December 9, 2024
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in our Lenten readings from “The Life of Jesus”? Here’s today’s reading:
Advent 2024 – Day 9 in the Book: “The Life of Jesus“
The Year of Popularity
Read Sections 3.8 through 3.12 (pages 36-40)
This book is an account of Jesus’ life and teachings told through in chronological order from the four Gospels to create one continuous story.
*If you do not have a copy of the book please contact the church at (401)667-0775 and we can get you a copy.
How could they be so blind as to see a man who was sick for 38 years. And they’re focusing is on it’s the sabbath. Good thing our father doesn’t rest and nap on the sabbath. Chaos and sin would rule. Jesus heals him physically but points out there is another healing that is more important. Jesus identifies himself with God to deaf ears.
I love that so many of Jesus’ miracles are also a call to action, like arise, pick up your mat and walk, or even Simon’s mother-in-law who immediately started to serve. We should never accept the gift Christ offers even today and just hide it but we should be excited for it, use it, and share it. It requires our action as well to believe and accept and then live it!
Again the importance of living for God is expressed through the Pharisees. “I only want to please the one who sent me” that was Christ’s focus and should be our focus. Easier said than done with our mind that is so easily distracted by pride, jealousy, and generally clouded by the emotion of a situation. It is so easy to forget that even talent and intelligence are gifts from God and so everything we do should bring Him glory and not just for pats on the back. I appreciate, even though painful at times, when God provides me chances to see where pride has crept in so I can work harder to make it more about Him and less about me.
Day 9
3:8 – 3:12
3.12 is the definition of a “stiff neck people”.
Advent Day 9
Advent Day 9
Legalists cannot see beyond the rules and therefore have no room for the mercy Jesus shows to those who desperately need to be saved from sin and themselves. He is bringing in a new system that is based in grace and His power, and you cannot mix that with self righteousness and the pride that goes with it. And a good example of that is how they react to a man 38 years crippled who gets healed and they make an issue that he is breaking the law by carrying his mat. No, the miracle is that he can carry the mat and he doesn’t have to lie on it anymore! And yet he also doesn’t heal the man for him to do what he wants, but what God wants. But Jesus also is not doing things to impress the religious leaders, but He is seeking to do the Father’s will. And they show their ignorance of the Father because they don’t recognize and believe the Son. But the witness from the Father is enough for Jesus and He doesn’t need them to validate His ministry.
It struck me that Jesus says that the Father judges no one, that He gives judgment to the Son. When Christ returns He will judge. People see Jesus as the loving non-judge-mental shepherd. He came first as a lamb to be sacrificed, to pay the penalty for our sins, but when He returns He will judge.
”For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will. For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man.“
John 5:21-27 NKJV