Latest / Jakes Messages and Purpose / Every Miracle Jesus Performed on the Sabbath Explained
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Every miracle Jesus performed on the Sabbath explained. The man
- 0:05Speaker 1: who waited 38 years, the man has been sick for
- 0:09Speaker 1: 38 years. One day Jesus tells him to stand up,
- 0:13Speaker 1: pick up his mat, and walk. The man does exactly that.
- 0:18Speaker 1: His body is healed. But instead of celebrating, some religious
- 0:22Speaker 1: authorities confront him over something else. He is carrying his
- 0:26Speaker 1: mat on the Sabbath. Why would a miracle become a controversy?
- 0:31Speaker 1: And why did Jesus keep healing people on a day
- 0:34Speaker 1: set apart for rest? The first of seven Sabbath miracles
- 0:37Speaker 1: begins at the Pool of Bethesda in John chapter 5.
- 0:41Speaker 1: Near one of Jerusalem's gates was a pool surrounded by
- 0:45Speaker 1: covered walkways. Many sick and disabled people gathered there. Among
- 0:50Speaker 1: them was a man who had suffered for 38 years.
- 0:54Speaker 1: When Jesus approached him, he asked a surprisingly simple question.
- 0:58Speaker 1: Did he want to get well? The man's answer tells
- 1:01Speaker 1: us how hopeless his situation had become. He had no
- 1:05Speaker 1: one to help him into the pool when the water
- 1:07Speaker 1: was stirred, and someone always reached it before him. He
- 1:11Speaker 1: was focused on getting into the water. Jesus offered something
- 1:15Speaker 1: he hadn't expected, healing without entering the pool at all.
- 1:19Speaker 1: Jesus told him to rise, carry his mat, and walk.
- 1:24Speaker 1: Immediately the man was healed. Then John adds a detail
- 1:28Speaker 1: that changes the entire story. It was the Sabbath. In
- 1:32Speaker 1: the Ten Commandments, God instructed Israel to set apart the
- 1:36Speaker 1: seventh day, to stop ordinary work, and remember their Creator.
- 1:41Speaker 1: It was a sacred gift of rest, not simply a
- 1:45Speaker 1: day off. Over time, Jewish teachers also developed detailed interpretations
- 1:50Speaker 1: of what counted as work. Carrying a load could be
- 1:53Speaker 1: understood as a violation of Sabbath observance. So when the
- 1:57Speaker 1: authorities saw the man with his mat, they challenged him.
- 2:01Speaker 1: The extraordinary fact that he could walk was pushed into
- 2:05Speaker 1: the background. They wanted to know why he was carrying
- 2:08Speaker 1: something and who had told him to do it. Later,
- 2:11Speaker 1: when they confronted Jesus, he gave an answer that went
- 2:15Speaker 1: far beyond a debate about carrying a mat. He said
- 2:18Speaker 1: that his father was still working. and that He too
- 2:21Speaker 1: was working. John says this intensified the conflict because Jesus
- 2:26Speaker 1: was speaking of God as His own Father, in a
- 2:29Speaker 1: way His opponents understood as a claim to equality with God.
- 2:34Speaker 1: The issue was now much bigger than one man's healing,
- 2:37Speaker 1: who had authority to say what honoring the Sabbath truly meant,
- 2:41Speaker 1: and who was Jesus, that He could speak this way.
- 2:45Speaker 1: The next miracle takes that question into a synagogue. where
- 2:49Speaker 1: the conflict becomes even more direct. The man with the
- 2:53Speaker 1: withered hand, inside a synagogue on the Sabbath, stood a
- 2:56Speaker 1: man with a withered hand. We aren't told how it happened,
- 3:00Speaker 1: but a damaged hand could make everyday work painfully difficult.
- 3:05Speaker 1: Jesus noticed him, so did the people looking for a
- 3:08Speaker 1: reason to accuse Jesus. Mark chapter 3 says they watched
- 3:12Speaker 1: closely to see whether he would heal the man on
- 3:15Speaker 1: the Sabbath. They were watching for an accusation, not a miracle.
