Which side will you take? (Matthew 12:11-13) March 14, 2016

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Genesis 40-43

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 12:11-13
Jesus: Look, imagine that one of you has a sheep that falls into a ditch on the Sabbath—what would you do?
(to the Pharisees) You would dive in and rescue your sheep. Now what is more valuable, a person or a sheep? So what do you think—should I heal this man on the Sabbath? Isn’t it lawful to do good deeds on the Sabbath? (to the man with the shriveled hand) Stretch out your hand.
As the man did so, his hand was completely healed, as good as new.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Do we get mixed up in what is really right and wrong? The Pharisees did. Jesus used this opportunity with their condemnation of His disciples for their gathering a handful of wheat to teach them a lesson about God’s goodness. What is really important? Doing good or setting and keeping stupid rules? Granted, the rules help to keep us in line most of the time, but sometimes, the rules just don’t make sense. That’s what He was trying to tell these holier-than-thou leaders. People are more important than rules. Relationships are more important than rituals.

Jesus caught these busy bodies at their own game. If one of your sheep falls in a ditch on the Sabbath, wouldn’t you rescue it? Of course you would. It’s important to you. It provides wool. It will provide meat on your table. Sometimes it becomes almost a pet. You would rescue that poor fallen sheep from the ditch despite the fact that it violates the letter of the law of the Sabbath. You wouldn’t let it lay there and die!

But these religious leaders were so lost in their rules they didn’t see that they forgot the people they were supposed to minister to. They forgot their mission was to share God’s word and His love to the lost in Israel and in the surrounding nations. They just played ‘gotcha’ with their rules whenever they saw someone putting a toe across the line.

It’s interesting that in this Sabbath day miracle, the Pharisees plot to kill Jesus because of His terrible violation of their law, but read carefully and you’ll find that Jesus did nothing to break the Sabbath. He didn’t lift a load. He didn’t walk farther than the law allowed. He went to the synagogue to worship on the Sabbath as He was accustomed. And there Jesus met a man with a shriveled hand.

What does Jesus do? He speaks to the man these words. “Stretch out your hand.” That’s it. Jesus didn’t touch him. He didn’t have any of his disciple touch him. Jesus didn’t bring in any salve or balm or medical instruments. All He did was give the man one simple direction. “Stretch out your hand.” Nothing more. Does that sound like He broke the Sabbath rules? It doesn’t to me. What did Jesus do that was so grievous? The man with the shriveled hand did all the work. He’s the one that stretched out his hand. Jesus just said four words to the man.

The Pharisees from this point on plotted to kill Jesus because of his healing on the Sabbath. Wow! They said He broke their rules. But did He? I’m not so sure. And even so, Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. He can do what He wants on that day. He’s the one that put in place. He’s the one that declared it a day of rest, but also the one who told the priests to minister to the rest of the tribes of Israel on that day. They could work without punishment, why not Him?

So what does all this mean for us? A great deal of things are wrong with our society today. We could go down a long list of pet pieves Christians have against different segments that our government ignores or even promotes that we know from God’s word are just not right. We see the degradation and disintegration of families, abortion, unemployment often encouraged by the way our welfare system operates, misuse of basic rights such as separation of church and state resulting in the discrimination of Christians in a world sliding further and further into the clutches of evil.

And we see some who call themselves Christian standing up against these injustices. But the way they do so, is equally wrong. When anti-abortion groups bomb abortion clinics or the homes of workers in those clinics, they are just as guilty of wrong doing as the abortionists? They are just like the Pharisees Jesus condemned that day. Just like those Pharisees, they forgot that people are more important than the rules. That doesn’t make abortion right and we should still stand against it, but not by protesting with equally sinful, illegal, wrongs against others.

Should we protest the disintegration of families? Absolutely! But not in ways that tarnish the name of our Savior. Two wrongs do not make a right. Jesus conquered with love. Jesus didn’t break the law to bring real justice to those who suffered. He didn’t strike out against the leaders in ways that negated the law. Remember, Jesus came to fulfill the law and to teach others what the law means in relation to our interface with God and with others.

Jesus came to leave a legacy of real peace between us, our fellow man, and God. That doesn’t happen by breaking laws. It happens through extending God’s love to everyone we meet. It happens by remembering that every person is someone God created and deserves our respect and attention. It happens when we make people more important than the law and God more important than anything else in our lives.

Which side will you take? The Pharisees’ or Jesus’?

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
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