(The following is the April 12 devotional from my Next Step Devotions book. Before reading it, I suggest you read John 5 and pay close attention to verses 1-16.)
Jesus occasionally acted on the Sabbath in ways that upset Jewish religious leaders. Through the centuries, leaders had added hundreds of rules to what God spoke through his Word and treated them as authoritative as Scripture. Some regulations imposed restrictions on what Jews could do on the Sabbath.
Once, Jesus healed a man who had been disabled for 38 years, saying, “‘Get up, pick up your mat and walk.’ Instantly the man got well, picked up his mat, and started to walk” (v. 8). One would hope such a miracle would lead others to praise God. Instead, many responded by focusing on their unscriptural rules, saying to the healed man, “This is the Sabbath. The law prohibits you from picking up your mat” (v. 10). After learning Jesus healed him, “the Jews began persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on the Sabbath” (v. 16).
Can you imagine? After seeing the man disabled for 38 years, witnesses should have been in awe at what they saw. Even those not present for the miracle should have recognized that one must have occurred when they saw the man walking. Instead, they focused on a rule that forbade lifting a mat on the Sabbath. How petty could they be, blind to the power and presence of the Messiah?
We should obey God’s Word, never dismissing any of it to suit ourselves. We must, however, separate our additions to God’s Word from the Bible itself. We should not be so focused on human rules that we fail to see and celebrate God’s activity in the world, some of which will likely challenge our limited understanding of how he acts.
Next Step:
Have you ever withheld excitement for someone else in whom God is working because some details of their experience did not fit your expectations? Examine such occasions by what Scripture teaches versus your personal preferences and experience. Thank God for his work in others, even when done in ways you don’t understand.
