daily java

Daily Java: 

 On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. (Luke 6:6-7)

Jesus had done a lot of amazing things. And those around him knew it.

But he had also made some important people mad. He refused to follow their traditions and do what they thought he ought to do.

And they were mad. As far as they were concerned, he was a renegade.

Yes, he healed. He healed a lot of people. Yes, he preached well. The things he mentioned were always straight from the Bible. Yes, people liked him and he did a lot of good things and said a lot of good things.

But, he didn’t do things the way they wanted him to do them.

So in Luke 6, they are watching him to see if he would heal on the Sabbath day. The fact that he was healing at all should have told them something. But they were so engrossed in the way they felt things ought to be that they had lost all reason.

Now the Sabbath was important to the people of God. God had given them the Sabbath back in the Old Testament to make sure that the Israelites didn’t work too long and too hard. He wanted to make sure that employees got some time off.

He also made it the day of worship. They could rest and worship and it would be a good day for them. He told them basic ideas of what they were to do or not to do on this day.

But by the time Jesus came along, 1300 years later, the rules on the Sabbath day were massive. Each generation of religious guys felt compelled to add their own spin to the laws. Before long, the rules were almost too big to be known. Kind of like the IRS code.

There was almost no way to keep from breaking them, they were so big.

One of the things that was prohibited was work. In their minds, healing was work. So when Jesus healed on the Sabbath, he did work.

Jesus knew this and did not care what they thought. He asked the crippled guy to stand up in front of everyone. Then he looked over at the religious guys and said “I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?”

Well, what are they going to say? They certainly aren’t going to advocate evil.

Jesus healed the man. And it says: But they were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus (Luke 6:11). 

There are people who want their way so badly that they will hurt someone else who doesn’t do things the way they want them to be done. Traditions are so strong, the old ways are so important that they trump all the good you may be doing otherwise.

The preacher is preaching the gospel and people are being edified, but he uses the wrong instrument. The worship leader is worshiping, but he is using the wrong kind of music. Young people are being reached, but the teacher is using the wrong material.

The desire to keep what you think is important is greater than the need to preach the gospel.

What happens? The church is hurt. These men wanted their interpretations of God’s word kept. And they felt that keeping their interpretations was more important than preaching the gospel.

And they were willing to kill Jesus rather than have their interpretations of the God’s word not kept.

As a people of God, they did not live. They were too caught up in their own ideas and God couldn’t break through. Any church that does this does not deserve to live. They are no longer there for God, they are only there to keep their own ideas alive.

Like the people of Israel, they cannot survive for long on this attitude.

After all, Jesus died to set us free, not put us under bondage to others’ opinions.