The Life of Jesus Christ - Chapter 5 - Jesus tells people the good news and cures people in *Galilee - Part 7
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An online Bible Study course by Barrie Wetherill about the life of Jesus. This book is in EasyEnglish Level B. Use the links below for other online Bible Study books and commentaries that will help you. Or go to the Word List, which explains words with a *star.
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[The Sabbath was Saturday, that is, the 7th day of the week.
When God made the world, he rested on the Sabbath. And God's law says that we
should not work on the Sabbath.]
Jesus went into a *synagogue. Some *Pharisees were with him.
They wanted to see what he would do. They hoped that they could accuse him.
There was a man there with a hand that he could not use. Some writers have
guessed that he was a stonemason. [A stonemason cuts and shapes stones for
building. He needs to be able to use both hands.] This man could not work. He
had to ask other people for money. Jesus felt love and sympathy for the man. But
these *Pharisees did not care about the man. They believed that to cure someone
was ‘work’. The *Pharisees thought they would be able to accuse Jesus now.
Jesus knew their thoughts. So, he spoke to them.
Matthew 12:11 He said to them, “Let us suppose that one of you
has a sheep. The sheep falls into a deep hole in the ground on the Sabbath day.
You would rescue that sheep. A man is much more important than a sheep! So, it
is right to do something good on the Sabbath day.”
Jesus then told the man to stand in front of everyone. He told
him to lift his hand. When the man did this, his hand was immediately healthy.
It was just like his other hand.
But this *miracle did not make the *Pharisees think again about
their rules. They did not think that they were wrong. They went away to plot to
kill Jesus.
Mark 3:6 says that the *Pharisees plotted with the ‘Herodians’.
The Herodians were a political party. They were cruel men. They had no religion
and they did not love God's law. They supported king Herod, whom most people
hated. They thought that Jesus was a danger to them. He was too popular. They
decided that they wanted to kill him.
This shows the differences between the *Pharisees and Jesus.
Many *Pharisees were jealous of Jesus. They even wanted to murder him. They did
not want to love or to forgive. Jesus cared very much about people’s private
thoughts and the reasons for their behaviour. He cared about love. He helped
poor people. He helped evil people who wanted to change. He offered to forgive
them. He said that they could live in a new way. Mark 2:27 records that Jesus
also said, ‘God made the Sabbath for man, not man for the Sabbath.’ The
Sabbath day is a day of happiness. On the Sabbath, people should praise God. And
on the Sabbath, people should be kind to other people. The ideas of Jesus
contrasted very much with the ideas of the *Pharisees. The people had respected
the *Pharisees, and this gave the *Pharisees power. But now Jesus was taking
away their power with the people. Because of this, there would be more
trouble.
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2002-2005, Wycliffe Associates (UK)