Matthew 12:9-15
...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?" 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? How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath." 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. But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus. Pharisees came to Jesus not for the answers but rather to find evidence to accuse Jesus. Pharisees paid great attention to the laws, while neglecting that the real spiritual Sabbath was getting close to God. From another perspective, Pharisees were good intentioned: to help others not to violate laws. There is this phrase "Sabbath's walk" in the Bible. At the time of the Old Testament, one couldn't walk or perform tasks on Sabbath. At the time of the New Testament, if one needed to perform task on Sabbath, what could one do? Pharisees came up with "Sabbath's walk": on Sabbath, as long as one walked no more than "Sabbath's walk", it did not violate the law. If one needed to walk a longer distance, he first came to someone's home, and then from that home walked to another home. As long as every segment was less than the "Sabbath's walk", a person could walk a long distance. From the perspective of men, this was great. But in fact, they totally missed the point of why God created Sabbath.
Moreover, in Old Testament, when lending to a poor, one had to exempt all debt of a poor in the seventh's year. Because of that, when a poor wanted to borrow in year six, the wealthy would think: "The seventh's year is coming. His debt will all be exempted." As such, the wealthy wouldn't lend money to the poor. What could he do? Pharisees found a way out: the debt mentioned in the Bible belongs to personal lending. But if a wealthy person lent money to the Temple, and the Temple lent money to the poor, it was no longer a personal loan, but an institutional loan, which needed to be paid back. Pharisees thought of every ways so that people would not violate the laws. But in fact, what they did was to lose the true intention of God's merciful will.
God's plan is to have people come back to Him. God wants people to be forgiven from their debt. But people used all kinds of laws to move away from God's will. How pitiful it was! When we come to God, let us not follow the example of Pharisees. May God shine His light on us and examine our hearts. Pray with Pastor Tong 
Lord, may you help us not to be like a Pharisee. From deep down in our hearts, we want to be willing to get closer to you and follow your laws, so that your love and mercy will manifest from our lives. I thank you and I pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen! |
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