"And, behold, there was a man which had his hand withered. And they asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath days? that they might accuse him.
And he said unto them, What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out?
How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days.
Then saith he to the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it forth; and it was restored whole, like as the other.
Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him, how they might destroy him.
But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from thence: and great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all;"
Matthew 12:10-15
So, Jesus was going about and doing good. Specifically, he was healing people. Not just a few... we see from the last verse in this selection that it was multitudes of people... he was healing them all. This is great, right? Amazing. But instead of focusing on the benefits of so much healing and compassion, people were trying to catch him in disobedience to a law, and figuring out how they could destroy him. Crazy, right? Utterly insane. Except... aren't we like this sometimes? We look around at the world, and we see people doing good, or having an amazing impact, but instead of celebrating that, or joining with it, we instead think that we look bad by comparison, and that they can't possibly be as cool as they look, and we start looking for holes we can poke in that perfect exterior. We want the attention for ourselves, or we are driven to find the corruption... focusing on the negative rather than the positive, and trying to hold onto our superiority with everything that we have. And it is hard sometimes to take a step back from that, and to let go of our pride enough that we can rejoice with others and celebrate their happiness and their success without being filled with envy or jealousy. Today, though, despite the difficulty, let's try. Let's learn to be happy for other people... to rejoice with them, to serve them and work for their happiness before our own. Let's see the miracles and not the menace.
And he said unto them, What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out?
How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days.
Then saith he to the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it forth; and it was restored whole, like as the other.
Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him, how they might destroy him.
But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from thence: and great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all;"
Matthew 12:10-15
So, Jesus was going about and doing good. Specifically, he was healing people. Not just a few... we see from the last verse in this selection that it was multitudes of people... he was healing them all. This is great, right? Amazing. But instead of focusing on the benefits of so much healing and compassion, people were trying to catch him in disobedience to a law, and figuring out how they could destroy him. Crazy, right? Utterly insane. Except... aren't we like this sometimes? We look around at the world, and we see people doing good, or having an amazing impact, but instead of celebrating that, or joining with it, we instead think that we look bad by comparison, and that they can't possibly be as cool as they look, and we start looking for holes we can poke in that perfect exterior. We want the attention for ourselves, or we are driven to find the corruption... focusing on the negative rather than the positive, and trying to hold onto our superiority with everything that we have. And it is hard sometimes to take a step back from that, and to let go of our pride enough that we can rejoice with others and celebrate their happiness and their success without being filled with envy or jealousy. Today, though, despite the difficulty, let's try. Let's learn to be happy for other people... to rejoice with them, to serve them and work for their happiness before our own. Let's see the miracles and not the menace.
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