The Adventures of Jesus Christ
Episodes from the Life of Jesus for Young Readers
by Vincent Cheung
[ Contents ]
Chapter 14. Jesus Healed on the Sabbath
ANY DAY IS THE RIGHT DAY FOR A MIRACLE
Jesus was teaching in the synagogue. A synagogue was like a church where people went to learn about God. Among the people were some Pharisees. They were religious leaders who were strict about following rules. However, these rules did not come from God but from their own opinions and traditions. They would become angry and hostile whenever someone broke their rules.
It was a Sabbath day. The Sabbath day was a special day that happened once a week. Although the Sabbath was God’s idea, the religious leaders added their rules about what you could do or could not do on the Sabbath. God commanded it to be a day of rest, but the religious leaders made it a dangerous and stressful day.
On this day, there was a man with a withered hand in the synagogue. There was something wrong with his hand so that he could not use it properly. The religious leaders watched Jesus to see if he would heal this man. According to their rules, Jesus would have broken the Sabbath if he had healed him. And once he did it, these leaders would accuse him and cause trouble for him.
Why did the leaders hate Jesus? One reason was because Jesus followed the Bible as it was written without respecting the doctrines and traditions that the leaders added to it. And Jesus taught this truth to the people, so that many people were no longer afraid of the religious leaders and stopped respecting them. Jesus also performed many miracles and encouraged people to have faith to receive good things from God.
Although the religious leaders wanted the people to believe that they were the most spiritual, in fact they did not have faith at all. And when Jesus came teaching the truth and working miracles, they could no longer hide the fact that they had no faith and no relationship with God. Any ordinary person who listened to Jesus now had more faith than any faithless religious leader. So the leaders hated Jesus and wanted to destroy him.
In one book I read a while ago, one Christian teacher seriously discussed whether we should go to the market or read the newspaper on Sunday. Like the Pharisees, he did not heal the sick on Sunday, or on any day. He did not believe in healing the sick at all.
Instead of worshiping God with faith and love, he focused his attention on rules that he himself invented, so that when he obeyed his own rules, he could feel good about himself. He could feel that he was better than other people and he could judge other people. By obeying his own rules, he would convince himself that he was better than those who obeyed the true commands of God.
Jesus knew what they were planning, but he was not afraid. He asked the man with the withered hand to stand up in front of everyone. Then he looked at the people and asked, “What is the right thing to do on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save a life or to destroy it?” But they remained silent, because they wanted Jesus to get himself into trouble.
Jesus looked around at them in anger. He was upset that their hearts were so hard. They had no love toward God and no love for sick people. Then Jesus said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” The man stretched it out, and his hand was healed. It was a miracle. Jesus did a good thing, but the religious leaders were furious. They left the place and discussed how they could destroy Jesus.
Jesus asked, in other words, “So the Sabbath is a day of rest. But are we allowed to do a good thing on the Sabbath? Are we allowed to save a life? Or are we allowed to do a bad thing and destroy a life?” Then Jesus did a good thing and healed a man. But the Pharisees did an evil thing and wanted to trap Jesus! They did not allow Jesus to do a good thing on this day, but they themselves did something evil. They could not even rest and wait until the next day!
Notice how different Jesus was. The religious leaders could not wait to perform evil, but Jesus could not wait to perform good. He was eager to heal the sick and to perform miracles. If he had waited one more day to heal the man, the leaders would not have had this excuse to accuse him. Of course, they would have tried to find another reason to attack him. But Jesus could have reduced his troubles by not healing the sick on the Sabbath.
However, healing the sick was so holy and important that Jesus did not wait even one more day, and he was not satisfied with healing the sick only six days a week. He wanted to heal the sick every day of the week, and in every place, whether at home, the market, or the church.
He also took it upon himself to face the hate of religious leaders as he defied their rules and ideas. He set an example for us, so that we do not have to respect religious leaders that teach their own doctrines and traditions, instead of the teachings that come from God.
