In the previous encounter Jesus appealed to Scripture, but in this one He did not. In that one His disciples were the target of Pharisaic criticism, but in this one He was.
12:9-10 The Pharisees believed that it was permissible to give medical assistance on the Sabbath only if a sick person's life was in danger.494They also permitted midwifery and circumcision on the Sabbath.495
12:11-13 This is the third time in Matthew that Jesus argued for the superiority of human life over animal life (cf. 6:26; 10:31). His argument presupposed the special creation of man (Gen. 1-2). Jesus assumed, apparently with good reason, that the Pharisees would lift a sheep out of a pit on the Sabbath. His argument was again qal wahomer(from the light to the heavy, cf. vv. 5-6). Neither the sheep in the illustration nor the man in the synagogue was in mortal danger. Jesus cut through the Pharisaic distinctions about how much help one could give to the more basic issue of doing good.
Jesus again healed with a word (9:1-8). The healing confirmed the power of His word, a power that God demonstrated in creation and that marked Jesus as God's agent. This miracle confirmed again Jesus' lordship over the Sabbath (v. 8) and His authority to forgive sins (9:1-8). Notice that Matthew made no reference to the healed man's faith. It may have played no part in this miracle, or Matthew simply may have made no mention of it. Matthew wanted to focus attention on Jesus and the Pharisees, not on the man.
12:14 The Pharisees would not have put someone to death simply because he broke one of their traditional laws. They wanted to kill Jesus because they understood Him to be making messianic claims that they rejected. "Counseled together"(NASB) or "plotted"(NIV, Gr. sumboulion elabon) means the Pharisees had reached a definite decision.
"The phrase means to come to a conclusion, rather than to deliberate whether or not."496
This verse takes the official rejection of Messiah farther than it has gone before in Matthew. It is "the culminating point of the opposition of the Jewish religious authorities."497
"Given this narrative comment, the reader knows that the leaders' repudiation of Jesus has now become irreversible."498
