Training Evangelists at Bethsaida

148:7.1The sec­ond Sab­bath be­fore the de­par­ture of the apos­tles and the new corps of evan­ge­lists on the sec­ond preach­ing tour of Gal­i­lee, Je­sus spoke in the Ca­per­naum syn­a­gogue on the “Joys of Righ­teous Liv­ing.” When Je­sus had fin­ished speak­ing, a large group of those who were maimed, halt, sick, and af­flicted crowded up around him, seek­ing heal­ing. Also in this group were the apos­tles, many of the new evan­ge­lists, and the Phar­i­saic spies from Je­ru­sa­lem. Ev­ery­where that Je­sus went (ex­cept when in the hills about the Fa­ther’s busi­ness) the six Je­ru­sa­lem spies were sure to fol­low.

148:7.2The leader of the spy­ing Phar­isees, as Je­sus stood talk­ing to the peo­ple, in­duced a man with a with­ered hand to ap­proach him and ask if it would be law­ful to be healed on the Sab­bath day or should he seek help on an­other day. When Je­sus saw the man, heard his words, and per­ceived that he had been sent by the Phar­isees, he said: “Come for­ward while I ask you a ques­tion. If you had a sheep and it should fall into a pit on the Sab­bath day, would you reach down, lay hold on it, and lift it out? Is it law­ful to do such things on the Sab­bath day?” And the man an­swered: “Yes, Mas­ter, it would be law­ful thus to do well on the Sab­bath day.” Then said Je­sus, speak­ing to all of them: “I know where­fore you have sent this man into my pres­ence. You would find cause for of­fense in me if you could tempt me to show mercy on the Sab­bath day. In si­lence you all agreed that it was law­ful to lift the un­for­tu­nate sheep out of the pit, even on the Sab­bath, and I call you to wit­ness that it is law­ful to ex­hibit lov­ing-kind­ness on the Sab­bath day not only to an­i­mals but also to men. How much more valu­able is a man than a sheep! I pro­claim that it is law­ful to do good to men on the Sab­bath day.” And as they all stood be­fore him in si­lence, Je­sus, ad­dress­ing the man with the with­ered hand, said: “Stand up here by my side that all may see you. And now that you may know that it is my Fa­ther’s will that you do good on the Sab­bath day, if you have the faith to be healed, I bid you stretch out your hand.”

148:7.3And as this man stretched forth his with­ered hand, it was made whole. The peo­ple were minded to turn upon the Phar­isees, but Je­sus bade them be calm, say­ing: “I have just told you that it is law­ful to do good on the Sab­bath, to save life, but I did not in­struct you to do harm and give way to the de­sire to kill.” The an­gered Phar­isees went away, and not­with­stand­ing it was the Sab­bath day, they has­tened forth­with to Tiberias and took coun­sel with Herod, do­ing ev­ery­thing in their power to arouse his prej­u­dice in or­der to se­cure the Hero­di­ans as al­lies against Je­sus. But Herod re­fused to take ac­tion against Je­sus, ad­vis­ing that they carry their com­plaints to Je­ru­sa­lem.

148:7.4This is the first case of a mir­a­cle to be wrought by Je­sus in re­sponse to the chal­lenge of his en­e­mies. And the Mas­ter per­formed this so-called mir­a­cle, not as a dem­on­stra­tion of his heal­ing power, but as an ef­fec­tive protest against mak­ing the Sab­bath rest of re­li­gion a ver­i­ta­ble bond­age of mean­ing­less re­stric­tions upon all man­kind. This man re­turned to his work as a stone ma­son, prov­ing to be one of those whose heal­ing was fol­lowed by a life of thanks­giv­ing and righ­teous­ness.