1st Friday of Lent (March 14). COME AND STAND HERE

Prepare to Listen.  My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.
 
Prayerfully Read Luke 6:6-11
6On another sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught, and there was a man there whose right hand was withered.  7The scribes and the Pharisees watched him to see whether he would cure on the sabbath, so that they might find an accusation against him.  8Even though he knew what they were thinking, he said to the man who had the withered hand, ‘Come and stand here.’  He got up and stood there.  9Then Jesus said to them, ‘I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to destroy it?’  10After looking around at all of them, he said to him, ‘Stretch out your hand.’  He did so, and his hand was restored.  11But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.
 
Prayerfully Wonder and Reflect
Why do you think the man obeyed Jesus’ command, risking the anger of his religious rulers?
 
Another sabbath, another synagogue, the same reaction from the religious rulers.  Jesus upset their apple cart, defied their authority in the synagogue.  It filled them with fury.  They claimed, “The old is good,”[1] and resisted change.  They rigidly adhered to their interpretations of the law that resulted in cruelty not compassion.
 
I once heard a Christian radio preacher proclaim, “Compassion is tantamount to endorsement.”  Perhaps, after Jesus’ act of compassion in the synagogue on the Sabbath, he’d join the scribes and Pharisees who “were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.”
 
Jesus refused to back down.  When he saw the man with a withered hand, he said, “Come and stand here;” here where everyone could see him with his useless, ugly hand, here where the diseased were forbidden.  Braving ridicule and rebuke from his religious rulers he “got up and stood there,” right next to Jesus for all to see.  Knowing what the rulers were thinking, Jesus asked: “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to destroy it?”  The answer should be obvious, but the rulers were silenced, because they’d gotten sabbath wrong.  They clung to their old ways and were enraged when Jesus ignored them and healed the man.  It’s as though Jesus said to them, “It may be your kind of sabbath to leave [people] hungry and disabled.  My kind of sabbath is different.”[2]  Compassion must take precedence.  Always.
 
What matters to you—keeping the rules or compassion?  Why?  What are you learning or unlearning about Jesus?
 
Prayerfully Respond
Lord Jesus, for all those suffering because of rigid rules that lack compassion, I pray to you for their healing and wholeness.  Amen.
 
Live obediently.  Let compassion rule you today.
[1] See meditation for 1st Wednesday on Luke 5:33-39.
[2] Wilcock, Michael.  The Message of Luke.  Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press.  1979, p. 76.