daily java

Daily Java:

On another Sabbath day, a man with a deformed right hand was in the synagogue while Jesus was teaching. The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees watched Jesus closely. If he healed the man’s hand, they planned to accuse him of working on the Sabbath. But Jesus knew their thoughts. He said to the man with the deformed hand, “Come and stand in front of everyone.” So the man came forward. Then Jesus said to his critics, “I have a question for you. Does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?” He looked around at them one by one and then said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” So the man held out his hand, and it was restored! At this, the enemies of Jesus were wild with rage and began to discuss what to do with him. (Luke 6:6-11)

There are people that are so desperate to catch you in an error that they will watch for even the most foolish things.

At a church meeting called by a pastoral dissenter a couple of years ago, there was a litany of complaints laid out. A list was made of the things the pastor had done wrong. It centered on the fact that the members in question feared that the new pastor would change the church somehow.

Now he hadn’t really done anything yet. It was all perception and fear of what might lie in the future.

After a bit of complaining, one member (who had ramrodded the whole thing) mentioned that he had heard that the pastor was going to move the pulpit, and that he didn’t like the fact that the pastor walked on the floor when preaching. And last, the pastor had put a table in the back of the auditorium.

He was livid with rage. And over what? Nothing really. Just a few small things that most people wouldn’t even notice. And not only would they not notice, many of them were in the future conceived of in this man’s mind.

The religious leaders watched Jesus like a hawk to see if  he did something they could pin on him as breaking the law. Working on the Sabbath was their big thing. Healing was sort of technically kind of work in that the  healer was doing something out of the ordinary.

Jesus knew this and really didn’t care if they liked it or not. He didn’t come to make them like it. He came to bring them back to God. And he recognized that, more than likely, these men were not going to come back to God. So he concentrated on those around him. They liked what he was doing.

He brings the man out in front and asks the leaders: Does the law permit me to do good deeds on the Sabbath? Does it permit me to save a life? Or is it a day for doing bad things by ignoring a present need to do good?

This is a dilemma for the leaders. The old law specifically said that you could save lives on the Sabbath if needed and that you could do good deeds if they needed doing. The Sabbath was primarily meant to keep employers from working their employees seven days a week and to give them time to come to worship. It was never intended to become a legalistic straitjacket.

So Jesus calls the man forward and heals him right in front of the religious leaders. He knew they wouldn’t like it yet he did it anyway. He really didn’t care what the establishment thought about what he did. He just did it anyway.

As it turned out in the church meeting, the one who had the complaints didn’t like the pastor in the first place. The pastor could have done anything and the guy still wouldn’t have liked him. The reason? A former pastor had raised him up as a leader and the new pastor didn’t seem like he was going to (the new pastor had been there two weeks). So he tore the church up.

The leaders knew Jesus was not going to do what they wanted so they tried to tear his church up. It didn’t matter that he was obviously full of the grace of God. He didn’t do what they wanted so they tried to kill him.

Pathetic.