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But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness Gal 5:22 |
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Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning. Monday, February 24, 2020
Today's Passage : Today's Passage :Take Up Your Bed and Walk Bible Verse :John 5:3-15 "Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” Jesus heals Bartimaeus The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him." Message:
Mosaic Law (that is, the set of laws governing Jewish conduct that began with Moses) had, in Jesus' time, two components. The first was the law itself, revealed by God and set down in Scripture (Exodus through Numbers in our Old Testament). The second was an extensive set of oral interpretations of these laws, created by the Pharisees and their forerunners; these were later collected into books (called, collectively, the Midrash and the Mishnah), and it is these that cause much of the friction between Jesus and the Pharisees.
Specifically, the fourth (or in many churches, third) commandment, “Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy”, was amplified into a long list of specific things that the Pharisees said could or could not be done between sundown on Friday and sundown on Saturday (the Jewish Sabbath), with specific exceptions for specific circumstances.
“Le Bon Pasteur” | “The Good Shepherd” | Champaigne
Obviously (from today's reading), carrying a bed is a task that the Pharisees' oral interpretation, but not the Scripture, forbade on the Sabbath. Remember that Christ did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. (Matthew 5:17) Christians can certainly follow Mosaic Law almost entirely. A good Christian can practically live as an Orthodox Jew (from the person's perspective — the Jews would not appreciate him spouting off about Christ, as they believe the Messiah has not yet come). But not quite. For example, the law that forbids eating a meal with a non-believer could easily run afoul of a Christian teaching.
It is still God's will that we respect the general meaning of the Ten Commandments and other parts of the Law of Moses, especially the so-called moral laws, but Christianity (with the authority of Christ's teaching) often reinterprets the letter of them. The most common case is respecting the Sabbath. Very few Christians observe the Sabbath or even know when it occurs. On the other hand, the meaning of the commandment is reinterpreted and followed by devotion on Sunday and, often by refusing to work, shop, etc. The Puritans followed an especially strict set of rules for Sunday conduct.
Most of us would be better off to pay more attention to keeping the Sabbath or Sundays holy. It really is God's will that we have a day when we do not work and do not cause others to work. But more to the point of the lesson today is the first glimpse we get, in John, of just how much authority Christ has asserted; he can act and teach that the very word of God concerning how men conduct their lives, the law given by God himself to Moses, has been changed because of his arrival. In short, he asserts the authority of God.
Meditation : Prayer : Now may the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the eternal high priest himself, the Son of God Jesus Christ, build up myself, and all Christians, in faith and truth, and in all gentleness and in all freedom from anger and forbearance and steadfastness and patient endurance and purity........Amen |
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