Wish I Were There

Today's Sunday school message was one of those events I just wish I could have seen:

Matt 12:6-13
6 "But I say to you, that something greater than the temple is here.7 "But if you had known what this means, 'I desire compassion, and not a sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the innocent.8 "For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath."9 And departing from there, He went into their synagogue.10 And behold, {there was} a man with a withered hand. And they questioned Him, saying, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"-- in order that they might accuse Him.11 And He said to them, "What man shall there be among you, who shall have one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it, and lift it out?12 "Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep! So then, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath."13 Then He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand!" And he stretched it out, and it was restored to normal, like the other.(NAS)

In these verses, we see part of Jesus' response to an accusation by the Pharisees. The Pharisees claimed that Jesus' disciples were in sin by picking grain and eating it on the sabbath. In the years since the 10 commandments were given, the religious leaders had added enormous amounts of laws onto those given by God. In the Talmud, there were 12 chapters just on the sabbath. They were all restrictions. It had gotten so ridiculous that the sabbath had gone from being about rest to being about all the work involved in not working. They weren't allowed to walk more than a certain distance, move certain objects, eat a certain amount of food.

In verses 7 and 9, Jesus is basically claiming that He is God. We know that this is true, but I wish I were there to see the looks on the Pharisees' faces when Jesus told them all of this (on top of the fact that he healed the other man's hand). In all rights, one would think that such a response would humble the Pharisees, but after this, they start plotting how to destroy Jesus. Their hearts had become so hardened that they weren't willing to see what was right in front of them. To have all of the head information available and still deny Jesus and His Lordship in one's heart is something that the Bible says can't be forgiven. That is a scary prospect.