What do I know with Isaac Carroll
What do I know with Isaac Carroll
Mark 3 Healing on the Sabbath: How Religious Rules Can Make Us Miss Divine Action
Have you ever been so convinced you're right that you miss a bigger truth staring you in the face? Mark's Gospel gives us a striking example of this human tendency in the story of Jesus healing a man's withered hand on the Sabbath.
The scene unfolds dramatically in a synagogue where religious leaders watch Jesus like hawks, hoping to catch him breaking Sabbath laws. Rather than avoiding controversy, Jesus confronts their hypocrisy directly. "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm?" he challenges them. Their telling silence reveals hearts more concerned with rules than compassion. With righteous anger at their hardened hearts, Jesus heals the man anyway – a miracle that should have been celebrated becomes grounds for plotting against him.
This passage strikes at something universal: our capacity to become so entrenched in our theological positions that we miss truth altogether. I reflect on modern religious debates where Christians attack each other over doctrinal differences while forgetting Jesus' central command to love one another. The irony is palpable – these Pharisees witnessed undeniable miracles yet remained spiritually blind because their preconceptions wouldn't allow them to see God working in their midst. Later in the passage, even demons recognize Jesus as "the Son of God" while the religious experts remain clueless, reminding us that intellectual acknowledgment isn't the same as transformative faith.
Are you seeking Jesus just for what he can do for you? The crowds pressed in for physical healing, yet Jesus reminds us elsewhere that "only one thing is necessary" – not temporary fixes but eternal salvation. Who is Jesus to you, really? It's a question worth wrestling with continuously. If you found this exploration meaningful, please subscribe and share this episode with someone who might need this perspective too.
May God bless you and lead you always.
Welcome to the podcast. I'm Isaac Carroll, and this is what Do I Know? All right, in today's Bible study we are going to be in Mark 3. And today we'll be starting in verse 1. Again, he entered the synagogue and there was a man with a withered hand. And they watched Jesus to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man with the withered hand Come here. And he said to them Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save a life or to kill? But they were silent and he looked around at them with anger, grieved at the hardness of heart, and he said to the man Stretch out your hand. He stretched it out and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately held Alright, let's stop here at verse 6.
Speaker 1:Alright, many thoughts have been running through my head as I read this. We have Jesus going to the synagogue to teach and here we have the Pharisees who seem to be following Jesus just as much as the disciples, but I guess for a very different reason, it would seem. In the synagogue we have a man with a withered hand. Now, it crossed my mind was this man a plant? Did they tell this man that if he went there that Jesus was known for healing, just so that they could accuse Jesus of sin? I guess it's hard for me to understand. We have a man in this scenario. We have a man who's teaching in a synagogue, who has the ability to heal with just a word. All he has to do is speak and people are healed. Now I understand that with the Jewish people, that their history is full of miracles, but the miracles always came through a man, from God. If the miracles came from God, jesus himself tells you that God must be in your midst Because of the very fact that the healing is happening, because these miracles are happening, that God must be in their midst. Yet somehow I don't get it how these men they've completely disregarded the healing, completely disregarded the fact that a man should not have the ability who's not from God, to say to someone be healed, and they're healed. It's just mind-boggling, I don't get it. It's just mind-boggling, I don't get it.
Speaker 1:But here we have it in this passage. Jesus, knowing that they were there to accuse him, could have just as easily waited till afterward to heal this man, but he makes a point to call out their sin before them. He calls a man forward and he says to him is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do evil, to save a life or to kill? I can imagine if an army attacked on a Sabbath, god didn't want you to wait inside your homes for the army to go away. He would expect you to defend your home against their invading army. If your child was sick, he'd want you to take care of him, even if it was on a Sabbath. As a matter of fact, in Jewish custom and law you're supposed to circumcise your son on the Sabbath. That seemed like it would be a whole lot more work than Jesus saying stretch out your hand. And it was restored.
