The Wrath Of Christ - Mark 3:1-6 Series

Mark 3:1 Again he went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. 2 They were watching him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. 3 Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.” 4 Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent. 5 he looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” he stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. 6 Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.

Introduction

Context

The first thing Mark does in his book is to show who Jesus is and what his ministry was like – that’s ch.1. The very next thing Mark wants to do in is to show the storm clouds begin to gather that ultimately lead to the crucifixion. He does that by describing five conflict encounters between Jesus and the Jewish authorities. We come tonight to the 5th of those encounters.

Jesus had hinted about the day when the bridegroom would be forcibly taken away. These encounters show that the groundwork for that is already beginning. This shows that Jesus’ death was not the result of a single incident. It wasn’t a sudden impulse or crime of passion where a lynch mob got out of control one day. The rejection of Jesus Christ was the settled conclusion of the people that had developed throughout Jesus’ entire public ministry.

All through these 5 encounters, you can see the opposition escalating. In the first one, it was just in their thoughts, and it gets more and more confrontive, until this 5th one. By the end of this account, Jesus and the Pharisees are toe to toe, absolutely furious with the other. You can’t have two kingdoms occupy the same place at the same time. They are going to collide, and one will have to give way to the other.

The Surveillance

Routine Sabbath Attendance

It all happens in the synagogue.

Mark 3:1 Again he went into the synagogue

He says again, because that was Jesus’ regular practice.

Luke 4:16 … on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom.

Every week Jesus attended the synagogue, which is a rebuke, I think, to people who don’t go to church because they can’t find one that is good enough for them. You think it’s hard for you to find a good church; can you imagine how hard it was for Jesus to find a decent synagogue? The preaching back then was abysmal, and yet Jesus still regularly attended. He didn’t say, “Oh, I’ll just worship at home.”

Their Purpose: Entrapment

1 Again he went into the synagogue and a man with a shriveled hand was there. 2 They were watching him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath, in order that they might accuse him.

So they’ve got Jesus under surveillance. This term for watching could even be translated they were lying in wait. It’s a trap, and they had a clear purpose. It was in order that they might accuse him. The term accuse is typically used of formal legal charges. They are not here with open minds. They have already formed their conclusion about Jesus; now they’re here for the purpose of getting the legal proof they need for a formal indictment. They are like a prosecutor who is intent on getting a conviction. They’re going to find a way to find Jesus guilty.

And they have the perfect sting operation set up here with this shriveled hand guy. Here’s why: according to rabbinic law, one of the many things you could not do on the Sabbath was to practice medicine. But like all legalistic rules, they needed to have exceptions. And one exception they all agreed on was if someone’s life was in danger, you could do what was necessary to sustain their life on the Sabbath. The different factions debated and argued about exactly what problems counted as life threatening, but everybody agreed that if it wasn’t life threatening, no medical treatment was allowed on the Sabbath, because practicing medicine is work.

And even if you’re saving a life, you have to be careful not to do anything to improve their situation. Just keep them alive – that’s all you could do, once the Sabbath is over, then you could do whatever else to help them recover. On the Sabbath you could put on a bandage, stop the bleeding, but not a medicated bandage because then you’re getting into recovery.

So the reason this is a perfect sting operation is that a shriveled hand is definitely not a life-threatening issue, but they knew enough about Jesus to know that he wouldn’t be able to resist healing this guy. So they’re pretty confident they’re going to be able to nail Jesus this time.