Part 8 (2/2)

But Jesus knew what they were saying, and he answered them:

”Which do you think is easier--to say, 'Your sins are forgiven you,'

or to say to this man, 'Pick up your mat and walk away'? I will show you that I can do one as well as the other!”

He turned to the paralyzed man and said,

”Pick up your mat, and go on back to your house.”

The sick man got up from the floor, rolled up the mat and put it under his arm, and went home. As he walked, there was a song of praise to G.o.d in his heart. And many of the people who saw what had happened were so surprised that they did not know whether to be glad or to be afraid. But they all agreed on one thing. They said,

”We have seen strange things today!”

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Nothing that Jesus did seemed to please the Pharisees. But there was one thing that made them especially angry. He was not so careful as they thought he ought to be about keeping the Law.

Now the Law meant everything to the Pharisees. They were so much in earnest about keeping G.o.d's Law that they were not satisfied with what was in the Scriptures. They followed many rules which had been made up since the Scriptures were written. Unless a man kept all these rules, it did not matter to the Pharisees how much good he did.

Jesus was always getting into trouble with them about the Sabbath. The Pharisees had a list of thirty-nine different kinds of work that n.o.body was allowed to do on the Sabbath Day. This list included so much that unless a Jew was careful, he would be likely to break the Sabbath without even knowing it.

If he tied a knot that could be untied with one hand, that was all right; but if he took two hands to untie it, then he had broken the Sabbath. He even had to be careful about sitting in a chair, for if he happened to drag his chair across the dirt floor the Pharisees said that he was plowing, which was a great sin on the Sabbath Day. It was forbidden to make a fire on the Sabbath. And so, if a woman wanted hot food, she had to cook it the day before, and keep it warm. But that did not mean that she could set it on a stove. For the stove might get hotter than it was, and make the food hotter, and that was just the same as making a fire. The only safe way to keep a meal hot was to wrap the dishes in cloth or pigeon feathers.

Jesus did not think that rules like this were what the Scriptures meant when they said, ”Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.” He did not think that this was the way to honor G.o.d. And because Jesus did not agree with them about the Sabbath, the Pharisees were always watching for a chance to put him in the wrong.

Once, when Jesus and his disciples were walking through a field of grain on the Sabbath Day, the Pharisees saw that the disciples were eating some of the grain. There was nothing wrong with eating it, if they were hungry. But the trouble was that in order to get the grain they had to pluck the ears. That, said the Pharisees, was harvesting!

Moreover, they had to take the ripe ears and rub them in their hands to get rid of the chaff. The Pharisees thought that that was just the same as thres.h.i.+ng! Such things to do on the Sabbath Day! The Pharisees stopped the disciples, and demanded to know why they were doing something that was against the Law.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

It was really Jesus with whom they wanted to pick a quarrel, and so Jesus answered for the disciples:

”Why, you must have read in the Scriptures that King David and his soldiers once went into the Temple and ate some of the holy bread which only a priest is allowed to eat. Surely if David could do a thing like that, my disciples can pick a few ears of grain in a field!

”You don't understand what the Sabbath is for,” Jesus went on. ”We aren't supposed to be slaves to the Sabbath; this day is meant to do us good. The Sabbath was made for man; man was not made for the Sabbath.”

Then he added something else, which took the Pharisees by surprise:

”The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.”

They were puzzled. Jesus was talking again as though he was the Messiah. So far as the Pharisees could see, Jesus was just a preacher who broke the Law.

The Pharisees began to watch him still more carefully. They found another chance to get him into trouble soon after this. Jesus had gone into the synagogue to teach, and in the synagogue was a man whose hand was withered and useless. On any other day there was no doubt that Jesus would heal this man. But this was the Sabbath, and it was against the Law to heal anybody on that day unless he were in danger of dying. A man with a withered hand could wait another day. Surely even Jesus would not dare to break the rules again!

Jesus knew that they were watching to see what he would do. They would never forgive him if he made a move to heal this man.

He called out to the man,

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