Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 12:11-12

"And he said unto them, What man shall there be of you, that shall have one sheep, and if this fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out? How much then is a man of more value than a sheep! Wherefore it is lawful to do good on the sabbath day." — Matthew 12:11-12 (ASV)

Will he not lay hold on it? — Since the reasoning takes the form of an argumentum ad hominem, it is clear that this act was regarded as lawful, even by the more rigid scribes. The Talmud discusses the question but does not decide it. Some casuists solved the problem with a compromise: the sheep was not to be pulled out of the pit until the Sabbath was over, but in the meantime, it was lawful to supply it with fodder.

In St. Mark and St. Luke, the question is given in another form and without this illustration, which we find in St. Luke in a different context in Luke 14:5. Jesus commands the man with the withered hand to stand up in the midst and then asks the question: Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath day or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?

The alternative thus presented as a dilemma was a practical answer to their casuistry. They would have said, “Leave the man as he is until the Sabbath is over.” But our Lord’s answer shows that in such a case, good would have been left undone. He makes it clear that not doing good when it is in our power is, in practice, to do evil.