Matthew 12:9-10……..Working

Matthew 12:9-10……..Working

 Going on (To illustrate His point-(New) from that place, he went into their synagogue, 10 and a man with a shrivelled hand (His hand was completely Inoperable due to a lack of blood flow or nerve damage.-(New) was there. Looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” (Their question puts Jesus in a difficult spot if He said “No” they would accuse of cruelty if he said “Yes” they would accuse Him of violating the Sabbath.-(New) (For a Compete Expository Note See Book)

Extended Sermon 

“Warns how legalism makes you unloving and uncaring of others, that you stop seeing people to seeing only rules.” ⇒ This unyielding focus on the letter of the law can blind us to the needs and struggles of those around us. Instead of seeing individuals as children of God, deserving of compassion and love, we begin to view them through the narrow lens of whether they conform to our established norms and regulations.

“Even today, if you see someone “withering” away in a life of crime & drugs would you stay away keeping to the rule “don’t get involved.” Or would you step in and help even if it’s inconvenient, uncomfortable, and socially unacceptable .” → Or let’s say you’re in a group where someone is being criticized or ignored. The rule of the group is to fit in and stay quiet. Or would you go over and interact with them. Or let’s say a family member or roommate failed to do their part (like dishes or a repair) because they were genuinely overwhelmed or exhausted. Would you charge them with failing to keep the “house rules” or how it’s interfering with the “Sabbath” or your own rest. Or let’s say a colleague or friend is struggling to find an important  document, putting their job at risk. Would you say “They should have backed up the document on a flesh drive.” Or would you step in and help them recover it. Restoring their peace of mind over the “rule” of your own busy schedule? Or lets say you’re at the gym in the middle of a heavy leg-day with few rests in between sets. And you see someone struggling with their form or who needs a spot but is to intimated to ask. Would you break your heart-rate monitor and rest-timer to assist them? Realizing that helping someone else avoid injury (resulting in a withered limb of their own) is more important than hitting a personal best in that specific moment.

    Additional Notes & Applications

Illustrates how Jesus doesn’t seek out the healthy to sit down beside, but the sick and broken who need His healing.

Calls for making regular worship in the Lord’s house with others a priority. Just as it was Jesus’ custom to be in God’s house on the Sabbath. So to it should be our custom to be in church on Sunday, the Christian day of worship.

Teaches how breakthroughs come when we least expect it. The man with the shriveled hand probably didn’t go to the Synagogue that day expecting a miracle, yet it happened.

Warns how people will take advantage of our compassion and good nature to trap us. Look how insidious and evil the Pharisees plan was in taking advantage of Jesus’ compassion knowing He couldn’t pass by the man with the withered hand without healing him. They exploited His goodness to set a trap, an act that was both calculated and malevolent. This treachery serves as a stark reminder of the lengths some will go to manipulate and ensnare those who act out of genuine kindness.

Prepares believers if were going to be Christ-like, we have to expect that we’re going to be scrutinized and tested in seeing if were living with consistency and compassion.

Displays a wrong heart when people need compassion and healing and all you want to do is criticize and find fault.

Calls for doing good and meeting human need even if it when it disrupts conventional rules, schedules, or comfort zones.

Displays how we can be in worship and still have hatred in our hearts. Think about it the Pharisees were in the house of worship, not with faith and love in their hearts, but murder, while watching Jesus, Yes, it’s possible to sit worshipfully in a meeting with murder in the heart.

Calls for seeing that we’re coming to learn and grow, not to justify or prove ourselves right.

Teaches if our critics are ever going to try to criticize us, better they find us doing good lest they have ammunition to further their case.

Note: The man must have felt very hurt after hearing their remark, that he was nothing more than a pawn in their wicked plan to trap Jesus.

Note: Those who question whether Jesus upheld the Sabbath, have their answer here, yes He did. He went to the Synagogue for worship and bible reading on the Sabbath.

Note: Those who favor of the Pharisees planting of the man with a shriveled hand as a ploy to trap Jesus. Do so by arguing that the man would not have been allowed in the Synagogue in the first place due to the fact that he was considered unclean because of his disease. Therefore those people, like lepers, were social outcasts and not allowed into mainstream society, even less so in the Synagogue.

Note: From ancient sources such as the Apocrypha Gospel of Hebrews it says the man was a bricklayer or stonemason who, while working, dropped a big field stone on his hand during construction. And that he asked Jesus to heal him so we wouldn’t have to beg anymore.-(  ?     )

Note: We don’t know what caused the man’s debilitating condition. Over the years there have been a lot of different speculations: Some say he hurt his hand at work. There had been an accident and some rocks or bricks had fallen on the man’s hand which caused severe nerve damage. As a result his hand withered up. The man contracted a form of polio that was known to have existed around Capernaum at that time and that is what damaged his hand. The man suffered from of a type of rheumatoid arthritis that caused what some today call a “Claw hand”. The man was born that way as a result of a birth defect. The truth is we may never really know for sure. And to tell you the truth, it really doesn’t matter whether his hand was damaged by an accident or a disease.

Note: If one stops to think of the severity of this man’s handicap and what it would have placed on him. He could no longer work, make a living, or earn an income. Think of the many restrictions this would have place upon him. If he was right-handed,-(Luke 6:6) His problem was extremely serious. The hand is a powerful multi-tool to help us through life. The hand is used to write, dress, wash dishes, prepare a meal, eat a meal. On the job he couldn’t use it to to pick a shovel, swing a hammer, or lift up stones. And as a result of not being able to provide for himself or his family, he was resigned to begging and casting himself on the charity of other people.