Christ and the Pharisees

[Berean]

The Following 

Christ and the Pharisees 

or The faithfulness of Christ in keeping the Sabbath.

It can be seen from this passage how Christ was at that time attracting attention among these classes, the Pharisees, scribes and doctors of the law, and the reasons for what happened afterwards. This verse clearly shows that Christ had already attracted the interested and selfish attention of this class of men throughout the land, in Jerusalem as elsewhere. And nowhere else had the selfishness of the Pharisees and doctors of the law taken a more perverse direction than on the question of the Sabbath, its true meaning and purpose. As to the meaning or purpose of the Lord in relation to His Sabbath, they had totally lost sight of it, and by their traditions and doings they had completely hidden it from the hearts and minds of the people. It was the result that crowned the journey of their perverted minds. And since Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath and the true intention of the Sabbath is to remind what He is for the human race, — in other words, His own life among them was the manifestation of the true purpose of the Sabbath, — it is evident that nothing in His dealings could evoke more bitter antagonism on the part of these men than that which touched the Sabbath in His words and in His deeds.

The passage quoted above referred to the end of His first full year of ministry, about the second passover which He attended; the following passage relates to His second Passover. It’s possible that only a few days passed between the two but no matter how long the time was, we know it was short.
“After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now, in Jerusalem, near the market for the sheep, there is a pool which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, and which has five porches. Under these porticoes lay a large number of impotent, blind, lame, paralytics, who were waiting for the movement of the water; for an angel came down from time to time into the pool, and stirred the water; and whoever went down there first after the water had been stirred was healed, whatever his illness. There was a man crippled for thirty-eight years. Jesus, having seen him lying down, and knowing that he had been thus for a long time, said to him: Do you want to be healed? The impotent man answered him: Lord, I have no one to throw me into the pool when the water is rough, and while I am going, another goes down before me. Get up, Jesus said to her, take up your bed and walk. Immediately this man was healed; he took his bed, and walked. It was a Sabbath day. The Jews therefore said to him who had been healed: It is the Sabbath; you are not allowed by law to take your bed with you. He answered them: He who healed me said to me: Take up your bed and walk. Then they asked him: Who is the man who said to you: Take up your bed and walk? But the one that was healed didn’t know who it was; for Jesus was gone and the crowd was in that place. Afterwards Jesus found him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou hast been healed; sin no more, lest something worse befall you. This man went away and announced to the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. (John 5:1-15).

And of course, they knew then who had told him to do this “unlawful” thing — take up his bed and walk on the Sabbath.
“Therefore the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill him, because he had done these things on the Sabbath day. ( John 5.16 ).
We know and have always known that persecution will come upon people who keep the Sabbath today. So of all that we need to consider now, it is Jesus in His Sabbath keeping. This text enjoins us to do so today: “Therefore, holy brethren, who share in the heavenly vocation, consider the apostle and the high priest of the faith which we profess, Jesus, who was faithful to him Who established it…” (Hebrews 3:1-2), when He was persecuted for keeping the Sabbath. We need to know His faithfulness in keeping the Sabbath, in order to be faithful in our keeping ourselves, considering the times into which we are now about to enter.

Jesus was persecuted for keeping the Sabbath. So whoever is persecuted for the same reason is in very holy company.

Now think about this. Jesus being Lord of the Sabbath and the Sabbath being the sign of what He is to the human race, and being in His life the living expression of the Sabbath, it was impossible for Him to do anything on the Sabbath that disagreed with his observation, because his observation was the very expression of what the Sabbath means.

But His keeping of the Sabbath did not suit the ideas of the Pharisees, doctors of the law and scribes, and they called it a transgression of the Sabbath. He was therefore considered a Sabbath-breaker while He was a Sabbath-keeper. We see people in our day who, like Him, are considered Sabbath-breakers when they are Sabbath-keepers. May such people also be like Him in all other things!

Now Christ’s ideas of the Sabbath are God’s ideas of the Sabbath. The Pharisees’ ideas of the Sabbath and Sabbathkeeping, being directly contrary to those of the Lord Jesus, were therefore incorrect. This is why the controversy at the time between Christ and the Pharisees and doctors of the law was simply whether God’s ideas of the Sabbath should prevail or man’s ideas of it should prevail. . There was no dispute then as to which day was to be regarded as the Sabbath; the argument revolved around what the idea of ​​the true Sabbath was. We live today the same controversy but it is accompanied by a dispute on the day; yet the thought is the same today as it was then, whether God’s idea of ​​the Sabbath will prevail or man’s will prevail. God says the seventh day is the Sabbath; the man says the first day is the Sabbath; it is therefore still the same controversy which is going on between Christ and the Pharisees of our day as that which was going on between Christ and the Pharisees of this day.

To be continued

God bless

[Berean]

The Following

*CHRIST AND THE PHARISEES*  

or The faithfulness of Christ in keeping the Sabbath.

So, just as Jesus was persecuted for breaking the Sabbath while actually keeping the Sabbath, all people who are persecuted for breaking the Sabbath while keeping it are never in good company.
“Therefore the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill him, because he had done these things on the Sabbath day. But Jesus replied to them: My Father works until now; I too act. Because of this, the Jews sought even more to kill him, not only because he violated the Sabbath, but because he called God his own Father, making himself equal with God. (John 5:16-18).
We see here that the first public steps the Pharisees and doctors of the law took against Jesus Christ to harm Him in some way were taken because He did not keep the Sabbath at their convenience. This was the controversy between them and Christ; and it was around this point that everything else revolved.

