Good evening … Great is His faithfulness …
DAY 26: BLIND EYE
Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath
6 Now it happened [a]on the second Sabbath after the first that He went through the grainfields. And His disciples plucked the heads of grain and ate them, rubbing them in their hands. 2 And some of the Pharisees said to them, “Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?”
3 But Jesus answering them said, “Have you not even read this, what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: 4 how he went into the house of God, took and ate the showbread, and also gave some to those with him, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat?” 5 And He said to them, “The Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.”
Healing on the Sabbath
6 Now it happened on another Sabbath, also, that He entered the synagogue and taught. And a man was there whose right hand was withered. 7 So the scribes and Pharisees watched Him closely, whether He would heal on the Sabbath, that they might find an accusation against Him.
Luke 6:1-7
- SECOND SABBATH AFTER THE FIRST: According to the commentary of the Orthodox Study Bible – This term was used when a Jewish feast followed the normal Sabbath, for both were known as the Sabbath … St. Ambrose, on the term “second Sabbath”, serves as an image of the new covenant and the eternal resurrection: the first Sabbath indicates the Law, while the second Sabbath indicates the gospel that follows it … With the new covenant, the food that was at one point NOT LAWFUL for anyone but the priests to eat is now freely given to all by the LORD OF THE SABBATH – (v. 5) … DAVID prefigured this when he gave the SHOWBREAD … TO THOSE WITH HIM – (vv. 3, 4) …
The Scribes and Pharisees – were stubborn, hard of heart, and extremely arrogant … They built up around the Law, that it was unlawful and considered to be work, to heal anyone on the Sabbath … They believed they served God by holding steadfast in these traditions, but instead their attitudes made them insensitive to God’s mercy …
Matthew 16:12
12 Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the [a]doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees
- According to The Explanation by Blessed Theophylact of THE HOLY GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW
The disciples first thought Jesus was referring to guarding themselves from the stains of Jewish food, and that’s why they reasoned amongst themselves is why they had brought no bread … Jesus rebukes their little faith, for being mindless and not remembering when He fed the people with many loaves; there they showed little faith by not believing Christ Himself could provide bread even though they had none or very little … Jesus’ rebuke to their meekness indicated that meekness is not good on every occasion – But immediately they understood that by “LEAVEN” – That Christ actually meant “TEACHING” … Beware of hypocrisy is what Jesus was indicating …
Moving Forward
1: Obviously we can’t respond to every need, but think of time you could have but didn’t … Why did you turn away??? How would you handle it now if you got a second chance??? No, we can’t respond to every need, and the Lord doesn’t expect us too … I can’t think of time where I could have helped but didn’t, but this question is making me think about how hard I try and ministry to come up short … I have helped a few people and those people are extremely thankful for me bringing the Word of God into their lives … I recently tried to help some veterans at the Eugene Vet Center Wellness Group … It seems my message wasn’t received the way I was praying and hoping for … I will never turn away from the veterans or deny them help, but I’m struggling with this one fact … Many of these veterans, and this is just my own thoughts, many of them really do not want help it seems they want misery to keep living in darkness … How can one help those who are unwilling to receive help and basically balk at everything … What could have been different maybe I should have been live in person instead of a video recording of my message, but if people do not want to accept the help, I doubt me being there would have made a difference …
2: Why did Jesus respond to needy people the way He did??? What do you think He saw when He looked at them??? I can’t speak for Jesus, and I doubt I can even imagine what He saw or what He was thinking, we can’t think like God, but what I can say He responded the way a true God would with love and compassion and merciful …
3: List some ways you could react to obvious need in the future, in addition to giving money … That answer is too easy … This question is personal never let your right hand know what your left hand is doing, we aren’t even supposed to congratulate ourselves in private, we give in humility, that is the way of Jesus …
Prayer Focus:
Thank God He didn’t turn His eyes from your need, repent of when you’ve behaved like a Pharisee, and ask Him for the same heart for the needy as Christ had …
PSALM 93 (94) – Part of this evening’s prayer focus …
In Christ Love Jared W Campbell
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