Thus it is that in Mark 3:13 Jesus withdraws from the crowd and goes up into the hills to choose His disciples. Have you ever considered what it must have been like for Jesus to choose Judas? He would have the devil right in one of His twelve disciples, living with Him at every moment. And the Lord was the only one who knew it. Yet Jesus had to treat Judas with great kindness, because it was not yet the moment for Judas to go to his own place and for Jesus to go to the cross, where His great work would be done. He would fulfill His Father’s will in the things He did; He would not follow His own dictates or those of anyone else.
When Jesus perceived this plot, He withdrew with the disciples to the sea (v. 7). Huge crowds, multitudes of sick and needy people followed Him. And He stayed with the crowds because they needed Him. Unlike the Pharisees, this was not a hostile crowd. Far from it yet Jesus encountered opposition just the same. The unclean spirits recognized Jesus and identified Him, yet Jesus, “strictly ordered them not to make Him known” (vv. 11-12). Turn back to chapter 1 of Mark. In verse 34, we saw that Jesus “would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew Him. In 1:43-44 Jesus commands the leper He had healed to tell no one about what He had done. Why all the secrecy?
We see them next watching Jesus in a synagogue (3:1-6). They are confident that Jesus will see a man who is there with a withered hand and Mark tells us that, “they watched Him, to see whether He would heal him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse Him” (3:2). These men were determined to find a way to destroy Jesus’ ministry. Jesus’ challenge of traditional Sabbath observances would surely give them opportunity to discredit Him, and so they were there, looking for an opportunity to catch Him violating the Law.
As Christians we must understand that a fighting spirit is not the spirit of Christ. A man who says, “I’m drawing the lines here, and it’s got to be this way,” has not understood the spirit of Christ. That is what the Pharisees were doing when they said, “You can’t take wheat on the Sabbath Day.” “Who says so?” “We’ve made our rules.” “Well, the Bible says you can.” “Yes, but you still can’t. It goes against our tradition.” The Holy Spirit says nothing of the kind.
But Jesus’ words did not dissuade His enemies. Having mounted the battle, the religious leaders were determined to see it through to the end. This became evident when, on another occasion, Jesus and His disciples were accused of violating the Sabbath by picking grain from a field and eating it (2:23-27). Jesus used this challenge to state His identity and His claims even more plainly.
