The question of Shabbat, of observing and violating it, arises constantly in the Gospels. This is understandable: the problem of observing Shabbat was one of the main problems in Judaism...
The question of Shabbat, of observing and violating it, arises constantly in the Gospels. This is understandable: the problem of observing Shabbat was one of the main problems in Judaism. Entire treatises were written by interpreters of the Torah to justify what exactly could be done on Shabbat and what could not, in what cases a given action would be a violation of Shabbat and in what cases it was permitted.
For example, with regard to treatment, the consensus came down to the understanding that on Shabbat one can and must save a person from death if death threatens him. This means that one can and must carry out the medical procedures that are necessary, to use modern language, for vital indications, emergency procedures without which the sick person will die. If there is no such urgency, however, there is no need to hurry with treatment, because that too is work, and work is forbidden on Shabbat.
For the sake of saving life, Shabbat may be violated; for the sake of immediate healing, no. The case of the man with the withered hand was precisely one in which there was no need to hurry: death did not threaten him, for he had already lived this way for more than one year, which means he could have been healed after Shabbat ended. Jesus, however, looks at Shabbat in a completely different way, returning it to its original meaning. The original meaning of Shabbat consisted not at all in ritual restrictions and prohibitions, but in spending the day in God's presence, devoting it entirely and without remainder to communion with God. All the prohibitions and restrictions were ultimately directed toward removing a person from that everyday rush which greatly hinders communion with God and at times makes it simply impossible. Meanwhile the healing performed by Jesus manifested to those gathered the very fullness of the Kingdom that opened the possibility of communion with God, previously unknown to the people of God. And now it turned out that ritual prohibitions, when understood in a purely formal way, began to hinder communion with God instead of helping it.
It is not by chance that Jesus asks the people around Him a question about saving the "soul," about saving life. In healing, He joins the person He heals to the fullness of the life of the Kingdom, and He is told that by doing this He violates Shabbat. So what, then, is Shabbat: the fullness of communion with God, or a system of prohibitions for the sake of prohibitions? Each person had to answer this question for himself.
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7:7 Your earnest desire - To rectify what had been amiss.Your grief - For what had offended God, and troubled me.
7:8 I did repent - That is, I felt a tender sorrow for having grieved you, till I saw the happy effect of it.
7:10 The sorrow of the world - Sorrow that arises from worldly considerations. Worketh death - Naturally tends to work or occasion death, temporal, spiritual, and eternal.
7:11 How great diligence it wrought in you - Shown in all the following particulars. Yea, clearing of yourselves - Some had been more, some less, faulty; whence arose these various affections. Hence their apologizing and indignation, with respect to themselves; their fear and desire, with respect to the apostle; their zeal and revenge, with respect to the offender, yea, and themselves also.Clearing of yourselves - From either sharing in, or approving of, his sin.Indignation - That ye had not immediately corrected the offender.Fear - Of God's displeasure, or lest I should come with a rod.Vehement desire - To see me again. Zeal - For the glory of God, and the soul of that sinner. Yea, revenge - Ye took a kind of holy revenge upon yourselves, being scarce able to forgive yourselves. In all things ye - As a church. Have approved yourselves to be pure - That is, free from blame, since ye received my letter.
7:12 It was not only, or chiefly, for the sake of the incestuous person, or of his father; but to show my care over you.