While God’s stated goal for each of His followers is to become like Jesus, too many of us are troublingly more like the Pharisees whom Jesus condemned instead. Mark 3:2 says: “And they were watching Him closely, to see if He would heal him on the Sabbath, in order that they might accuse Him.”

These men (likely the same Pharisees that 2:24 mentioned) were “watching Him closely.” In and of itself, “watching closely” is not a bad thing. One might watch Jesus closely in order to learn all that he could from Him, or to imitate Him better. Or they might watch some person closely, in order to better understand their needs and minister to them. But these men had neither of those kinds of benevolent purposes in mind. In this case they were watching Him closely “in order that they might accuse Him.”

This scripture should be a cause of personal evaluation for each of us. Who are you “watching closely”, and why are you doing it? Are you watching someone closely in order that you might pray for them or minister to them, or perhaps because they are better disciples than you are, and you wish to imitate them? Or are you watching them closely with evil intent, like the Jewish leaders here did, so that you might accuse them of something? That whole spirit of suspicion, jealousy, and accusation which characterized the Pharisees is not one we want to be found imitating.