Good Morning Friends,
“Another time he went into the synagogue, and
a man with a shriveled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to
accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the
Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the
shriveled hand, ‘Stand up in front of everyone.’ Then Jesus asked them, ‘Which is lawful on the
Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?’ But they remained silent. He looked around at them in anger and, deeply
distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, ‘Stretch out your
hand.’ He stretched it out, and his hand
was completely restored. Then the
Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill
Jesus.” (Mark 3:1-6)
Jesus didn’t often get angry. The far more common emotion that we see in
Jesus’ response to people is compassion.
But there were times that are recorded in the Gospels when Jesus did get
angry. What’s interesting is what made
Jesus angry. What made Jesus angry are
not the things that you might think would do it. He didn’t get angry at the woman caught in
adultery. He didn’t get angry at the sin
of the people around Him. What made
Jesus angry was hypocrisy and stubborn hearts toward God.
The Pharisees were watching Jesus when He
went into the synagogue. They weren’t
watching Him to determine if what He said was true. They weren’t watching Him because they wanted
their own lives to be examined and purified.
They were watching Him because they wanted to trap Him. They wanted to find a way to accuse Him of
something that would get rid of Him.
The man with a shriveled hand that Jesus met
in the synagogue that Sabbath provided what the Pharisees were looking
for. When Jesus healed that man, the
Pharisees had their charge and began to plot Jesus’ death.
The point is, the Pharisees didn’t concern
themselves with the needs of the handicapped man. They had no compassion toward the hurts of
others. And they weren’t concerned about
learning anything new from God, they thought they had Him all figured out. And in their lack of compassion and their
stubborn pride, they missed what God was really saying to them.
A lack of compassion and stubborn pride will
always block us from hearing God!
His, by Grace,
Steve
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