- 3:20Speaker 1: Jesus did not take the man aside where no one
- 3:23Speaker 1: would notice. He asked him to come forward in front
- 3:26Speaker 1: of everyone. Then he turned to those watching and asked
- 3:30Speaker 1: a question. Was it lawful on the Sabbath to do
- 3:33Speaker 1: good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?
- 3:37Speaker 1: The Sabbath commandment was meant to honor God. But could
- 3:41Speaker 1: honoring God require refusing to restore someone? Jesus wasn't dismissing rest.
- 3:47Speaker 1: He was challenging a way of defending the rule while
- 3:50Speaker 1: overlooking the person in need. No one answered. If they
- 3:54Speaker 1: admitted that doing good was right, their accusation weakened. But
- 3:59Speaker 1: how could they argue that withholding mercy honored God? Mark
- 4:03Speaker 1: records an unusual detail about Jesus at this moment. He
- 4:07Speaker 1: looked at them with anger while grieving over the hardness
- 4:10Speaker 1: of their hearts. Both emotions appear together. His anger was
- 4:15Speaker 1: not directed at the man with the damaged hand. It
- 4:18Speaker 1: was directed at a refusal to recognize suffering and the
- 4:22Speaker 1: possibility of doing good. Then Jesus told the man to
- 4:25Speaker 1: stretch out his hand. The man obeyed and his hand
- 4:29Speaker 1: was restored. Mark records no medicine, no elaborate treatment, and
- 4:35Speaker 1: no physical labor. The healing happened through Jesus' command. And
- 4:39Speaker 1: now comes the sharpest irony in the story. Immediately afterward,
- 4:44Speaker 1: the Pharisees went out and began plotting with the Herodians
- 4:48Speaker 1: about how to destroy Jesus. The same people who questioned
- 4:52Speaker 1: whether healing was acceptable on the Sabbath were now discussing
- 4:56Speaker 1: his death. One man left the synagogue with a restored hand.
- 5:00Speaker 1: Others left with a plan to kill. That contrast is
- 5:04Speaker 1: the point of the story. The Sabbath controversy was revealing
- 5:08Speaker 1: not only what people thought about a commandment, what was
- 5:12Speaker 1: happening in their hearts and the next healing will make
- 5:15Speaker 1: the question even harder to avoid what if the person
- 5:18Speaker 1: suffering had been waiting not for a few days but
- 5:22Speaker 1: for eighteen years the woman bent over for eighteen years
- 5:26Speaker 1: eighteen years is a long time to live without being
- 5:30Speaker 1: able to stand straight imagine seeing the world mostly from
- 5:34Speaker 1: below struggling with ordinary movements and gradually becoming accustomed to
- 5:39Speaker 1: a condition that never seems to change. That was the
- 5:42Speaker 1: life of a woman Jesus encountered while teaching in a
- 5:45Speaker 1: synagogue on the Sabbath. Luke chapter 13 says she was
- 5:49Speaker 1: bent over and could not straighten herself. It also describes
- 5:53Speaker 1: her condition as a spiritual bondage, although it doesn't explain
- 5:57Speaker 1: exactly how that suffering affected her body. What makes this
- 6:01Speaker 1: healing different is that the woman never asks Jesus for help.
- 6:05Speaker 1: He sees her, calls her over, and tells her she
- 6:08Speaker 1: is freed from her infirmity. He lays his hands on her,
- 6:13Speaker 1: and immediately she stands upright and begins praising God. For
- 6:17Speaker 1: the first time in 18 years, she can stand upright
- 6:21Speaker 1: and look straight ahead once again. But the synagogue leader
- 6:24Speaker 1: is furious. Instead of addressing Jesus directly, he tells the
- 6:29Speaker 1: crowd there are six days for work, and people should
- 6:32Speaker 1: come to be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.
