We now get one the Sabbath confrontations. Jesus was teaching in a synagogue. There must have been something about His teaching for Him to be so readily allowed to preach.
In the congregation was a woman who had been crippled for eighteen years. Jesus called her forward and declared that she was free from her infirmity, laid hands on her and she was immediately healed.
The synagogue leader was indignant about this, for the "Sabbath had been broken". Now think about this and see how ridiculous this is on various levels. First, as Jesus pointed out, the religious leaders were quite happy to see an ox or donkey helped on the Sabbath, but apparently not a human being, a daughter of Abraham. This highlighted their hypocrisy. The we should think about what they had just seen happen. A great miracle had occurred, this could not have happened without the power of God, so should they not have been a little less hasty to condemn? Finally there is the question of what "work" Jesus had done? He had made a declaration and laid hands on her, this is hardly work!
We really do need to watch our hearts. When we see the work of God it brings us under judgement, we know that one greater than us is about. A human reaction can be to seek to condemn the work, but in doing so we are "condemning" God. We need to watch ourselves when we become full of our own theology, for it can be a very short step to error.
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