What Can We do to Jesus?

What Can We do to Jesus?

Luke 6:9 – Then Jesus asked them, “I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do evil on the Sabbath, to save a life or to destroy it?” 10 – He looked around at all of them and then told the man, “Hold out your hand.” The man did so, and his hand was restored to health. 11 – The others were furious and began to discuss with each other what they could do to Jesus.

A man whose right hand was paralyzed had come to church. Everyone knew who he was. Both he and Jesus were objects of special attention to the Scribes and Pharisees because they wanted to catch Jesus breaking the law and accuse him of doing something wrong. If they could make Jesus look bad then their influence among the people could be restored.

The Scribes and Pharisees felt that their influence among the people was as paralyzed as the man’s hand and were desperate for away to heal it. They blamed Jesus for their trouble and looked for a way to accuse Jesus of breaking the law in the eyes of the people and damage His influence. The part of the law they chose to trap Jesus with was the Sabbath. Instead of trapping Jesus, they instead were faced with a question from Jesus that none of them would dare answer.

Is it lawful to do good or evil on the Sabbath? Is it lawful to save life or destroy it on the Sabbath? If they said it’s lawful to do good and to save life – then they would obviously condone healing a man on the Sabbath but they couldn’t do that and admit Jesus was right. They couldn’t say it’s lawful to do evil or destroy life either because then they’d look like fools to everyone. Their dilemma left their tongues paralyzed from speaking the obviously right answer.

How did the Scribes and Pharisees spend the rest of their Sabbath? They spent it angrily discussing what they could do to Jesus. Their status had become their god. The law had become their tool and they were willing to sacrifice anyone in order to maintain their power. They were willing to sacrifice Jesus for their own gain.

Jeroboam, in 1 Kings 13, had distorted the law in order to keep his fame and influence and God, through a prophet, rebuked him for it and gave him a sign that a man from David’s house, Josiah by name, was going to sacrifice Jeroboam’s priests upon the altars – the sign this would happen was that the altar would split and the ashes would spill. When the very signs took place Jeroboam gave the order to seize the prophet and his hand became withered and paralyzed. In a panic he begged for the prophet to pray to God for his hand to be restored. His hand was restored but Jeroboam still continued in his evil course of action.

What are we going to do to Jesus today? Is winning an argument so valuable to us that we are willing to sacrifice others on the altars of our own personal idolatry? Has our passion for being right paralyzed us from doing good and saving lives? What can we do to stop the paralysis from spreading? The only solution to our condition is Jesus Christ. Let us not crucify Him afresh on the crosses of our pride and self-righteousness, but let us instead be crucified with him and die to ourselves, so we can experience new life in Him. Let us follow Jesus who IS goodness and salvation and become His people who have become free to do good and save lives on the Sabbath and all the rest of the week as well!