- 6:36Speaker 1: At first his objection might sound like a concern for
- 6:39Speaker 1: keeping God's commandment, but Jesus responds with an example everyone
- 6:44Speaker 1: there understands. Even on the Sabbath, people untie their ox
- 6:48Speaker 1: or donkey and lead it to water. They do not
- 6:52Speaker 1: leave an animal thirsty simply because it is a day
- 6:55Speaker 1: of rest, so why should this woman remain bound for
- 6:58Speaker 1: one more day? Jesus calls her a daughter of Abraham.
- 7:03Speaker 1: That phrase matters. She is not merely an inconvenient case
- 7:07Speaker 1: or a problem to be scheduled for another time. She
- 7:11Speaker 1: belongs to the very people whose Sabbath the leader wants
- 7:14Speaker 1: to protect. Jesus asks why someone held in bondage for
- 7:18Speaker 1: 18 years should not be released on this particular day.
- 7:23Speaker 1: Notice the contrast. The leader thinks of healing as work
- 7:27Speaker 1: that should be postponed. Jesus describes healing as release from
- 7:31Speaker 1: a burden. The Sabbath was a day of rest, and
- 7:35Speaker 1: here was a person finally receiving rest from years of suffering.
- 7:39Speaker 1: Luke says Jesus' opponents were put to shame, while the
- 7:43Speaker 1: crowd rejoiced at what he had done. But the next
- 7:46Speaker 1: Sabbath miracle brings an even stranger dispute. A man receives
- 7:51Speaker 1: sight for the first time in his life, and the
- 7:53Speaker 1: argument begins over something Jesus put on his eyes. The
- 7:58Speaker 1: man born blind, a man who has never seen a
- 8:01Speaker 1: sunrise or a human face, is about to receive his sight.
- 8:05Speaker 1: But before Jesus heals him, the disciples ask a question
- 8:09Speaker 1: that reveals a common assumption about suffering. Who sinned, they ask,
- 8:14Speaker 1: this man or his parents, that he was born blind.
- 8:18Speaker 1: They are looking for someone to blame. Jesus rejects both choices.
- 8:23Speaker 1: He doesn't deny that wrongdoing can cause suffering. But this
- 8:27Speaker 1: man's blindness is not the punishment they imagine. Instead, this
- 8:32Speaker 1: moment will become an opportunity for God's works to be revealed.
- 8:35Speaker 1: Then Jesus does something unexpected. He spits on the ground,
- 8:40Speaker 1: mixes the saliva with dirt to make mud, and places
- 8:44Speaker 1: it on the man's eyes. He tells him to wash
- 8:46Speaker 1: in the pool of Siloam. John even explains that Siloam
- 8:51Speaker 1: means scent. The man goes, washes, and returns able to see.
- 8:56Speaker 1: His neighbors are confused. Some recognize him. Others insist it
- 9:01Speaker 1: cannot be the same person. The man has to tell
- 9:04Speaker 1: them that he really is the one who used to
- 9:06Speaker 1: sit there blind. But John adds the detail that turns
- 9:10Speaker 1: a celebration into a controversy. Jesus made the mud and
- 9:14Speaker 1: opened his eyes on the Sabbath. Some Pharisees argue that
- 9:18Speaker 1: a man who does not keep the Sabbath cannot be
- 9:20Speaker 1: from God. Others ask how a sinner could perform such
- 9:24Speaker 1: a sign. They do not all agree, and the disagreement
- 9:27Speaker 1: grows into an investigation. They question the healed man. Then
- 9:32Speaker 1: they summon his parents to confirm that he was truly
- 9:35Speaker 1: born blind. His parents acknowledge that he is their son
- 9:39Speaker 1: and that he was born blind, but they refuse to
- 9:42Speaker 1: explain how he can now see. John says they are
- 9:46Speaker 1: afraid of being expelled from the synagogue, questioned again. He
- 9:50Speaker 1: cannot settle every theological argument, but he knows what happened.
- 9:55Speaker 1: He was blind, and now he sees. The remarkable thing
- 9:59Speaker 1: is how the man understanding develops. At first he calls
- 10:03Speaker 1: Jesus a man. Later he says Jesus is a prophet. Eventually,
- 10:08Speaker 1: when he meets Jesus again after being driven out, he
- 10:11Speaker 1: responds with belief and worship. Meanwhile, the people who assume
- 10:16Speaker 1: they can judge Jesus cannot agree on what his miracle means.
