Good things.

  On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, "get up and stand in front of everyone." So he got up and stood there.

  Then Jesus said to them, "I ask you which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or destroy it?" (Luke 6:6-9)

Earlier this week I read this passage and had one of those great moments where I naturally laughed aloud and kinda shook my head as if to say, "Jesus would do that," like He's a close friend of mine, known for a certain kind of antics.

The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Get up and stand in front of everyone." (vv. 7-8)

The Lord knew these awful characters were trying to trap him and He didn't turn away. He walked right into (or up to) the trap. He doesn't fear them, He doesn't submit them, He cannot be trapped, and they cannot even take His life unless He chooses to give it up. I saw that He is bold and strong. I saw that He knows the truth and the law and righteousness so intimately that He can only do good all the time. He's perfectly wise and perfectly aware. Oh, that Jesus.


The story continues:

He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He did so and his hand was completely restored. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus. (Luke 6:10-11)

A man stretched out his shriveled (i.e. unusable, work-prohibiting, income-restricting, shame-bringing) hand at another man's command and it was completely restored. And the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were furious. This is the wrong reaction. This is the very wrongest reaction. Whose law are they teaching? What religion do they profess? You see a man receive miraculous healing, you see good done and life saved on the Sabbath and it infuriates you??

I have definitely read this passage and others like it numerous times before but I still found it chilling when I read it last week. Can you be so far gone? Can your heart be so hard? Can you be so opposed to God and so opposed to good that you are furious when you see Him healing, teaching, showing compassion, and fulfilling (not violating or dismissing) the Law?

I wonder about that heart and I wonder if I had the same one before Christ rescued me. I wonder if I would have eventually developed that heart given a few more years without being rescued.

The longer I've been a Christian the more I've been conformed to God's truth, to absolute truth, to objective reality. I seem to "get" Jesus (I mean this almost like grasping His stature or ontology, His Jesus-ness) in such a way that I can be deeply indignant when He is slighted or totally confounded when people (as recorded in Scripture or as I encounter in my daily life) fail to recognise His veracity, nature, and authority. I guess as I notice the transforming or refining I am also forced to realise that it doesn't come from me. I could never self-refine in this way. What an amazing thing. To turn a rebel into a loyal, adoring subject and soldier. To really change someone. To Ezekiel 37 them. Amazing.

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The following happened a couple of months ago and I've been looking for a good context in which to share it.

Our vacuum cleaner had been giving me grief for several months, leaving behind frustrating piles of things it should be picking up. I cleaned out the canister and lint trap and every normal cloggable spot many times and it never seemed to make a difference.

One day, completely fed up, I asked my housemate to use her engineering brain on the problem. She eventually discovered that a certain hose had a remarkable amount of pine needles stuck in it (from her last Christmas tree). As if crafted by expert beavers, it had formed a magnificent dam for as much dust and hair as you could want. It was disgusting to watch it come out, clump after clump, but it was such a relief to know the problem was being sorted (without needing to replace parts or the entire vacuum).

Ten or fifteen minutes later, it was reassembled and I was happily running it over the living room carpet. After so many months of doing an inadequate job and feeling frustrated that I couldn't fix it, I was very relieved and delighted to have the thing in good working order. I blurted, "Ahh, this is so great!" because I really was glad about getting such a deep clean.

My housemate replies, "Yeah, it's doing what it's supposed to do instead of making messes everywhere!" Without thinking, I added, "Just like we will be in Heaven!"

And there was a little moment of profound, grinning silence as we reflected on that great, great future. It will be nice when we work properly. It will be nice to operate at peak, unhindered performance instead of being inadequate and only making messes.

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!