Speaker 1:I guess because I'm not Jewish, this doesn't make sense. But it points to a deeper truth and that truth is that we are blinded many times by what we believe, and I see it too often in conversations, I see it too often in myself. In the past We've become so adamant about what we think is truth that we miss truth altogether, that we miss truth altogether. I've been kind of focusing on John 15 here lately. John 15 says if you abide in me, you will bear much fruit. And it says. It goes on to say that if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love. And my commandment is this that you love one another. So many times I got so caught up in the commandments where I was so focused on trying to do everything right. Most of the time I would, or every time I would end up doing something wrong, because we have taken our eyes off Jesus at this point and we've put them on ourself what we can achieve, not what he's achieved in us.
Speaker 1:As I was reading about these Pharisees, it kind of reminded me of a kind of a rabbit hole I was drawn into here recently. It was a discussion between dispensationalism and covenant theology, and I really didn't know a lot about either one as I didn't go to school for it. I really hadn't been a part of it. I just spent most of my time studying the Word and when I was drawn into it, trying to understand the difference in the theologies and why, I started listening to different speakers. And as I was listening to different speakers, I began to laugh because of the absurdity of it.
Speaker 1:These men were so passionate about what they were saying. They were so passionate about what they believed that they had actually started calling each other names and say that they were ungodly or they weren't actually following Christ or it was from the devil. I mean, there were some really nasty things that were said. Yeah, as I was listening to these men talk and I thought how far have we fallen? That we're more worried about our theologies than we are about loving one another? And that's exactly what's going on here with these men. They're so caught up in what they believe is truth that they completely miss what God has called them to do, and I worry we've done the same thing.
Speaker 1:All right, let's pick up here at verse 7. Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea and a crowd followed him from Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem and Adamia and from beyond the Jordan, from around Tyre and Sidon. The great crowd heard all that he was doing and they came to him and he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him. Because of the crowd Least, they crush him, for he healed many for all who had disease pressed around him to touch him and whatever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and they cried out you are the Son of God. And he strictly ordered them not to make him known. All right, let's stop here at verse 12. We see Jesus has withdrew from the cities because they were seeking to kill him and he continues his ministry. His fame is spread all over Israel and they're coming out to see him from everywhere to be healed by him. I can imagine the crowd trying to press in around Jesus. If I could just touch the hem of his cloak I could be made well.
Speaker 1:So many times we go to Jesus over needs in our life, so many times we're seeking for something for ourself, something to make us whole again or feel whole again. It reminds me of a passage in Luke 10 when Jesus goes to Martha's house and Martha's running around trying to take care of everything. She's running around trying to take care of all these preparations so that everyone's taken care of. She has that servant's heart and in her stress she has become agitated at her sister because her sister's sitting at Jesus' feet. And she goes to Jesus and she says Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her to help me. And Jesus says to her Martha, martha, you are worried and upset by many things, but only one thing is necessary Mary has chosen the good portion and it will not be taken away from her. Jesus reacts in a very different way than we expect because of the heart of Mary. Mary wanted what Jesus had to offer salvation, enlightenment.
Speaker 1:Understanding these people, they went out to Jesus for healing. They wanted to be made well, they wanted their life to be made easier. This life is hard, and someone with a disease is even harder. And we want to be made well and we seek Jesus for our healing. But Jesus says here that one thing is necessary. All these things are good to ask God for, but only one thing is necessary. When we seek Jesus, what are we really looking for? And it just really struck me that these people went out not to find salvation but to find healing, to make their life better. If someone offered a drug that would heal any sickness, people would come from all over the world to find it. But when someone offers them salvation, they could take it or leave it, and it's way more important than a body that's healed for a little bit of time, because eventually that body is going to give out and one day we'll all face the King of Kings. All right, this brings me to my final point In verse 11, we see that it says that whenever an unclean spirit saw him, they fell down before him and cried out you are the son of God.
Speaker 1:And he strictly ordered them not to make him known Now. And he strictly ordered them not to make him known Now. When it comes to belief, james himself says so many times we say how do we know that we're saved Because we believe in Jesus? These evil spirits believed in Jesus. They knew who he was. So a lot of times we need to ask ourselves what do we truly believe about Jesus? Not that we believe Jesus, but what do we believe about Jesus? What is Jesus to us? Who is Jesus to us? It's a much deeper question than we might first understand. It's something that we need to seek and continue to seek, I believe, until we meet him face to face. All right, I'm going to end this one here. We'll pick up in verse 13 in our next Bible study. Until then, I love you guys. God bless you. Goodbye.