Think about it. Is it right to help people or to hurt people? The religious people were hurting the man by not helping him receive healing. The man had suffered enough, but the religious people did not care about him. They could have said, “We do not want this man to suffer. Jesus, we know that you can heal him. We pray to God that this man will be healed.” But they did not do that. They only wanted to hurt Jesus.
Today, when people resist the ministry of healing, they are also trying to hurt Jesus. If you are someone who prays for sick people, then they will also try to hurt you. Sick people will always get hurt in the process. However, religious people do not care about that. They only want to protect their faithless religion and their way of life.
Why must we keep talking about this? Because it was what Jesus experienced. He kept trying to help people, but those who were set in their own faithless religious opinions kept trying to stop him. If you follow Jesus, then you might experience this too. But you do not need to be afraid. God is stronger than these people. You do not need these people to like you or to agree with you. If God likes you and if God agrees with you, that is more than enough.
On another Sabbath, Jesus was teaching in the synagogue again. As he spoke, he noticed a woman who was bent over and could not stand up straight. This was caused by a spirit of infirmity, an evil spirit that caused sickness and disability. And she had been like this for 18 years.
Later, one of the disciples called Peter would say, “You know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. And he went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.” Satan caused this woman to be sick, but Jesus caused this woman to be well. Sickness is evil. Healing is good.
Jesus called the woman over and said, “Woman, you are free from your sickness.” Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she stood up straight for the first time in many years. She was so happy and began praising God right there in the synagogue.
Healing comes from God. Healing leads to true worship. Healing brings joy and faith, and love for God. Sickness tries to destroy all these good things. Therefore, anyone who tries to make sickness sound like it can be a good thing is a bad person, an evil person.
The leader of the synagogue was upset. He said, “There are six days to work. Come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.” He thought that Jesus was breaking their rules by performing a miracle on this day. The Sabbath was supposed to be a day of rest, but instead of bringing rest and healing to people on this day, he tried to use it as a weapon to attack Jesus.
But Jesus answered, “You take care of your animals on the Sabbath. If your donkey is thirsty, you untie it and lead it to water. Is this woman not worth much more than an animal? Should she not be set free on the Sabbath?”
Faithless people are hypocrites. They say one thing but do something else. They put their rules on you, but they break their own rules. They claim that they follow their rules the most, but they do not. They did not want Jesus to heal the sick on the Sabbath, but they would work to take care of their animals on the Sabbath.
The people who were against Jesus felt embarrassed because he was right. The other people who were there rejoiced because they were excited at the wonderful things that they saw. You will see that although religious leaders who have no faith will try to protect their own opinions and positions, the ordinary people who want to follow God are happy when miracles happen and when people receive help.
The man complained that there were six days to work, and people should have come to receive healing on those days. It was a lie and an excuse. The woman had been sick for 18 years. Why did none of them pray to God for her healing? Like the man admitted, there were six other days each week to do it. None of them did anything to help her.
They were using respect for God as an excuse to hide their unbelief. They were supposed to worship God in their religion, but they used their religion to attack God and his miracles. Many people do this today. But as Jesus showed us, respect for God means healing the sick. Healing is holy work.
Faithless religion is cruel. Jesus reminded the religious leader that he would have taken care of his animal even on the same day that he refused to allow healing for the woman. The religious people treated this woman worse than an animal. No wonder Jesus was most angry with such people.
Jesus said that we should have faith for miracles, but they dislike this. Jesus said that we should experience more and more miracles as his disciples, and the power of God will expand among his people in various ways, but they dislike this. If you repeat what Jesus taught, they will argue with you, but they are really fighting God, and they do not care about the people they will hurt in the process.
When you try to convince these people, they might remain stubborn, and they might even try to embarrass you. Do not worry. Do not spend too much time with them if they will not listen to you. You could be spending this time learning from God, talking to other people who have faith, and helping people who are willing to listen. Just continue to believe what God teaches. Just continue to obey what God commands. There is no need to keep arguing with faithless people. God sees them, and he will deal with them.