Compassion Overrides Legalism

 

Luke 13:10-17

Jesus Heals a Crippled Woman on the Sabbath

¹⁰ On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, ¹¹ and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. ¹² When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” ¹³ Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.

¹⁴ Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”

¹⁵ The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? ¹⁶ Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”

¹⁷ When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.

Clearly Jesus demonstrates that the well-being of another outweighs a strict adherence to the "letter of the law." The cure of this woman's infirmity certainly took precedence over the regulation against working on the Sabbath. Sometimes we find ourselves in a similar situation where we have to work on Sunday to support our family or to help someone in need. What makes us more God-like, compassion or strict adherence to the law? Jesus gives us the answer.

Bro. Rene

Dear God help me to be compassionate and flexible, as Jesus was, without flauntingly disregarding "the rules".Amen.