Today's passage is Luke 6:1-11.
When the Pharisees complain that Jesus' disciples are picking and eating grain on the Sabbath, Jesus refers them to David''s taking and eating consecrated bread. He says he is the Lord of the Sabbath. He heals a man's crippled hand in the synagogue on the Sabbath, angering the Pharisees.
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Why does Jesus use the extreme example of David? Why does he heal someonewho didn't ask for healing?
#65279;Because the Pharisees are extremely concerned about the small points of the law, Jesus gives them extreme cases of breaking the Sabbath rule to help them see they are misapplying the intention of keeping the Sabbath holy.
Is it lawful, he asks them, "to do good or evil" (9) on the Sabbath? They have to answer that doing good is lawful because to do evil is never lawful no matter what the day.
So too with "save life or destroy it"(9). How can it possibly be unlawful to save life on the Sabbath?
By refusing to do good on the Sabbath, he shows the Pharisees that they are doing evil.
That's why they hate him.
That's why he heals the man's hand.
That's why hospitals are open on Sunday.
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In one way I feel sympathy for the man with the crippled hand because, althouh Jesus healed him, he first made a spectacle of him in front of everyone at church.
"Get up and stand in front of everyone" (8), Jesus tells him.
Poor guy! He's had to live with a "shriveled hand" (8), which people would have said is a result of his sin.
Not only is Jesus making him stand up in front of everyone, he goes further by telling him to show his shriveled sin, his aadge of sin and social exclusion, to the crowd.
But then--wow!--he's healed because he was obedient. In an instant he goes from being a model of sin to a model of God's grace!
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That's just how I felt when I had to give my testimony in front of the church.
I felt exposed. I still feel that way when I share my sins in mokjang.
I don't like showing my shriveled hand of sin but that is the Lord's command.
Now when I confess I feel the healing, the lessening of my burden.
But on the first time I didn't know what was going to happen, just like the man in today's passage.
It's scary because it's embarrassing.
My pride wants to show my good hand, not my shriveled one.
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Application: to keep being obedient to the Lord by continuing to show my shriveled hand.
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Lord, let me be free to trust in you, to accept your courage to stand before thecrowd and show my shriveled hand and be healed.
