Matthew 12:9-21

9Then Jesus left that place. He went into the Jewish meeting place.

10A man was there. His hand was very small and weak, so he could not use it. Some Pharisees asked Jesus, ‘Is it right to make someone well again on our day of rest?’ They wanted to find a reason to say that Jesus was doing wrong things.

11Jesus said to them, ‘Maybe one of you has a sheep that falls into a deep hole on our day of rest. What will you do? You will take hold of it and you will lift it out of the hole.

12You know that a man is much more valuable than a sheep. So it is right for us to do good things on our day of rest.’

13Then Jesus said to the man with the weak hand, ‘Lift up your hand.’ So the man lifted up his hand and it became well again. It was now as strong as his other hand.

14Then the Pharisees went out from the meeting place. They began to talk to each other about how they could kill Jesus.

15Jesus knew that the Pharisees wanted to kill him. So he went away from that place. A large crowd of people followed him. He made all the sick people become well again.

16He said to these people, ‘You must not tell anyone about me.’

17This happened so that what the prophet Isaiah had spoken long ago became true. Isaiah wrote what God said:

18‘Here is my servant. I have chosen him to serve me. I love him and he makes me very happy. I will give him the strength of my Spirit. He will tell all the nations that I will judge them fairly.

19He will not argue with people. He will not shout at them. People will not hear his loud voice in the streets.

20He will not hurt weak people. He will be kind to people who are not strong. He will do this until there is justice everywhere.

21All the nations will trust him to save them.’