Today's Reading: Matthew 12: 1-21, Mark 3, Luke 6
In parenting, have you ever been so upset with the attitude and stubbornness of your children that you just want to spit! Have they ever acted in a way totally against what you have taught them that you want to disown them?
Imagine how Jesus felt when there was the opportunity for a man, whose hand had been shriveled, to be healed! Lord, have mercy! How wonderful!
A man who could not use his hand to hold a cup of water, or caress his wife; to lift his child or to participate in labor; a man unable to go to synagogue or offer his sacrifice at the temple because of a withered hand.
And now, healing is available! Praise the LORD!
But the stubborn ones, the ones with the stiff necks and the worshippers of legalism want justice instead of mercy. They want revenge instead of forgiveness. They want to see rules followed to the "tee," while people are suffering.
Jesus looks at his creatures--his creation--and becomes angry and deeply distressed at this kind of attitude. Where is your mercy? he asks. Where is your loving-kindness? Didn't I create you in my own image? I see nothing in you that looks like me or even resembles who I am.
O the sorrow Jesus must have faced every day as he walked with his creation. No wonder he needed much time in quiet communing with the Father.
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