Jesus heals a man’s deformed hand on the sacred Sabbath day… ¹ Jesus entered the synagogue again, and a man was there whose hand was deformed.

² Jesus’s religious enemies watched to see if he would heal the man on the Sabbath day so they could accuse him.e.g.: accuse him of working on the sacred Sabbath day of rest

³ Jesus said to the man whose hand was deformed, “Stand up.” ⁴ Then Jesus addressed his enemies.

“Does the Lawe.g.: the Law of Moses found in the books of Exodus through Deuteronomy intend for a person to do good to others or to harm others on the Sabbath day? To save a life or to kill?” Jesus asked.⊕🔑 Jesus offers his enemies another opportunity to change–to accept the good news of his kingdom with expectant trust.

His enemies were silent.

⁵ Jesus looked around at them with anger (out of grief because his enemies’ hearts were becoming harder and harder), then said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” The man stretched it out and his hand was restored as healthy as the other.

…But the religious Conservatives preferred the man stay disabled ⁶ The religious ConservativesPharasees left and immediately conspired against Jesus with the “Pro King Herod” political party;Herodians together they began planning to kill him.⊕Herod was the corrupt puppet king installed by Rome to rule over Israel.⊕🔑 Religious preferences can be a form of selfish comfort–a comfort that we are “right” and others are “wrong.” If allowed to be more important than Jesus himself, these preferences and convictions will ultimately kill God’s kingdom in our lives.

The followers: people who liked Jesus ⁷ Jesus went back to the sea with his students;disciples a huge crowd followed him from Galilee, from Judea, ⁸ from Jerusalem, from Idumaea, from beyond the Jordan, and from the area around Tyre and Sidon. When Jesus arrived, an enormous crowd gathered made up of people who had heard about the amazing things Jesus was doing.

The students: people who joined Jesus, who learned, and who helped ⁹ Jesus asked his studentsapprentices or disciples to keep a little boat nearby because of the crowd pressing toward him.

¹⁰ Jesus had healed many and those who had diseases pressed toward him; they were trying to touch him.

¹¹ The evil spirits (whenever they saw Jesus) fell down before him shouting, “You are the Son of God!” ¹² But Jesus sternly warned them not to tell people who he was.

The twelve: people who spoke for Jesus with his authority ¹³ Jesus climbed a mountain and called to those he wanted. And they came.

¹⁴ He appointed twelve:⊕🔑 Everyone Jesus calls close to himself is important, and he knows them by name. to be close to him, to send out and speak God’s word, ¹⁵ and to have authority to heal sicknesses and cast out demons:

¹⁶ Simon, to whom he gave the name Peter; ¹⁷ James the son of Zebedee; and John, the brother of James, (whom he called Boanerges, which means, Sons of Thunder); ¹⁸ Andrew; Philip; Bartholomew; Matthew; Thomas; James, the son of Alphaeus; Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot; ¹⁹ and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.

Those outside and those inside Then Jesus came to his home.

²⁰ The large crowd gathered together again, so that those inside could not eat bread.

²¹ When Jesus’s friends heard the news they came to take custody of him; they said, “He is insane!”

²² The religious leaders who were scribes from Jerusalem said, “He has BeelzebulBeelzebul was the name gentile nations used for Satan, the chief demon. inside him!” and, “He casts out demons using power the ruler of the demons gave him!”

²³  Jesus called for them.

Using illustrationsparables to make his point Jesus asked, “How can SatanLit: accuser or plaintiff; the chief demon cast out Satan?

• ²⁴ If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom can’t stand.
• ²⁵ If a familyhouse fights against itself, that family will break apart.
• ²⁶ If Satansee note on verse 23 rebels against himself and is divided he can’t stand. He is finished!
• ²⁷ Nobody can enter the Strong Man’s house and ransack it unless he first ties up the Strong Man; then he can ransack his house.

²⁸ “I say with certainty: all of peoples’ selfish intentions and actions will be forgiven, including flagrant disrespectblasphemy with which they may defameblaspheme God.

²⁹ “But whoever deliberately defames and slandersblasphemes (actions performed by) the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness;⊕🔑 Inflexible Religious Tradition is an enemy of God’s Kingdom. If allowed to live in one’s heart it ultimately kills. their guilt never ends.” ³⁰ —because the religious leaders said, “A demon owns him.”

³¹ The mother and brothers of Jesus came. Standing outside, they sent for Jesus and called to him.

³² A large crowd was sitting around Jesus, and they told him, “Look! your mother, your brothers, and your sisters are outside looking for you.”⊕🔑 Mark has described the inflexibly religious, the casual followers, the students, and the twelve. Which kind of person are you most like right now? If you want to join Jesus, all he requires is that you set your affections on the things God wants and that you do these things as best as you know how right now. He will take care of the rest. Can you do that much? Ask Jesus and he will help.

³³  Jesus answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” ³⁴ Looking around at those who sat around him, he said, “Look! my mother and my brothers! ³⁵ Whoever does the things God asks him or her to do is my brother, my sister, and mother.”