a sample from SON OF MAN, VOL. 2

If there’s one thing Jesus loved to do, it was stuff on the Sabbath day. He never violated the Old Law’s commandments regarding keeping the Sabbath holy, but He also didn’t hold to the twisted interpretations of those commandments as laid out by the so-called religious leaders of the day.

Here’s a sample from the section entitled “The Lord of the Sabbath,” where Jesus contends with those same twisted leaders…

LUKE 14:1-24

 The next chapter of Luke continues with the story. After such a great Sabbath day miracle, you can be sure His enemies would be watching the Lord closely, to find anything He might do on the Holy Day that they might have cause to condemn Him. When the Lord went to eat bread with one of the chief Pharisees on the Sabbath, His adversaries “watched Him,” hoping for Him to stumble… which is exactly how you want your “religious leaders” to behave!

Sure enough, another maligned man approached the Lord. This one had “the dropsy.” This was a terrible condition that caused, among other things, the extremities to swell with fluid. Whether this man was strategically placed next to Jesus by the Pharisees, or if the Providence of God put him there we don’t know. Either way, the Lord did what was right.

But before He acted, Jesus asked a question to the lawyers and Pharisees gathered nearby: “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath Day?” They held their peace, however, and did not answer, knowing better than to put themselves in a no-win scenario. Little did they know they were already in one!

Jesus healed the man immediately and let Him go, just as He had done with the woman earlier. Clearly there was some murmuring in response to His actions, so Jesus answered them, saying “which of you shall have a mule fall into a pit and won’t straightway pull him out, even if it was on the Sabbath?” This was the same basic question He had previously asked; this was the kind of “healing” He was referring to.

His critics of course did not answer, nor could they. To give the right answer you would need a tender heart which they did not possess. As such, they were blind to the obvious Truth He was teaching. Any honest person would conclude that doing something selfless and merciful, even on the Sabbath (especially on the Sabbath, Jesus would argue), is good and right.

The idea of not doing work on the seventh day is rooted in preventing men from helping themselves on the holy day. Why should helping someone else be a violation of that principle? Jesus understood that; the common people understood that; the maligned victims needing healing understood that.

Everyone in the Kingdom gets it. The Pharisees are the only ones who don’t seem to be with the program…

 Volume Two should be done later this month, but the final volume won’t be finished until early next year, Lord willing.