Monday, October 3, 2016

60 Jesus and the Sabbath


The religious authorities are not amused. It's the Sabbath, a day of rest during the Jewish week, and people aren't supposed to be doing any work at all. That includes carrying mats. The man tells them that he was just healed by a guy who told him it was okay to pick up his mat and start walking. The religious authorities are horrified and demand to know who exactly this healer is who instructs people to disobey the Sabbath. This is not looking good for Jesus. But the man can't identify Jesus because he has disappeared into the crowd of people. Later, Jesus runs into the formerly sick man, who rats him out to the religious authorities. The religious authorities start to verbally attack Jesus, asking why he would be doing work on the Sabbath. But Jesus replies that, since God is working on the Sabbath, he will, too. He calls God his "Father." These words make the religious authorities even more outraged. First he works on the Sabbath and now he's calling God "Father"? They are not happy with this Jesus. Now they want Jesus dead.

Jesus begins to tell it like it is. He explains to the religious authorities that he can't do anything that hasn't been okayed by God. More info from Jesus: God loves his Son and tells him everything he knows so that the Son can astonish people with all his good works. God isn't going to be pleased with the people who don't accept Jesus; if you don't accept Jesus, you aren't being faithful to God. He criticizes the religious authorities for searching through the Bible to try to find the secret to eternal life, but still refusing to believe in Jesus who is standing right in front of them. Then Jesus tells them that they don't really love God at all.

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