Jesus' Ministry in Galilee

Only Matthew relates this parable, which echoes a teaching from the sermon on the mount.

Matthew 6:26

Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

This statement is the expected answer to the question posed in Mark and Luke below. In retrospect, it seems rather obvious that it is always right to do right.

Both Mark and Luke contain this question, while Matthew omits it. Matthew, however, supplies the answer:

Matthew 12:12

So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.

This natural impulse of anger welling up in the Savior shows his indignation at the appalling situation--these would deny a person healing!

John 3:36

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

This is the most important part of the passage. It is vexing to God when we have stony hearts, turning away from one in need.

The same themes of hard-heartedness, grief, and anger related in this passage also appear in a parable captured by Matthew. We provide the parable in its entirety below since it is of such usefulness in understanding our current passage.

Matthew 18:23-35

"Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.' And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, 'Pay what you owe.' So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you.' He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and said to him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?' And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart."

The term for "grieved" which Mark uses has an extension on it that emphasizes the shared aspect of the grief. The Lord is grieved together with the man whose hand is withered.

"grieve" (συλλυπέω)

1. grieve or mortify together; make them share their grief
2. Passive: share in grief, sympathize or condole

Jesus shares in the grief the man has experienced in life, and he sympathizes with the man as his community would deny him healing. And on what basis could anyone deny him?

Ephesians 4:30-32

Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Hardness of heart is a very serious problem. The antidote is love.

Proverbs 10:12

Hatred stirs up strife,
but love covers all offenses.

1 Peter 4:8

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

In this passage, the word for "hardness" is derived from the word for "rock." We might say the heart has petrified like wood.

Elsewhere in Mark, hardness of heart prevents us from perceiving or understanding. A hard heart keeps us from making rational spiritual decisions.

And we are certainly seeing poor spiritual discernment in this passage. It should be clear that it is always right to do right. Mark 8 ties this hardness of heart and failure to understand to Isaiah 6:9-10.

Mark 8:15-21

He cautioned them, saying, "Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod." And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, "Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened?
'Having eyes do you not see,
and having ears do you not hear?'
And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?" They said to him, "Twelve." "And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?" And they said to him, "Seven." And he said to them, "Do you not yet understand?"

Mark also refers to hardness of heart using a different term for "hard" (σκληρός) at the end of his Gospel:

Mark 16:14

Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen.

And, indeed, other passages use this term to describe the same failure to understand spiritual things as Mark 8 above had.

Ephesians 4:17-20

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!

This latter term for "hard" is used in many formulations in the New Testament. It has a conventional definition, and we provide here examples of its use in Scripture to aid your understanding.

"hard" (σκληρός)

1. hard, in all senses:
   • hard to the touch
   • of sound: harsh
   • of taste and smell: harsh, bitter
   • stiff, unyielding (as opposed to lithe and supple)....
2. metaphorically:
   • of things: hard, austere
   • of persons: harsh, austere, cruel, stubborn

Consider the cruelty of divorce:

Matthew 19:8

He said to them, "Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so."

Remember those who fell in the wilderness:

Hebrews 3:12-15

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is said,
"Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion."

On a related note, there is also "hardness of neck," which we typically see translated "stiff-necked." It refers to a person's inability or unwillingness to turn the head--you can't change their mind!

Acts 7:51

"You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you."

Mark alone mentions the Herodians, although both Mark and Matthew relate the fruit of the Herodian-Pharisee collaboration.

Matthew 22:15-17

Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone's opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?"

The idea to use the power of Rome against Jesus prevails at his crucifixion.

John 19:12, 15

Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, "If you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar."
...Pilate said to them, "Shall I crucify your King?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar."

Jesus is divine, and we are told more than once in the gospels about his ability to know our thoughts.

When he healed the paralytic, he knew some questioned whether he could forgive sins (Matthew 9:4; Luke 5:22). And when he was being tested by false accusations, he again gave a full answer by knowing their thoughts (Luke 11:17).

John, in his mission to establish the divinity of Christ, perhaps says it best:

John 2:24-25

Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.

Luke reveals the manner in which this happened. The Lord turned his head from one end of the synagogue to the other, looking for a response from anyone.

Everyone present has a chance to speak up for what is right. Jesus's question has a rather obvious answer, and there likely no longer remains any question in anyone's mind about whether it is right to heal on a Sabbath. But everyone also knows answering the question correctly risks retribution from the ruling class of the Pharisees. Therefore, every individual is being tested. Who is more to be feared, the Pharisees or Jesus?

In the Lord's gaze from one end to the other of the synagogue, we are reminded of another description of the scrutiny of God:

Psalm 19:6

[The sun's] rising is from the end of the heavens,
and its circuit to the end of them,
and there is nothing hidden from its heat.

We admit this translation is puzzling. There is no variation in any Greek manuscript on this term. The lexicon associates what is here rendered "fury" with "folly" instead.

"fury" (ἄνοια)

stupidity, lack of reason, inconsiderateness, madness..., want of understanding, folly

In fact, the only other appearance of this term in the New Testament is in 2 Timothy 3:9, "...their folly will be plain to all."

The Septuagint agrees with the lexicon. Take for example the Proverbs below, which also contain the word under consideration. These provide a better reading of the Pharisees' reaction--and the pericope as a whole:

Proverbs 14:6-9

A scoffer seeks wisdom in vain,
but knowledge is easy for a man of understanding.
Leave the presence of a fool,
for there you do not meet words of knowledge.
The wisdom of the prudent is to discern his way,
but the folly of fools is [in] deceiving.
Fools mock at the guilt offering,
but the upright enjoy acceptance.