At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. 2 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.” 3 He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. 5 Or haven’t you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple desecrate the day and yet are innocent? 6 I tell you that one greater than the temple is here. 7 If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
9 Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, 10 and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”
11 He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. 14 But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.
When I read this section, and even the sections before and after it, I got so angry! The Pharisees are SO annyoing!! They remind me of my 5th graders who are just learning that it's not nice to tattle on someone else. A ten-year-old regularly tries to get their siblings in trouble, or blame their friends for what they did, or tell the teacher what someone else does wrong. And I can just hear the tone, the bratty, self-righteous tone that goes with it in my head. It's fresh to me because I just had the "if it has nothing to do with you and no one is being harmed, you're tattling" talk with one student yesterday, and now I feel that I need to have the same talk with Mr. Pharisee here.
I understand that they wanted to be exactly sure that this Jesus man wasn't pretending to be someone He's not. It's okay to use the intelligent mind that God gave us to question things and make wise decisions. That's not wrong! But the problem with the Pharisees is that they SAW, with their own eyes, Jesus healing people. They saw physical evidence that He is who He says He is...and they still chose not to believe, and not only that, they "plotted how they might kill Jesus" verse 14 says.
They hated Him. Later in this chapter, you can see how they will set up ways that they might be able to trick Him so that they could have some, ANY, evidence against Him in order to get rid of Him. Again and again in this chapter they taunt Him. Their hearts and minds were evil.
But Jesus is not blind to their schemes...He IS God, for heaven's sake! Later in verses 33-37, He says,
“Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”
We've spoken about this before, but the proof is in the fruit! The evidence that you are following and loving Christ is in your fruit. You may say you are a Christian, but what percentage of your day is spent doing things for others or learning more about your Lord? Yes, I used the word percentage. Each day we need to be serving Him or learning from Him. That is how we produce fruit! The Pharisees were reading scripture, but they weren't learning from it. They were using it to condemn others!
Perhaps you've heard the Native American parable where the little boy's grandfather tells him that each of us has a good dog and a bad dog living inside of us, helping us make our decisions. The little boy asks, "Which dog is bigger, Grandfather?" and the grandfather replies, "Whichever one you feed more." So is the same with our hearts, my friends. We don't become evil or Christ-like over night. It is a slow continual process of the small choices we make each day.
Jesus knows this to, and as he addresses the Pharisees for their evil ways in verses 43-45 (italics mine), He says,
“When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.”
It's a process. Our final condition today when we lay our heads on our pillows tonight can be worse or better than it was when we woke up this morning. It's our choice. What are we allowing in? With whom are we surrounding ourselves? What do we watch and read and listen to? Are you choosing things that will make you better for the Lord or worse.
Learn from what Jesus said about the Pharisees, my friends. It's time to make a choice. At any given moment today, I hope we make just the next right choice.
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