- 10:20Speaker 1: Their problem is no longer the man's eyesight. It is
- 10:24Speaker 1: the possibility that God is working through someone they have
- 10:27Speaker 1: already decided to reject. Jesus then speaks of another kind
- 10:31Speaker 1: of blindness. Physical blindness is what the man had suffered
- 10:35Speaker 1: from birth. Spiritual blindness is the refusal to recognize truth,
- 10:40Speaker 1: even when it stands in front of you. And that
- 10:42Speaker 1: is why John chapter 9 is more than a story
- 10:45Speaker 1: about healing. A man who could not see comes to
- 10:49Speaker 1: recognize Jesus. while others who can see perfectly well remain
- 10:53Speaker 1: certain they have nothing to learn. The next miracle takes
- 10:57Speaker 1: place inside a synagogue, where Jesus faces a different kind
- 11:01Speaker 1: of suffering, not a body unable to see, but a
- 11:05Speaker 1: man under the power of an unclean spirit, the man
- 11:08Speaker 1: with an unclean spirit. The man born blind had been
- 11:12Speaker 1: questioned again and again. In the next miracle, there is
- 11:15Speaker 1: almost no time for questions. Something extraordinary happens in the
- 11:20Speaker 1: middle of a Sabbath gathering. Jesus is teaching in a
- 11:23Speaker 1: synagogue at Capernaum. The people are already astonished because he
- 11:28Speaker 1: speaks with an authority unlike that of their usual teachers.
- 11:32Speaker 1: Then a man with an unclean spirit cries out. He
- 11:35Speaker 1: addresses Jesus by name and calls him the Holy One
- 11:39Speaker 1: of God. Notice the strange contrast. The worshippers are trying
- 11:43Speaker 1: to understand who Jesus is. while the unclean spirit recognizes
- 11:48Speaker 1: his authority immediately. But Jesus does not invite it to
- 11:52Speaker 1: explain more. He commands it to be silent and to
- 11:56Speaker 1: come out of the man. The spirit has no room
- 11:59Speaker 1: to negotiate or delay. The spirit throws the man into
- 12:02Speaker 1: a violent convulsion and leaves with a loud cry. Luke
- 12:07Speaker 1: adds an important detail. The man is not harmed. There
- 12:11Speaker 1: is no elaborate ritual or special object. Jesus simply speaks.
- 12:16Speaker 1: and the Spirit obeys. The authority that amazed the crowd
- 12:19Speaker 1: in His teaching is now visible in action. The people
- 12:23Speaker 1: are amazed. They have heard Jesus teach with authority. Now
- 12:27Speaker 1: they have seen that even unclean spirits obey His command.
- 12:31Speaker 1: This is not simply another case of an illness being cured.
- 12:35Speaker 1: The Gospel writers describe a man being freed from an
- 12:39Speaker 1: unclean spirit. We should not assume that every sickness in
- 12:43Speaker 1: the Bible, or every illness today, has the same cause,
- 12:47Speaker 1: and there is another detail easy to miss. Unlike some
- 12:51Speaker 1: of the other Sabbath healings, this episode records no argument
- 12:55Speaker 1: with the religious leaders. The crowd's response is astonishment. They
- 12:59Speaker 1: ask what kind of teaching this is, backed by such
- 13:03Speaker 1: authority and power. The Sabbath was a time for hearing
- 13:06Speaker 1: God's Word. On this particular Sabbath, Jesus' words did more
- 13:11Speaker 1: than instruct. They released a man from oppression. and the
- 13:14Speaker 1: day was not over. After leaving the synagogue, Jesus would
- 13:19Speaker 1: enter an ordinary home, where someone else urgently needed his help,
- 13:23Speaker 1: Peter's mother-in-law. The next miracle happens on the same Sabbath,
- 13:28Speaker 1: but in a different setting. No gathered crowd or public debate,
- 13:33Speaker 1: just a sick woman lying in bed. According to Mark,
- 13:36Speaker 1: Jesus leaves the synagogue and goes with his disciples to
- 13:40Speaker 1: the home of Simon and Andrew. Simon's mother-in-law is ill
- 13:44Speaker 1: with a fever. Luke describes it as a high fever
- 13:47Speaker 1: and those in the house ask Jesus to help her.
