Luke 13:10-17 drops us into Jesus' healing of a woman afflicted by some malady that caused her to live hunched over for 18 years. Eugene Peterson's translation ascribes her condition to severe arthritis and I can see that being the case. At odds with Jesus, is the ruler of the synagogue that Jesus was teaching at. This miracle freeing of the afflicted woman occurred on the Sabbath and the offended rabbi threw out the yellow penalty flag claiming that Jesus broke the law. Jesus shames him publicly because the ruler was a hypocrite, one who had no issue untying his ox or donkey on Sabbath to lead it water but had issue with another human being freed. So what gives?
The rabbi, who must have been serving in the synagogue for years, had never seen any supernatural demonstrations of the goodness and grace of God and suddenly this traveling preacher shows up and BAM, miracles! I think it is possible that the man's pride, envy and jealousy got the best of him and he reacted by crying foul. It's hard thing to serve faithfully and not see any gains or fruit of your labor and even harder when those tangible gains are given by someone else.
So how do we move past our own pride, envy and jealousy when others get to be used by God to make amazing Kingdom things happen?
Recognize that pride, envy and jealousy are our default sinful responses. Recognize that we all think we should be the ones to be used by God in publicly awesome ways. The deal is that God does not seem to think so. He chooses to do what he does through whomever he chooses. We need to confess and repent of our sinful responses
Join the party. Our responses to God's demonstrations of goodness, grace and love through other's should be met with holy high-fives, praise emoji's and worship. Let's be the kind of brothers and sisters in the LORD that are happy and excited about all the ways God is using people to bring about His goodness, mercy and love
Church Recap: Luke 13:10-17
Luke 13:10-17 drops us into Jesus' healing of a woman afflicted by some malady that caused her to live hunched over for 18 years. Eugene Peterson's translation ascribes her condition to severe arthritis and I can see that being the case. At odds with Jesus, is the ruler of the synagogue that Jesus was teaching at. This miracle freeing of the afflicted woman occurred on the Sabbath and the offended rabbi threw out the yellow penalty flag claiming that Jesus broke the law. Jesus shames him publicly because the ruler was a hypocrite, one who had no issue untying his ox or donkey on Sabbath to lead it water but had issue with another human being freed. So what gives?
The rabbi, who must have been serving in the synagogue for years, had never seen any supernatural demonstrations of the goodness and grace of God and suddenly this traveling preacher shows up and BAM, miracles! I think it is possible that the man's pride, envy and jealousy got the best of him and he reacted by crying foul. It's hard thing to serve faithfully and not see any gains or fruit of your labor and even harder when those tangible gains are given by someone else.
So how do we move past our own pride, envy and jealousy when others get to be used by God to make amazing Kingdom things happen?