This is one of those stories where each of the gospels gives us a little piece of the puzzle to what happened. Here’s my take on the whole story taking into account each of the stories.
Jesus was in the synagogue, and he sees a man there with a shriveled hand. But he also notices the scrutiny he’s getting from the Pharisees and teachers of the law, and he knows that they’re waiting to see if he will break their rules concerning the Sabbath and heal the man. (Mark 3:1-2)
So Jesus deliberately calls the man to come up, and as he does, the religious leaders ask,
Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? (Matthew 12:10)
Jesus, as he typically does, responds to the question with a question of his own.
I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it? (Luke 6:9)
This was of course an unanswerable question for these leaders. They would have sounded stupid if they had said it was wrong to do good on the Sabbath or to save a life. How can you dishonor God on the Sabbath by doing good and saving lives?
But if they had said it was lawful, Jesus would have said, “You’ve just answered your own question,” and immediately healed the man.
On the other hand, there was no way they could say it was lawful to do evil or destroy life on the Sabbath.
So in the face of this unanswerable question, they remained silent. For as the old saying goes, “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.”
Luke tells us that Jesus looked around the room for an answer, but Mark adds a bit more information in chapter 3 verse 5. He says,
He looked around at them in anger…deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts (NASB — “hardness of heart”).
So Jesus probes them further, saying,
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?
How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! (Matthew 12:11-12a)
In other words, “You are willing to help your sheep if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath? Which is more important, a person or a sheep? And if people are more important, how can you accuse me of breaking the Sabbath when I heal a man?”
So Jesus concludes,
Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. (Matthew 12:12b)
He then healed the man.
The irony of all this? Jesus had asked them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to save life or destroy it?”
And right after this event, on the Sabbath, the religious leaders started plotting to kill Jesus. (Mark 3:6)
But the verse that strikes me is Mark 3:5. That when Jesus saw these leaders’ hardened hearts, it grieved him.
They were so hardened by their legalism and by their traditions, God’s word and truth could not penetrate their hearts. Even when they had to know deep in their hearts they were wrong (as proven by their silence), they would not admit it.
How about you? You may not be as legalistic as the Pharisees, but are there areas in your life where you’ve hardened your heart to God?
You’re doing something wrong, or your way of thinking is wrong, and God has spoken to your heart and shown you your error and your sin, and you know you’re wrong. You know you need to change.
But instead, you cling to your old way of thinking. You cling to your sin. This kind of hardness of heart grieves God.
It grieves him because he wants so much better for you. It grieves him because by refusing to repent, you not only hurt him, but you hurt yourself, and those around you.
Let us have hearts softened to him. Receptive to his word. May we not bring grief to Jesus who died for us, but let us bring him joy.
Moment to Moment (Bible blog) 