Shortly after this we come to the account of the second chapter of Mark, verse 23, going on to the third chapter, verse 6: we find it also in the twelfth chapter of Matthew and the sixth chapter of Luke, verses 1 to 12; but Mark’s account mentions a point not found in any of the other gospels, a point of capital importance:
“It happened on a Sabbath day that Jesus walked through fields of wheat. His disciples, on the way, began to pluck ears of corn. The Pharisees said to him, See, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath day? Jesus answered them, Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him; how he entered the house of God in the days of the high priest Abiathar, and ate the showbread, which it is not lawful for the priests to eat, and even gave it to those who were with him! Then he said to them: The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath, so that the Son of Man is lord also of the Sabbath. (Mark 2.23-28)

Now Matthew and Mark present the action as taking place on the same Sabbath day. Luke’s account says it was “another Sabbath,” anyway it doesn’t seem to have happened any later than the next Sabbath. So we read:
“Jesus entered the synagogue again. There was a man there who had a withered hand. And they watched him, to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath day: it was that they might accuse him. (Mark 3.1-2)
Now notice: they were already persecuting Him for His keeping the Sabbath, — for what was in their eyes a Sabbath-breaking — and they were ready to kill Him. The next time they get the chance, they watch Him to see if He will yield to their demands and compromise on the Sabbath, or compromise Himself, in order to please them. They are watching Him now to see if their attempt to compel Him to compromise and give in to their ideas will succeed; and so they watch Him to see what He will do so that they can accuse Him if He acts as He did before. And if He does not now compromise and give in to their Sabbath ideas, they will accuse Him and follow in the way that the record shows us.

Now, Jesus knew that they were watching Him, what they were thinking and why they were watching Him. He knew that all their attention was on Him. And so that they could have the best proof possible, He called the man who had his hand withered and said to him, “Stand in the middle.” The man walked into the middle of the synagogue. This drew everyone’s attention to Jesus and the man who stood there waiting. Then He asked the Pharisees and those who accused Him, “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do evil, to save a life or to kill?” They could not say that it was lawful to do evil because it would have been contrary to their own teaching, and they dared not say that it was lawful to do good because they would thus approve of the healing of this man on the Sabbath day. “Is it legal to save a life or to kill? They dared not say it was legal to kill and they dared not say it was legal to save a life. For He had told them to their face and they knew it, because if any of them had a sheep that fell into a ditch on the Sabbath day, they were going to pull it out to save its life. Whether they did it out of pity for the sheep or fear of losing the prize, it didn’t matter, they knew it was so. Therefore, “they kept silent” and they would have benefited from doing so more often.

“Then, looking indignantly at them, and at the same time grieving at the hardness of their hearts, he said to the man: Stretch out your hand. He stretched it out, and his hand was healed. The Pharisees went out, and immediately they consulted with the Herodians against him on the means of putting him to death. (Mark 3.5-6)

To be continued…

God bless

[Berean]

The first paragraph of the previous post reads: “So then, just as Jesus was persecuted for breaking the Sabbath while actually keeping the Sabbath, all people who are persecuted for breaking the Sabbath while keeping it are always in good company. (and not: “never in good company”)

[Berean]

FOLLOWING

CHRIST AND THE PHARISEES*  

or The faithfulness of Christ in keeping the Sabbath.

 

Now here is another element that comes into play. The Pharisees consulted with the Herodians. The Herodians were a sect of Jews quite opposed to Pharisaism. They derived their title of Herodians from the fact that they were the friends, supporters and staunch supporters of Herod and his family in their domination of the nation of Israel. The Pharisees were the “saints” of the nation, at least in their own eyes. They believed themselves to be the righteous of the nation, those who stood closest to God, and so they stood as far away from Herod and Rome as possible. They despised Herod; they hated Rome. The Herodians were Herod’s political supporters and therefore friends of Rome and Roman power. That’s why as a denomination, as a sect, the Pharisees and the Herodians was as far apart as you could get.

Now Herod was the stranger who sat on the throne of Judah when the prophecy of which Jacob had spoken was fulfilled: the Schelo; and the peoples will gather around him. (Genesis 49.10). Herod, an alien, an Idumean and a pagan, sat on the throne of Judah and had been directly appointed by Rome and the Roman Senate to rule over Judah; then all knew that the time had come when the Messiah would appear. For when the wise men [the Magi] came to Jerusalem and said, “Where is he who is born, the King of the Jews? Herod was troubled and “all Jerusalem with him.” Why was Herod troubled and all Jerusalem with him when they heard that Christ was born? Because they knowed that the time for Him to be born had come. And therefore they called the scribes and asked them where Christ was to be born, to which they answered:

“At Bethlehem in Judea; for this is what was written by the prophet: And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, you are certainly not the least among the chief cities of Judah, for from you will come a Governor who will lead my people Israel. (Matthew 2.1-6; Micah 5.2).
Herod was a stranger and the Pharisees hated him and his family because he was Gentile, heathen, and ruled the house of God. More so, they hated Rome because it was Roman power that not only lowered them but raised Herod.

To be continued

God bless

[Nick]

It is wonderful to be IN the faithful servant Jesus Christ and to know that he has filled all the requirements of God for us.

Of course Jesus saying “ your sins are forgiven” does not mean that Jesus has forgiven the sins but he is stating what God has done- God has wiped the conscience of the man clean just as He does for us in true baptism in the name of His son.

[Author]

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