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Morning Devotion for the Season of Easter

May 1, 2023

Invitatory

Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

Reading - Luke 6:1-11

One sabbath while Jesus was going through the cornfields, his disciples plucked some heads of grain, rubbed them in their hands, and ate them. But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?” Jesus answered, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and gave some to his companions?” Then he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.”

On another sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught, and there was a man there whose right hand was withered. The scribes and the Pharisees watched him to see whether he would cure on the sabbath, so that they might find an accusation against him. Even though he knew what they were thinking, he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come and stand here.” He got up and stood there. Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to destroy it?” After looking around at all of them, he said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was restored. But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.

Meditation - Winnie Smith

A shorter version of this story might read, “One sabbath Jesus and his disciples were walking through a field. Some of them plucked a bit of grain and ate it, and then later, on another Sabbath, Jesus came across a man with a withered hand and healed him. The leaders were angry because Jesus and his friends had worked on the sabbath, and Jesus told them to get over it.”

This healing story is one of a series in which Jesus performs miraculous things on the sabbath. It must be understood that at the time the Gospels were written, Christianity was still developing out of Judaism. Early church leaders were working to determine what of their old tradition to bring forward, and how the life and death of Jesus had changed their religious obligations and practices. For these reasons it makes sense that the writer of Luke’s Gospel included several stories about healing on the sabbath to help people understand that Jesus took primacy over the rules and obligations of Jewish religious practice. As Jesus told the Pharisees in verse 5, “‘The Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.’” This Messiah brought a new reality and a new way of living.

Beyond the practical implications of this sabbath miracle story, there is a fundamental spiritual teaching: Jesus operates outside and above the rules as we know them. He recognizes that the need of this man with the withered hand and his ability to heal him take precedence over the rules of the sabbath. And Jesus goes further than just performing the miracle. He asks the Pharisees, “is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to destroy it?” The question does not - as we might have expected - ask whether doing something or doing nothing is right. It asks whether doing good or doing harm is right. This implies that complacency or lack of action is as bad as direct harm.

That distinction between direct harm and harm through complacency implicates practically all of us, doesn’t it? How often have we seen evil being done and passed right by it? Perhaps, like the Pharisees, we have felt a stronger obligation to follow social custom and rules of conduct than to see the needs right in front of us. Let us see Jesus, the rule-breaking healer, as an example and recognize when the need for more good in the world outweighs the need to abide by the rules.

Prayer for Guidance

O God, by whom the meek are guided in judgment, and light rises up in darkness for the godly: Grant us, in all our doubts and uncertainties, the grace to ask what you wouldst have us to do, that the Spirit of wisdom may save us from all false choices, and that in your light we may see light, and in your straight path may not stumble; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

(From the Book of Common Prayer, p. 832)