Again I’m struck by this passage. I am profoundly irritated at teachers of the law for their lack of compassion. I don’t know if you have ever seen a person so down on their luck that they resort to “begging”, but I have seen several. Nearly every day this week I drove by 7 people with signs asking for assistance. (I feel bad right now because I didn’t give them anything.) But if I saw one of those people walking around carrying a mat, when I just say them in a wheel chair I don’t think I would be telling them to stop carrying your mat. In fact i’d probably ask what happened to the wheel chair.
We get jaded by following the rules. We expect everyone to do everything the same way as we do. The thing with rules is that everyone reads them differently. That is what is so awsome about Jesus here, He doesn’t care what people think about the rules he does what He knows is right. We know right from wrong, the Spirit of God speaks to our hearts and if we listen we will know just what to do. I know that this seems like some mystical fluff, but I do truley believe this. If The Father is always working, if Jesus is doing what His Father does, then the Spirit will always speak to us and direct us in our ministries. All we have to do is to put ourselves in a position to listen and act. We don’t have to worry about the rules totally, those are there to set general boundries in our lives. They basically boil down to Love God, and encourage humanity to do the same.
Jesus acted according to this rule. The religious leaders wanted to only follow the letter, not the purpose. How are we going to respond? He’s always working which means He is always working in an through you!
I don’t know how I feel about this post. In both my jobs I am very rules oriented. In my primary job I often have to punish rule breakers. In my other job I write rules. Being human, I am often hypocritical and break rules, both of man and of God. I know God forgives me, and I pay whatever penalty man imposes. I guess its the oddness of being Quaker that strikes me. We follow Gods rules yet often shun mans if it doesn’t meet with Gods, and are encouraged to do so. I know its what Jesus did (as you point out) but I think some people use it as an excuse to not follow any law they personally don’t agree with.
Posted by steve rice | July 1, 2011, 9:34 AM