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.

At times Jesus' behavior looks frankly provocative. Why, one asks, did He need to heal a man with a withered hand specifically on Shabbat and specifically in the synagogue? This was a direct and obvious challenge not only to the Pharisees in particular, but also in general to the ideas already established by that time about the norms and rules of Shabbat, and in particular about the ritual prohibitions connected with it.

The usual rule was this: help to a person on Shabbat, including medical help, was given in the form and to the extent necessary for vital indications. If, for example, the healed man's withered hand had directly threatened his life, no one would have reproached Jesus for the healing.

If, however, there was no direct and immediate threat to life, treatment was not performed on Shabbat and was postponed until it ended. It is worth noting, by the way, that in medical institutions in Israel, for example, these rules are still followed today: on Shabbat only necessary planned medical procedures are carried out, and emergency help necessary for vital indications is provided.

The situation with the man healed by Jesus was clearly different: the presence of a withered hand in no way threatened his life, and the healing therefore could have been postponed until the end of Shabbat. But Jesus, as we see, does not do this and heals the man specifically on Shabbat. At first glance such a healing can look like a demonstrative and therefore provocative violation of Shabbat.

In reality, however, the situation is exactly the opposite. In this case the matter is not medical help, but healing: the manifestation of the Kingdom and its power. That is, the very thing for which Shabbat as such exists. In Gospel times there was much debate about the ritual norms and prescriptions connected with Shabbat, and amid the restrictions people often forgot the main thing: Shabbat is not a day of ritual prohibitions, but a day to be spent in God's presence.

Jesus is precisely striving to return Shabbat to its true meaning. Indeed, where can Shabbat be more itself, not in form but in essence, than in the Kingdom? To enter the Kingdom means to enter the rest of Shabbat, and in a fullness that is unthinkable anywhere else. This is exactly what Jesus offers those who witnessed the healing He performed: in fact, all of them, as many as were there, found themselves on the threshold of the Kingdom. But many of those present did not notice the Kingdom at all; instead, they noticed very clearly a violation of the religious prescriptions connected with Shabbat. This emphasis on the external at the expense of the essential, on religion at the expense of the Kingdom, was the chief obstacle on the way into the Kingdom for religious people. It was an obstacle that had to be overcome, or else one had to abandon the way into the Kingdom altogether. Here each person chooses his own. And bears all the consequences of his choice.

Sometimes, as can be seen in today's reading, the evangelist paints for us a picture of the Kingdom moving across the earth together with Jesus, who has brought this Kingdom into the world. And the world reacts to a new reality unexpectedly opened to it, reacting without always realizing what and Whom it is dealing with. But always, whatever turn events take, one can see how the evil in which the world lies runs from the breath of the Kingdom. Before us again is a description of mass healings, and we see how even the spirits of darkness bear witness to the One who gives them no rest. But He does not need such testimony.

Indeed, why would Jesus need the fame of a wonderworker, a popular hero followed by a surging crowd of people thirsting for healing or for liberation from the power of dark forces? On the other hand there are those who do not need healing, or at least think they do not: the Pharisees and Herod's people, who want only one thing, that this Man who gives them no rest should disappear, even if they have to kill Him for that to happen. And between them is a crowd of people who understand little or understand nothing at all, who follow Jesus without always understanding who He is, but having learned from their own experience that He can heal and free them from the power of dark forces. And all of them somehow, each in their own way, see the Kingdom.

The spirits of darkness see it clearly, and the sight is torment for them: they understand Who is before them and want only one thing, for Him to go away. The Pharisees, deeply religious people, and the local politicians who side with the existing authorities agree with one another in nothing except one thing: they have no use for the kind of Kingdom to which this Man bears witness.

They may not understand very well what it is like, but they understand very well that neither earthly power nor absolutized religiosity is compatible with it or will stand before it. And they want to kill the One who threatens their power and their religious values. As for the crowd following Jesus, also perhaps not understanding very well what the Kingdom is, they nevertheless know one thing: whatever it is, and whoever Jesus is, He can help them, and therefore His Kingdom must be a good thing. Whatever this Kingdom may be, let it only help them be healed, be rid of sickness or of the power of dark forces, and then... then it will become clear whether it is worth following this unusual Preacher any farther. Meanwhile Jesus is drawing near to Jerusalem, where everything must be decided. And set in its proper place.