Jesus answered and said unto them, I have done one work, and ye all marvel.
The one work is the healing of a man on the Sabbath, identified as the paralytic, whom He made completely whole. That work astonished His hearers and caused the Jewish leaders and rulers to marvel. Even as they marveled they condemned Him, and the healing became the basis of their anger against Him.
The saying belongs to His rebuke of people who judged Him while themselves failing to keep the law given through Moses. They claimed to judge others while not keeping the law themselves. The healing was lawful because relieving suffering and relieving and making an afflicted person whole accords with the spirit of the Sabbath law and of God's law. He exposed their inconsistency by pointing out that they circumcise on the Sabbath to keep the law of Moses, which shows that a work can be proper on that day, so that making a whole person well is certainly right.
The sanctity of God's law is not upheld by senseless restrictions. The rebuke exposes a wider pattern of rebellion and distortion, in which the nation and its leaders broke the Sabbath and other precepts while condemning others. In that pattern they displaced what God had entrusted to them even as they condemned others for a work of mercy.
The one work is the healing of a man on the Sabbath, identified as the paralytic, whom He made completely whole. That work astonished His hearers and caused the Jewish leaders and rulers to marvel. Even as they marveled they condemned Him, and the healing became the basis of their anger against Him.
The saying belongs to His rebuke of people who judged Him while themselves failing to keep the law given through Moses. They claimed to judge others while not keeping the law themselves. The healing was lawful because relieving suffering and relieving and making an afflicted person whole accords with the spirit of the Sabbath law and of God's law. He exposed their inconsistency by pointing out that they circumcise on the Sabbath to keep the law of Moses, which shows that a work can be proper on that day, so that making a whole person well is certainly right.
The sanctity of God's law is not upheld by senseless restrictions. The rebuke exposes a wider pattern of rebellion and distortion, in which the nation and its leaders broke the Sabbath and other precepts while condemning others. In that pattern they displaced what God had entrusted to them even as they condemned others for a work of mercy.