He heals a withered hand and is hated by the Jewish leaders
3
📚And again he went into the synagogue. And a man was there who had a withered hand. 2 📚And they watched him to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. He chooses His disciples
3 📚And he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Stand up in the middle”.
4 📚And he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath, or to do evil? To save life, or to kill?” But they kept silent.
5 📚And when he had looked around at them in anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand”. And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored whole like the other.
3:5 He was angry and grieved at those who were willing to trample people in the dust to uphold man-made rules; who in the hardness of their hearts would forbid healing and saving of life on the Sabbath, but would plot to kill on the same Sabbath. Anger and grief are often what Jesus must feel at the attitudes and actions of many religious people today also. Observe that godly anger against sin and injustice is right. It is to share in God’s anger against such things (Num 25:3). Compare Ex 32:19-20; Eph 4:26.⚜
6 📚And the Pharisees went out, and immediately plotted with the Herodians 📖 against him, how they might destroy him.
He heals many
7 📚But Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake, and a great crowd from Galilee and from Judea 8 📚and from Jerusalem and from Idumea and beyond the Jordan followed him. And when they heard what great things he did, a great crowd of those from around Tyre and Sidon 📖 came to him.
3:8 Idumea was an area southwest of Judea.⚜
9 📚And he told his disciples that a small boat should be made ready for him, because of the crowd, so that they would not press against him. 10 📚For he had healed many, so that as many as had afflictions crowded around him to touch him. 11 📚And when the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him, and cried out, saying, “You are the Son of God”. 12 📚And he strictly charged them that they must not make him known.
13 📚And he went up into a mountain, and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. 14 📚And he ordained twelve that they might be with him, and that he might send them out to preach, 15 and to have authority to heal diseases and to cast out demons.
16 📚And to Simon he gave the name Peter. 17 📚And there were James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to them he gave the name Boanerges, that is, The Sons of Thunder) 📖, 18 📚and Andrew and Philip and Bartholomew and Matthew and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus and Simon the Canaanite 19 📚and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him. And they went into a house.
He is accused of doing miracles by Satan’s power
20 📚And the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat bread. 21 📚And when his friends 📖 heard of it, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind 📖”.
22 📚And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebub 📖”, and, “By the ruler of the demons he drives out demons”.
3:22 The Jewish religious leaders had another explanation of Jesus’ teaching and behavior. They said He was under the control of Satan.⚜
23 📚And he called them over, and spoke to them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan? 24 📚And if a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 📚And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. 26 And if Satan rises up against himself, and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. 27 📚No man can go into a strong man’s house, and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house.
28 📚“Truly I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they may impiously utter,
The unpardonable sin against the Holy Spirit
29 📚but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation”.
30 📚He said this because they said, “He has an unclean spirit”.
He speaks of His mother, sisters and brothers
31 📚Then his brothers and his mother came, and, standing outside, sent word to him, calling him. 32 And the crowd sat around him, and they said to him, “Look, your mother and your brothers are outside, looking for you”.
33 📚And he answered them, saying, “Who is my mother, or my brothers?”
34 📚And he looked around in a circle at those sitting about him, and said, “See my mother and my brothers. 35 📚For whoever does the will of God, that one is my brother and my sister and mother”.