Was It Legal for Jesus to Heal on the Sabbath?

Tom:

We are going through the Gospel of John and we are in chapter 7, and we are going to pick up with verse 18.  “He that speaketh of himself, seeketh his own glory:  but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him.”  Dave, these, of course, are the words of Jesus and this is verse 18, but I want to go back.  I know, Gary, our producer, rolls his eyes when we go back, but we are going to get through the gospel, if the Lord tarries, we are going to get through the Gospel of John, but let me go back to 17.  “If any man shall do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.”  Now, we discussed this on last week’s program, but Dave, the one thing we left out—Jesus is talking about doctrine.  Even in verse 16 he says, “Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.”  Now, I thought doctrine was something that we kind of wanted to avoid.  There are too many people thinking that doctrine was a bad thing.

Dave:

Well Tom, I haven’t looked up the definition for doctrine lately, but it simply is an orderly expression of truth.

Tom:

It’s teaching.  I mean, every time that it’s used in other places where doctrine, another word for doctrine is used, it’s very simple.  What Jesus had to say, everything that he said, his doctrine is truth.

Dave:

That’s right.  It’s taking the truth and putting it in a package, an orderly package that is understandable, that’s all.  And doctrine is absolutely essential.

Tom:

Dave, in 2 John 9, it says, “He that abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God.”  This is pretty important.

Dave:

Well, 2 Timothy:3:16All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
See All... says, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and it is profitable, or to be used for,” the first thing on the list is “doctrine,” get our doctrine straight.  The doctrine of God— what do you believe about God and so forth— the doctrine of salvation etc.  So, Jesus is giving doctrine, he is talking about doctrine, but he says, “My doctrine, my teaching isn’t mine.”  Now, we have to go back over that again, I guess, Tom, because, of course, it’s related here.  Verse 18, “He that speaketh of himself, (that is, not about himself but on his own initiative).  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three persons, one God, none of them is independent from the others, none of them—when we get to chapter 16, for example, “When the Holy Spirit is come, he will not speak of himself.  And I can remember, many years ago, saying, oh these Charismatics, these Pentecostals, they are always talking about the Holy Spirit and it says the Holy Spirit won’t talk about himself.”  No, it doesn’t say that.  The Holy Spirit will not speak on his own initiative.  He will not speak independently of the Father and the Son.  But, even among human beings, if I am the ambassador, for example, the United States to some other country, I’m not there to promote myself.  I am there for the welfare of the country that I represent.  And Jesus is saying if you don’t represent the one who sent you, but you are going around doing things on your own, you must be seeking your own blessing, your own success, and seeking to get people to look up to you and so forth.  So, I think that’s all he is saying here, in verse 18, but, of course, he is referring to himself that he does not act independently from the Father.  Then he goes on in verse 19, “Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law?  Why go ye about to kill me?”  Because they said they were Moses’ disciples.  And Jesus says, well, if you are Moses’ disciples, he gave you the law.  How come you don’t keep the law?  And, in fact, Jesus in Matthew 15, he says, “You have perverted the law.  By your traditions you have voided the Word of God.  You have substituted your own ideas in there and he says, look, you claim to be the followers of Moses, he gave you the law.  Do you follow the law?  No, you don’t follow the law—you can’t follow the law.  Which one of you loves God with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his mind and his neighbor as himself?  You don’t do that.  And then, he raises another question, it’s an accusation, “Why go ye about to kill me?”  Now, that was common knowledge that the rabbis wanted to get him, they wanted to arrest him, then kill him.  But the people answered and said, “Thou hast a devil:  who goeth about to kill thee?”  It was common knowledge there was a price on his head.  Anyone knows where he is, tell us, and so forth.  So, they are not being exactly honest.  Jesus said unto them, “I have done one work and ye all marvel.”  He is talking about the miracle he did back in chapter 6, at the beginning of it when he fed five thousand with a few loaves and fishes and that caused people to marvel, they wanted to be on his team.  In fact, they were going to come and take him by force to make him their king because he could always feed them so they wouldn’t have to plow the fields and so forth anymore or raise crops—there would be money and food there whenever they wanted it.  John:7:22Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision; (not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers;) and ye on the sabbath day circumcise a man.
See All..., “Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision; (not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers;) but ye on the Sabbath day—now he’s going to lay something on them—circumcise a man.”  Verse 23, “If a man on the Sabbath day receive circumcision, that the Law of Moses should not be broken; are ye angry at me, because I have made a man every whit whole on the Sabbath day?”  Remember, they jumped on him because here comes a man with a withered hand into the synagogue on a Sabbath day and Jesus says, Stretch out your hand, and it is healed.  The Rabbis are furious!  They can’t do that, he’s taking the people away from them.  They want to have the authority over these people and this man does miracles.  When it gets back to what we talked about earlier, they have seen him do miracles, in fact.  They can’t doubt that.  And so, Jesus says, “Look, you circumcised someone on the Sabbath day”—interesting that God would put that in there—It was the 8th day after birth.  Well, that could be any day of the week, but it had to be on the 8th day, Jesus says you circumcise.  “Isn’t that a work that God tells you to do that, now why are you upset with me?  Because I healed the man, I made him completely well on the Sabbath day.”

Tom:

Now Dave, you pull back that you’ve read, you pull back and you take a look at the character of Jesus, it’s really stunning because he’s not defending himself, this is the way God works.  When we have a gripe or a groan and the Holy Spirit is working in our lives, we are under conviction.  No matter how we rant and rave about something, Jesus, in what he is saying to them, keeps cutting to the core. He’s trying to bring them to an understanding, to a conviction of where they are.  They will have none of it, but that’s the way God works.

Dave:

Well, he is laying it out very carefully, and very gently, really.  He is being kind to them.  He says, Judge not according to the appearance but judge righteous judgment.  In other words, well, because I healed someone on the Sabbath day, that doesn’t mean I am breaking the law.  Now, investigate this a little further and see the things that God allowed you to do on the Sabbath day.  They remember another occasion Jesus said, “Which of you, having an ox or an ass that falls into a ditch, falls in a hole somewhere on the Sabbath, doesn’t rescue it on the Sabbath?  Now, if you would do that for an animal, could I not rescue a man from this illness that has bound him all these years?”  That wasn’t really the issue.  The issue was, he was becoming more popular than they were. They wanted to do away with him so they could restore their power over the people.  But verse 25—“They just said, you have a devil.  Who goes about to kill you?  And then now, people are whispering; then said some of them of Jerusalem; Is not this he whom they seek to kill?”  So, they are not even honest with themselves.

Tom:

Well, this goes back to what I said about conviction.  The Word of God brings conviction in every heart.  Jesus is saying he knows their heart, he’s laying it out, and what are they going to do?  What are they going to say? They are not going to repent but they are going to deny, they are going to reject what he has to say—this man has a devil.  No, they know in their heart as we know in our hearts when we read God’s Word.