Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 6 verses 6 through 11:
6 On another Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was withered. 7 And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse him. 8 But he knew their thoughts, and he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come and stand here.” And he rose and stood there. 9 And Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?” 10 And after looking around at them all he said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” And he did so, and his hand was restored. 11 But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.
Here is an extraordinary story. Those who are said to be protecting what is holy (the Sabbath) by refusing people to be healed on the Sabbath get so obsessed with doing so that they end up defiling it with their malice. And so Jesus asks, is it lawful to do good (what he is doing) on the Sabbath or to do evil (what they are doing)?
And I remember some of the most angry and virulent things I've ever heard were spoken in defense of a baptistery and sanctuary against their "desecration" by the so-called "wrong" people.
It shows just how unholy our protection of the holy can really be and just how badly we can miss the whole point.
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