Today I read Luke 13, it starts off with the Savior teaching in a synagogue on the Sabbath. There is a woman there while He is teaching and based on what it sounds like Luke is describing, she had an evil spirit in her for 18 years and she was so hunched over that she could not stand up straight. Jesus had her come over to Him and healed her. The thought occurred to me that Jesus never passes up an opportunity to teach. Actually the first thought I had was that Jesus likes to antagonize the Pharisees and the leaders of the Jews. But after reflecting on it awhile, I think it was more He did not like to pass up opportunities to teach.
The reason I say this is because the scriptures have several stories where the Savior healed someone without touching them. In fact, there are some stories where He is not even in the same part of the city as the people He heals, such as the centurion's servant. The centurion sent a messenger to ask Jesus to come heal his servant and then sent another servant almost immediately afterwards asking Jesus to just say the word and his servant would be healed. Jesus had compassion on the Roman and did as He was asked and the centurion's servant was indeed healed. I bring this up because Jesus heals this woman of her 18 year affliction by touching her, which is honestly probably the reason the leader of the synagogue got upset with Him for healing on the Sabbath day.
Now, Jesus could easily have just said, "Be healed" and it would have been so. But He heals her this way on purpose so that the leader of the synagogue will say something about it, hence my first thought that He likes to antagonize the Pharisees. However, I do not believe that His reasons for doing this to the Pharisees is solely to get a rise out of them, that is not how Jesus does things. Rather it was so that He could teach them that to heal on the Sabbath is doing the Lord's work. He wants them to know that by keeping the Sabbath day the way they have been so far is not in keeping with the commandment and they are missing the mark, something He has been trying to teach them His entire ministry. Happily enough, this time it seems to work. When He gives the example of feeding and watering their animals on the Sabbath, Luke states that the Pharisees are ashamed of themselves.
It really made me think, do I take advantage of all the opportunities I have to share the Gospel as Christ did? Unfortunately the answer is no. There are times where I could easily stand up for what is right a little quicker or help those in need a little faster. This story has helped me realize that while I don't need to antagonize people the way Jesus did to teach them, I do need to do a better job of standing up for what is right and making sure I don't pass up opportunities to teach those around me, even if only by example.
The other part of this chapter that stands out to is towards the end where some Pharisees actually warn Jesus to leave the city otherwise, Herod will have Him killed. I must admit I did not remember this before today and this re-reading. I do not recall any Pharisees being friendly to Jesus except Nicodemus, and his friendship only went so far. However, it would seem that not all the Pharisees were antagonistic against Jesus and perhaps more than we realize accepted His words and teachings and repented of their ways. We are not really told but this verse makes it seem as if such is the case. It's a neat little aside anyway.
The rest of the chapter is Jesus talking about the church on the earth. He uses a parable of how the church on the earth is like leaven used in baking, how it is put into the bread, or meal as Jesus states it here, and it rises to fill the entire loaf. Such is the kingdom of God here on the earth. It starts from humble beginnings, but eventually it rises and encompasses the entire earth, just as Daniel saw in his vision so many thousands of years ago. The work of God goes forward and cannot be stopped, not by Satan or the hands of man. It will go forward despite man's best efforts to frustrate the work. They succeeded for a time in frustrating it and delaying it, but it has been restored in it's fulness in our day and will never be taken from the earth again. It is here to stay and will be preached to all the world. Everyone will have a chance to accept or reject the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is because He loves and wants us to return to live with Him someday if such is our desire. It will take as long as it takes, but I promise it is in the Lords hands, and that is very comforting indeed. Until tomorrow.
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