Stand Strong

[Jesus] said to them, "Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?" But they remained silent. Looking around at them with anger and grieved at their hardness of heart, he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." Mark 3:4-5

I suppose upon first reading this, you could take this Scripture passage in a life-saving sort of way. But I picked up my Catechism and read a little more into the details. In this particular situation, Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees. It was a sabbath day and a man with a withered hand was asking to be healed. There are laws about the sabbath day and that we are to rest. That is God's Law. Jesus proceeded to ask the Pharisees the above question. When they were silent, He was angry, and healed the man anyway.

The Pharisees went back to Herod and they, together with priests and scribes, plotted together to destroy Jesus. They saw Him as demonlike because they thought He had gone against God's Law about the sabbath day.

Because Jesus decided to heal this man, the Pharisees considered it work. But Jesus wanted them to realize that loving is not working. Doing the work of God, serving Him and helping your neighbor is not work. These kinds of acts are OK on the sabbath day, our day of rest.

Lord, help me to put Your love for us first and keep Your day Holy.