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Soul Surf Sunday

Bible

Mk 3, 1-6

Jesus entered the synagogue. There was a man there who had a withered hand. They watched Jesus closely to see if he would cure him on the sabbath so that they might accuse him. He said to the man with the withered hand, “Come up here before us.”

Then he said to the Pharisees, “Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?” But they remained silent. Looking around at them with anger and grieved at their hardness of heart,

Jesus said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately took counsel with the Herodians against him to put him to death.

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YOUCAT

How does Jesus deal with the Sabbath?

Jesus observes the Sabbath, but at the same time he deals with it very liberally, as one who has complete command over it: “The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath” (Mk 2,27). (2173)

The fact that Jesus claims the right to heal on the Sabbath and to interpret the Sabbath laws mercifully poses a dilemma for his Jewish contemporaries: Either Jesus is the Messiah sent by God, which makes him “Lord even of the sabbath” (Mk 2:28), or else he is merely a man, in which case