Greetings, dear people.
Another beautiful Spring morning here. I intend to do my little old man walk/jog after sending this. After that I need to stay very busy with some deadline work facing me. I’ve agreed to mill and fabricate a 12’x16’ shelter for customers at a coffee bar in Dallas. I need to have the whole thing ready to assemble on site tomorrow.
Be blessed and have a great time doing what you need to do today. Ray.
Religious legalism always seems to be mad about something. In this case the Jewish leaders were all ticked off at the sight of Jesus’ disciples eating a few wheat seeds on the Sabbath. They equated it with the work of harvesting—a serious no-no on the Sabbath.
For many Christians who are in love with their own list of legalisms—transferring the Old Testament rules surrounding Saturday (the Sabbath) to Sunday—lots of other distortions and inequities abound. One that has amused me for years is the fact that many believers who don’t think it’s right to work on Sunday are happy to expect others to work on Sunday—while they pork out at a restaurant after church, or buy stuff from working people at a store or fuel station.
I remember stirring up some legalistic anger once years ago in the Marshall Islands. There was a ripe breadfruit on a branch hanging over our house which I decided to go up and pluck one Sunday after church, then cook it up for lunch. A village lady saw me do it and vented her anger over this gross violation of missionary conduct. I was ignorant—but I learned real fast that this was a serious no-no on the “Sabbath.” And I had to wonder if that lady placed as much importance on her Biblical DO’s as she did on her legalistic DON’Ts.
If you and I can discern what delights a person as well as what makes that person mad—then compare all that with the standard of the WORKS OF THE FLESH and FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT as listed in Galatians 5, I think we will come up with a fairly accurate overview of that person’s character and level of spiritual health.
Using that standard of measurement to critique these “Jewish religious leaders” makes them come up seriously lacking. Another example is presented in this reading where Jesus heals a man with “a deformed right hand.” One would expect such a beneficial miracle to prompt rejoicing. But, as it was, it was on a Sabbath, which caused that brand of legalism to regard it as a serious violation of the non-work rule. Instead of rejoicing, “The room erupted with bitter rage because of this Sabbath-day healing” (v.11, TPT). Go figure!
We are wise to include self-examination in our figuring.