Mark 2: 27, 28 “And He said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.”
Dear God,
How You must long for the day when Your children on earth, will have transformed bodies, at the second coming of Jesus. You see me with absolute love, even though at this time my ‘soul’ is housed in a sin ravaged body. You see my body as it was originally meant to be, perfect and made in Your image. Sadly my present body is not able to reflect Your image. Sin, suffering and death are my inheritance, because the usurper of Your ownership, Satan, led Adam into sin. Another consequence of the legacy Adam has passed on, is that I have sin affected thought processes and attitudes, combined with the fact I am much less mentally and emotionally able than were Adam and Eve.
We have other aspects of our character that come to the fore in a way that does not always bring balanced interactions within ourselves and with others. Also we are now more likely to be selfish, self-opinionated, proud, arrogant, filled with prejudice and criticism, to name just a few of our possible unlovely attitudes.
I do not have to allow these unlovely characteristics to be my usual way of living and responding to people and situations, for You have promised, by the Holy Spirit I can gradually become more like You. I choose today, to humble myself before You , and allow the Spirit to lead me.
In the time of Jesus, we see these attitudes coming out as illustrated by the uncaring prejudice of the priests and leaders in the time of Christ. The priests had never had or had lost their love for God and their fellow man, in their preoccupation with man invented efforts to live to the letter of Sabbath observance; to the point of making the Sabbath burdensome – for it was not focused on God and His love toward us, and our loving response to Him. This is why they ‘picked’ on Jesus, when His disciples, plucked some grains of wheat on the way to the temple; because they were hungry one Sabbath, having not yet eaten. Like cats ready to pounce they frequently waited for Jesus to transgress one of their man made traditions, or additions to God’s commandments. Mark 3: 1, 2 “And He entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand. So they watched Him closely, whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. And He said to the man who had the withered hand. ‘Step forward.’” In no way was Jesus deterred from undertaking healing and ministry on the Sabbath day.
The religious leaders had missed the point to the message of Your love in the Sabbath wanting to spend special time with them, for they for the main were about observing prescribed performance in themselves and others.
How easy it is for me (us) to have a closed critical mind which leads to being hung up with how I and others should be doing this or that, and thereby miss the point of having a profitable relationship with You, which only comes when my (our) interactions and responses are due to love and not a sense of duty alone.
Please forgive me for any of these transgressions, and send Your Spirit to lead me to You.
Amen