Matthew 5:12-18

Just as Jesus was crucified by the religious elite at His first coming there is a real probability that He will be rejected at His return by the religious elite. They are in bondage to the letter of the law, which brings death, instead of the liberty which God sent to the earth in Christ Jesus. There are works for us to do on earth but they are done out of the love that we were given in the salvation of the cross. The love that our works show to others will draw all people to Christ.


The sick man was healed without exercising any faith. He did not know who Jesus was when he was healed. However, Jesus caught up with the man later. This is the first recorded declaration of open hostility toward Jesus in the Gospel of John. Since God continually does good works without allowing Himself to stop on the Sabbath, the Son does likewise, since He is equal with God. Certainly the Jewish leaders understood the implications of Jesus’ claims

12 Then they asked him, “Who is the Man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” 13 But the one who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a multitude being in that place. 14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.”

15 The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

16 For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath.

17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.”

18 Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.