Matthew 12:9 – 14

9 Now when He had departed from there, He went into their synagogue.

10 And behold, there was a man who had a withered hand. And they asked Him, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—that they might accuse Him.

11 Then He said to them, “What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out?

12 Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

13 Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and it was restored as whole as the other.

14 Then the Pharisees went out and plotted against Him, how they might destroy Him.

Jesus went into the synagogue, which was a meeting place used by the Jews for meetings comparable to our church worship services. The Jews did not do sacrifices at these locations. It is likely He would find the opportunity to do good there.

He soon had the opportunity to do good, there was a man there whose hand was withered, meaning the circulation had been cut off from the hand and it would not get its normal share of moisture and nourishment. There was some permanent condition in the arm which kept the hand from being cured by natural means.

The Pharisees were watching to see if He would heal on the Sabbath day, this verse says they asked him, but (Mark 3:2; Luke 6:7) says they watched Him, meaning there is no conflict, but the Pharisees were asking the questions in their minds. The 8th verse of Luke 6 says. “But He knew their thoughts.” They were accusing Him in their minds so they could accuse Him with breaking the sabbath if He did heal the man.

Jesus, since He knew what they were thinking, asked His own questions to the Pharisees, each would be the type of person to own livestock, and if one of his sheep fell into a pit, even on the sabbath day, they would use labor to save the sheep from death. Pulling the sheep out of the pit would take much more effort than what it would take Jesus to heal the man's hand.

The value between a man and a sheep is so clear the Pharisees could not answer his question. Doing good was a question they had not anticipated, they were prepared to accuse him of breaking the sabbath law, but he had turned the table on them by putting what he was doing into the category of doing good, which they were willing to do to save an animal. They could not deny that it would be doing good to relieve the man, and they could not say that there was anytime that doing good was wrong.

The man whose hand was withered, had a good arm, there was nothing wrong with the arm, only the hand. Jesus could heal the hand without it being outstretched, but Jesus always requires the one being healed to cooperate with Him. By extending his hand it showed he had faith in Jesus to be able to heal his withered hand.

The Pharisees showed just how wicked they were. They did not rejoice with the man who was healed, no their only thought was getting even with Jesus because they could not answer the divine wisdom which Jesus exhibited in thwarting their wicked desire to make him fail, or to take the credit away from His Godly person. So they stormed out plotting to destroy Him.

This passage shows doing good is a priority which is above our worship of God. If someone needs help it is never righteous to avoid or refuse to help someone because it is time to go to church. It is not right to tell a hungry person, “I am sorry I can't help you because the only money I have is what I am giving to God.” God expects us to help those in need first.