Workin’ on it!
It seems to me that there are some things you can do on the Sabbath to ensure the well-being of the body. As Jesus said “it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath”. Remember though, the law did not provide for you to do anything on the Sabbath. You couldn’t do some work for a neighbor, you couldn’t exert yourself in any way (for instance, preparing food). So what Jesus is saying is refocusing the people somewhat. They had become so intent on keeping the letter of the law that they had begun to violate the spirit of it. They were willing to allow people to suffer in order to say “we are keeping the law”. Ironically, the law was meant to help us, and they were using it to justify allowing people to be hurt.
In His teachings about the Sabbath, Jesus is gently reorienting the people toward helping each other, building relationship while not violating the commandments given to Moses. There is a second possibility for their questioning: they were hard-hearted and looking for any way to stir up trouble for Jesus. Sometimes you find both of those attitudes in the church today: people who have innocently gotten “off track” and people who have an ulterior motive to see you fail.
Mark and Luke both list the names of the 12 disciples. Isn’t it funny that we have a hard time remembering them all? Some were very popular, but others are almost unknown. I wonder what Jesus used as criteria to select these 12 men? I know they weren’t the only 12 following him…there were others who spent just as much time with Jesus as they did. The reason I know that is because Matthias is chosen to replace Judas, and the criteria to be a disciple was that you had to be with Him for His entire ministry.
In Luke there is a great deal of additional teaching regarding how we are to act as Christians:
I don’t think Luke is saying that people who are wealthy now are condemned later. Jesus is saying that anyone who comes to Him must recognize that he is poor and needy (spiritually), and those who were trusting in their worldly wealth were not willing to make such a statement. They were happy now, they weren’t sad because they recognized their sin. Those who trust in their own strength are happy now, but there will come a time when they are weak….sadly it will be too late to repent by then.
Those who “grieve” now, and by that I mean those who are saddened by their sin and humbly ask to be forgiven will be “poor and needy” now, but wealthy and confident later. Again, I don’t think that physical resources have much to do with what Jesus was talking about here. It was more about TRUSTING in physical resources.
And this is what separates the Christian from the crowd: The reality that we are suffering here for a reward in heaven. If someone persecutes me on earth, it cannot remove my eternal blessing….so I put up with it cheerfully. In fact, if I am persecuted because of my faith, then I will actually increase my eternal reward. I “turn the other cheek” gladly, because persecution here is a blessing in heaven. One day in heaven we will look back at everything that was done to persecute us and celebrate the fact that we remained faithful through it all. What maturity!
So we arrive at the teaching about the two houses. The house that builds on solid rock is the house that follows the teachings of Jesus. The house that isn’t moved from it’s foundation is the person who turns the other cheek, doesn’t judge, blesses others…even their enemies. This kind, gentle, longsuffering soul is probably seen as weaker by society, and more prone to be taken advantage of… but in reality they are the strongest ones.
Faithfully,
PR