Mary’s Lent Diary (Day 21)

Oh dear, controversy continues to follow Jesus – this time it is not about who he spends time with, but about how he behaves on the Sabbath, the holy day…

As you know by now, Jesus’ habit is to go to the synagogue on the Sabbath day.  But, because he has hardly been keeping out of the spotlight recently (!), people are getting jealous.  The Pharisees, especially, are looking for Jesus to do something wrong so that they can accuse him.  So they are watching his every move, and they were watching him on the sabbath day I am talking about now.

Jesus arrived at the synagogue and saw a man there.  The man had a shrivelled hand.  I can just imagine the Pharisees moving closer so that they did not miss a thing!  They would have assumed that Jesus would heal the man, and then they would have the reason to accuse him that they were looking for.  It is illegal to do any work on the Sabbath and ‘non-essential healing’ ie something that is not life-threatening, is classed as practicing medicine and, therefore, work.  This idea is just tradition, tradition of the religious leaders, but they stick with it.

So, all eyes were on Jesus - what would he do?  Heal, or break the law?

Jesus knew what the leaders were thinking, of course, but he focused on the man with the shrivelled hand instead, and told him to stand up in front of everyone.  Jesus was not going to hide away!  Then Jesus asked the people there whether it was better to do good on the Sabbath, or evil.  I think he meant was it better to help this man or to ignore him.  And the Pharisees did not answer. 

Jesus was really cross with them.  Actually, more than cross.  He was distressed that people could be so legalistic and stubborn.

Jesus told the man to stretch out his shrivelled hand and, when the man did, his hand was completely healed…which did not go down well with the Pharisees.  In fact, they went off and got together with the Herodians, to plot against Jesus.  The Pharisees and Herodians don’t even like each other!  They must really hate Jesus.  Not only are they working together, they are working together to try and kill him – Simeon’s words about a sword piercing my heart seem to be getting louder…

A hand hanging limply

 The Pharisees were the Religious Leaders of the day.

Their job was to point people to God.

And they weren’t doing their job.

They were so jealous of Jesus that they wanted to get rid of Him.

They’d lost sight of the ‘point people to God’ goal, and had become obsessed with tradition and legalism.

Tradition isn’t necessarily bad.

But it does become a problem when it takes our focus away from God.

With sad irony, the Pharisees wanted to get rid of the God they professed to follow.

It’s quite sobering, isn’t it?

I keep my eyes always on the Lord.
With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

Psalm 16:8

Let’s remember to keep our focus on God so that, in aiming to follow Him, we don’t lose sight of Him.

So that following Him doesn’t become so routine that we end up squashing Him out.

So that ‘the way we’ve always done things’ isn’t more important than following the Living God.

Mark tells us, in 3:5, that Jesus was distressed by the attitude of the Pharisees.

They had no compassion for the person.

And when they saw Someone who did have compassion, they turned even more strongly against Him.

God is not people.

He is a God of compassion.

Is there an area of your life where you’d like to know His compassion over you?

‘Compassion’ means to care when someone is struggling.

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

1 Peter 5:7

It’s safe to be real and share with Him.

God has broad shoulders.

Jesus was ‘grieved by the hardness of the Pharisee’s hearts’ (TPT).

Their lack of compassion upset Him.

Again, we see that Jesus focuses on hearts.

What’s inside matters to Him.

Does your heart-attitude grieve Him, or give Him joy?

The Pharisees didn’t join in with what Jesus was doing.

They saw God at work, and didn’t join in.

Where do you see God at work in and around you?

How could you join in?

As God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion…

Colossians 3:12

Lord Jesus,

Help me keep my eyes on You.

I don’t want to squash You out.

Thank You that I can be real with You.

Thank You for caring about me so much.

When I look at the world, at other people, at myself,

I want to care with Your compassion.

Amen

Mary’s Memo Wear Compassion