Unclean

So there's a crippled man in the synagogue on the Sabbath, and the Pharisees basically shove the guy toward Jesus and wait to see what the "Rabbi" will do. Will He honor the Sabbath...or heal the man?

But as we saw yesterday, there's more to this story. Because under normal circumstances, no Pharisee is going to let a crippled man into the synagogue on any day, let alone on a holy day. The crippled were supposed to be cut off. 

So the Pharisees are already breaking their own laws. 

Isn't that interesting? The Pharisees got together, and they thought about things, and they decided that they would rather be unclean and pollute the entire holy place...than be wrong. (Interestingly enough, if they bring an unclean/unpresentable man into the holy place on the Sabbath and nothing terrible happens to the holy place or the people, aren't they already wrong?) 

This was the real threat that the Pharisees faced from Jesus. It wasn't just that He was claiming to be the Messiah, although that would raise questions for anyone. It wasn't that He was talking about destroying the Temple and raising it up in 3 days; crazy men do crazy talk sometimes - it's nothing to get in a big tizzy about. 

The trouble with Jesus was that His holy presence - His love, His grace, His mercy, His redemption, His talk about the Kingdom, the promises whispered with His every breath - threatened their power. 

They had built their entire power structure on being the arbiters of holy truth. They were the ones that knew the laws. They were the ones that knew the rules. They were the ones who understood God and what He wanted and what pleases Him and how the people were supposed to act. If this Jesus comes in and not only tells the people there's another way, but shows them, the entire power structure crumbles. 

If the power structure crumbles, those at the top come crashing down. Hard. 

No one will ever listen to them again. 

So what they've actually set up here is a power play with Jesus. They think they can't lose. If He doesn't heal the man because it's the Sabbath, then they were right - the Sabbath requires no work, even healing work. If He does heal the man, they get to call Him out and maybe something terrible will happen, and wouldn't that be even better? At the very least, though, they get to point out that He doesn't know the most basic rules of the faith, so how could He be the "Messiah"? He's got God all wrong. 

They expect that no matter what happens with this crippled man in the synagogue on the Sabbath (and quite honestly, they don't care what happens to him; he's just a tool they are using for their own purposes), they are going to be able to prove their own right-ness and re-secure their place atop the power structure.

It's a win for them either way, so they're willing to put up with a little bit of uncleanness, even in the holy place, if it gets them what the most want - their power back. 

Amazing how quick some folks are to break their own rules for their own reputation. 

Of course, what they hadn't counted on was, well, Jesus actually being Jesus....