- 13:50Speaker 1: Jesus approaches her, takes her by the hand, and raises
- 13:54Speaker 1: her up. The fever leaves and she begins to serve them.
- 13:59Speaker 1: Luke describes Jesus rebuking the fever. The accounts emphasize how
- 14:03Speaker 1: complete and immediate her recovery was. That last detail can
- 14:08Speaker 1: sound ordinary, until we remember what a serious fever meant
- 14:13Speaker 1: in a world without modern medicine. The story does not
- 14:16Speaker 1: describe a long recovery. One moment she is confined to bed.
- 14:21Speaker 1: The next she is well enough to welcome and care
- 14:23Speaker 1: for her guests. But Mark has another time detail worth noticing.
- 14:29Speaker 1: After sunset, people begin bringing the sick and those troubled
- 14:32Speaker 1: by demons to Jesus. Soon the whole town seems to
- 14:36Speaker 1: be gathered at the door. Why mention sunset? In Jewish practice,
- 14:41Speaker 1: the Sabbath ended at sundown. That helps explain why the
- 14:45Speaker 1: crowd might have waited before carrying people to Jesus. The
- 14:48Speaker 1: Gospels do not tell us everyone's reason, but the timing
- 14:52Speaker 1: is unlikely to be accidental. So we have two healings
- 14:56Speaker 1: connected to the same Sabbath, one inside a synagogue and
- 15:00Speaker 1: one inside a family home. Together they show that Jesus'
- 15:04Speaker 1: compassion was not limited to public moments or carefully chosen audiences.
- 15:10Speaker 1: Next comes a meal at a Pharisee's house. There Jesus
- 15:13Speaker 1: will ask a question that no one around the table
- 15:16Speaker 1: wants to answer. The man with dropsy. At a Sabbath
- 15:20Speaker 1: meal in the home of a prominent Pharisee, the room
- 15:23Speaker 1: is unusually quiet. Jesus has been invited to eat, but
- 15:27Speaker 1: Luke tells us that the guests are watching him closely.
- 15:31Speaker 1: Standing in front of him is a man suffering from dropsy,
- 15:35Speaker 1: an older term for swelling caused by fluid collecting in
- 15:38Speaker 1: the body. Luke does not tell us how long the
- 15:41Speaker 1: man has been ill or why he is present at
- 15:44Speaker 1: the meal, but his condition is visible and everyone knows
- 15:48Speaker 1: what Jesus might do. Before anyone can accuse him, Jesus
- 15:53Speaker 1: turns to the experts in the law and asks whether
- 15:56Speaker 1: it is lawful to heal on the Sabbath. No one answers.
- 16:00Speaker 1: Jesus takes hold of the man, heals him, and sends
- 16:03Speaker 1: him away. The healing itself is described in only a
- 16:07Speaker 1: few words. Luke spends more time on the silence around it.
- 16:11Speaker 1: Jesus then asks another question. If someone's child or animal
- 16:16Speaker 1: fell into a well on the Sabbath, wouldn't they pull
- 16:19Speaker 1: them out immediately? No one would insist that a rescue
- 16:23Speaker 1: wait until the following day. The comparison leaves the guests
- 16:27Speaker 1: without an easy answer. They already recognize that protecting life
- 16:31Speaker 1: and relieving urgent suffering can matter more than the ordinary
- 16:34Speaker 1: restrictions of a day of rest. Yet when a sick
- 16:38Speaker 1: man stands before them, they hesitate to apply that same concern.
- 16:43Speaker 1: Notice that Jesus does not ask the man to defend himself.
- 16:47Speaker 1: He does not make him explain why he deserves help.
