At the heart of things

Luke 14:1-6  ¹One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched. ²There in front of him was a man suffering from dropsy. ³Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?" ⁴But they remained silent. So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him away.
 ⁵Then he asked them, "If one of you has a son or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull him out?" ⁶And they had nothing to say."

 It is such a relief to learn that Jesus is not all about rules. The Pharisees took the commandment from God to "remember the Sabbath day" so literally that they would not work on the Sabbath (or "God's day" Saturday for them, Sunday for us), but what Jesus so skillfully shows them is that they missed the point AND they took the commandment out of context.

The point was that the commandment was to "take a break" from the busyness of life, spend time with God so you remember the important things (like how to treat people) and remember to take time for family and friends. The Sabbath was for our benefit not because God "needed" to be worshiped, but so that we could have a great life. A life with meaning and purpose. I mean let's face it, if God IS God then he can create any number of things, people, angels to worship Him, he certainly doesn't need us to worship Him!

The "out of context" part of this story was that the Pharisees made up laws all around "remembering the Sabbath" but forgot to include the other commandments in those laws...like "love your neighbor as you love yourself"! So here was this guy that needed healing...Jesus was the guy that could do it, and instead of the Pharisees getting all excited that Jesus could heal this guy, they want to see if Jesus will keep their "don't work on the Sabbath" law. They were trying to use the guy to try and trap Jesus into disobeying a commandment. Thankfully Jesus gets to the heart of the law and stands up for the little guy, heals him and sends him on his way. Hmmm, I think they missed the point.

I think we miss the point too sometimes. Have you gotten so caught up in trying to make your life perfect or trying to be perfect that you have missed the point? Hmmm, I can honestly say I have...many times.

I am glad that God doesn't make the same mistake. He is quick to forgive when we get selfish and self-centered (which is too often) and remind us that we are important to Him, encouraging us to try again. And you know...the more time I spend with Him, the better I seem to be at understanding His heart.