Friday, 10 March 2017

Luke 14 One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” And they could not reply to these things. Will you not respond immediately when your own family is in need? your own child? Or your own possessions threatened? Why then do we hesitate when we meet a person in need? Why then do we make excuses? The Pharisees said Jesus should not help because the Sabbath was a day of rest. But Jesus said this was hypocrisy. They would have worked to help their own child if he was in trouble. We do the same. We justify our refusals to help with various Biblical arguments. They sound good at first, but are not based on deep reflection on the teachings of Jesus. We say: “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.” We use it as an excuse to not help a man who is suffering right there in front of us. We say: He needs spiritual help, not physical help. He certainly needs the gospel, but he also may need a handout. We say: I don’t have time to help because I am doing this other good Christian work. Never let Christian service keep you from helping the poor. We say: This man needs development not relief. But is this an excuse to not help him, until he has jumped through the hoops we have set for him? We assume someone who is needy is inferior and we want to ADVISE him. Give him our WISDOM. That is an arrogant assumption. The needy are often much holier than us. One last question: Why do we use the Lord’s Day only for public worship and rest. When our Lord has set an example for us that it must also be used for works of mercy?