- 16:51Speaker 1: The man is healed and allowed to leave, while the
- 16:54Speaker 1: people who were watching Jesus must face the question he
- 16:57Speaker 1: has left behind. And once again they have nothing to say.
- 17:01Speaker 1: Their silence is as memorable as the miracle. This scene
- 17:05Speaker 1: is different from the earlier synagogue confrontations. There is no
- 17:09Speaker 1: shouting crowd, no long investigation, and no report of a
- 17:14Speaker 1: plot against Jesus. Only a meal, a sick guest, a healing,
- 17:19Speaker 1: and an unanswered question. By now a pattern is becoming clear.
- 17:23Speaker 1: Each miracle reveals something about the Sabbath, but also something
- 17:28Speaker 1: about the way people respond to suffering. To understand why
- 17:32Speaker 1: Jesus kept returning to this issue, We need to look
- 17:35Speaker 1: beyond the individual healings and ask what he was teaching
- 17:39Speaker 1: about the Sabbath itself. What all seven miracles reveal about
- 17:43Speaker 1: the Sabbath. Seven miracles. A man walking after 38 years.
- 17:48Speaker 1: A restored hand. A woman finally standing upright. A man
- 17:53Speaker 1: seeing for the first time. Freedom from an unclean spirit.
- 17:57Speaker 1: A fever gone in an instant. And a swollen body
- 18:00Speaker 1: made well. They did not all cause the same reactions.
- 18:04Speaker 1: Some people celebrated, others questioned, watched, or accused. But together
- 18:10Speaker 1: these stories lead to one final question. Was Jesus actually
- 18:14Speaker 1: breaking God's commandment? God commanded Israel to keep the Sabbath
- 18:19Speaker 1: holy and rest from ordinary work. Jesus did not treat
- 18:23Speaker 1: that commandment as meaningless. The disagreement concerned what keeping the
- 18:28Speaker 1: Sabbath required and who had authority to explain it. Not
- 18:32Speaker 1: every Jewish teacher opposed mercy. Sabbath debates also considered caring
- 18:37Speaker 1: for others and saving lives. The Gospels describe confrontations with
- 18:42Speaker 1: particular opponents, not the opinion of every Jewish person. In
- 18:47Speaker 1: Mark chapter 2, during a separate dispute about His disciples
- 18:51Speaker 1: picking grain, Jesus offers a principle that helps us understand
- 18:55Speaker 1: the healings. The Sabbath was made for man, not man
- 19:00Speaker 1: for the Sabbath. Then He calls Himself Lord. even of
- 19:03Speaker 1: the Sabbath. That is a remarkable claim. He is not
- 19:06Speaker 1: just debating forbidden activities. He is speaking with authority about
- 19:11Speaker 1: the purpose of a day God gave His people. Matthew
- 19:14Speaker 1: records another of his questions. Is it lawful to do
- 19:18Speaker 1: good on the Sabbath? It sounds simple, but if a
- 19:22Speaker 1: rule meant to honor God is used to withhold mercy,
- 19:25Speaker 1: have people understood what it was for? John chapter 5
- 19:29Speaker 1: goes further. When Jesus says His Father is working, and
- 19:33Speaker 1: he too is working. His opponents hear more than a
- 19:36Speaker 1: defense of healing. They hear a claim about his unique
- 19:40Speaker 1: relationship with God. Christians differ over how Sabbath observance applies today.
- 19:46Speaker 1: These passages do not settle every question about weekly rest.
- 19:50Speaker 1: or worship, but they make one point hard to miss.
- 19:54Speaker 1: Jesus saw people whom others had learned to walk past.
- 19:57Speaker 1: He restored what had been damaged, released those in bondage,
- 20:02Speaker 1: and refused to treat compassion as an interruption to honoring God.
- 20:06Speaker 1: Perhaps the most surprising thing about these seven miracles is
- 20:10Speaker 1: not that Jesus healed on the Sabbath. It is that,
- 20:13Speaker 1: again and again, he had to explain why making someone
- 20:17Speaker 1: whole was worth celebrating.