FRIDAY, 15 AUGUST
TEXT: JOHN 5:1-15
TOPIC: SACRIFICING LOVE ON THE ALTAR OF LAW
Jesus had gone to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals (5:1). While there, He headed to the pool of Bethesda, where He met diseased people poised to enter the pool when the water is stirred.
But Jesus developed an interest in just one of such people who had been bedridden for 38 years, meaning he had been in that condition ever before the birth of Jesus.
He approached the crippled man and asked, “Do you want to get well?” The man’s response revealed that he wanted healing but could not access the means of healing available to him. Jesus healed him without recourse to the familiar pool’s potency.
The Jewish religious leaders, who were accustomed to seeing the diseased who desperately needed help, did not share the joy of this man who had been healed. Instead, they accused him of breaking the religious constitution by carrying a mat on a Sabbath day.
They equally accused Jesus of breaking the law and the Constitution by healing a man on a Sabbath day.
QUESTION
Do we sometimes use ecclesiastical laws, constitution and bye-laws to trample on the greatest law, which says we should love one another?
PRAYER
Dear Lord, may I not be like the Jewish religious leaders who are more concerned about laws than love, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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