitalize, not to destroy or replace. Jesus placed the meaning of Torah on a firmer footing.”  (Dr. Brad Young, Jesus the Jewish Theologian).