Tag Archives: Sabbath

What God Gave Up for Lent – Day 34

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34. With Jesus

gethsemane5

 

Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to His disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed. Then He said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me.”  (Matthew 26:36-38)

Beside asking them to remain, He also asked them to keep watch. The root word for keep watch is very familiar: For this reason it says, “Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead,  and Christ will shine on you.” ( Ephesians 5:14) Jesus asked them to stay awake, but they could not.

The root word for watch is very powerful. It can be used with raising the dead; stir up and rise to arms; get up, come, and rouse. Apparently watching wasn’t just watching. Perhaps we have a contemporary analogy.

Think of the word worship. It’s both a verb and noun. It is both action and attitude. But oftentimes we fall too easily into the spectator mode. We watch the worship, rather than being engaged in it. Besides, who is it we are watching? Shouldn’t we be fixing our eyes on The Most High? And on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith? True worship should stir us; it should cause us to rise up. Who knows, we might even be risen from the so-many dead who occupy the pews on a Sunday morning. Figure out what pleases Christ, then do it.

In this verse, we again witness the amazing condescending love of Jesus Christ: Keep watch with Me. What an awesome privilege we have to keep watch with the Son of God. Like Peter, James, John; will you stay and watch with Him?

I suppose one could ask: Watch what? The disciples probably didn’t even have a clue. Do we just watch Him? Do we watch for the betrayer?

Well, maybe they had a clue, and so do we. We watch Jesus; and at this point we note that He was grieved and distressed.

Grieved is most often translated as some form of sorrow. There are many reasons for His sorrow: He was leaving His friends, His disciples. He is grieved because of what will happen to His disciples. He is experiencing first hand what it means to be ensnared by sin. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. (Hebrews 5:8) I’m sure the sorrow also had to do with the complete disregard and ungratefulness mankind for the great salvation He was providing for us. Yet as we learned in Isaiah 53, He still became our sacrifice.

Distressed is also translated as heavy. Surely the sins of the world were beginning to weigh Him down. The above passage from Hebrews applies here as well.

These were probably new emotions the disciples were witnessing in Jesus. In fact Christ being grieved during the Last Supper, just a few hours before, was only the second occurrence of grief. There it had to do with being betrayed.

But here in the Garden, we find Jesus providing insight into His condition to His followers Peter, James, and John. How grieved was He? He was deeply grieved, to the point of death. This may have been new to His followers, but it was foretold: A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. I wonder if this occurred to His disciples? Did they realize it was their sins which brought about His grief? Only once was the Savior grieved outside of the passion. It was earlier in His ministry.

He entered again into a synagogue; and a man was there whose hand was withered. They were watching Him to see if He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. He said to the man with the withered hand, “Get up and come forward!” And He said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?” But they kept silent. After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately began conspiring with the Herodians against Him, as to how they might destroy Him. (Mark 3:1-6)

It’s worth noting that here is the origin of the Jews trying to kill Him. It had to do with the supposed breaking of the Sabbath. And the hardness of the Pharisee’s hearts, which caused them not to rejoice in the healing of someone in their midst, eventually culminated in the crucifixion. Let this be a warning to us all. Left unchecked, the hardening of one’s heart will lead to devastation and great loss.

Take heed of the peril of a hard heart: These things Jesus spoke, and He went away and hid Himself from them. But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: “Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, “He has blinded their eyes and He hardened their heart, so that they would not see with their eyes and perceive with their heart, and be converted and I heal them.” (John 12:36-40)

Only three times then, is it recorded of Christ being grieved: the first regarding the hardness of hearts; the second during the last supper; the final in the Garden of Gethsemane. Grief in His last days was brought on by betrayal and His impending death, as the sin of the world gathered around Him. Having a hard heart is serious; and we should consider well, its menace. Are you able to grieve because of what you caused the Christ, the Son of God to suffer? Or is your heart hard, unable and unwilling to see what Jesus Christ has done for you, what He went through for you?

What God Gave Up for Lent – Day 16

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16. Healing & Teaching

Woman healed

A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. (Isaiah 53:3d)

As we saw in yesterday’s teaching, the word grief was often translated as sickness and disease. And we noted that a significant part of Christ’s ministry was the healing of the sick.

A close associate with healing, is teaching. They move in unison throughout Christ’s ministry. And in this case (probably in most) the healing becomes the application for His teaching.

And He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And there was a woman who for eighteen years had had a sickness caused by a spirit; and she was bent double, and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, He called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your sickness.” And He laid His hands on her; and immediately she was made erect again and began glorifying God. But the synagogue official, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, began saying to the crowd in response, “There are six days in which work should be done; so come during them and get healed, and not on the Sabbath day.” But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites, does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the stall and lead him away to water him? And this woman, a daughter of Abraham as she is, whom Satan has bound for eighteen long years, should she not have been released from this bond on the Sabbath day?” As He said this, all His opponents were being humiliated; and the entire crowd was rejoicing over all the glorious things being done by Him. (Luke 13:10-17)

For eighteen years a daughter of Abraham had been bound by Satan, bent over double. Did she attend synagogue every Sabbath? The fact the Jesus called her a daughter of Abraham indicates she was faithful to her God, and probably attended synagogue every time it was open. Where else would she find healing? But did she receive comfort there, or even attention? We can’t tell. But I suspect that all she received was their inattention. For eighteen years they ignored her. For eighteen years they probably offered nothing more than ingenuous ungracious greetings, and superficial, legalistic instruction.

So here’s Jesus, at a synagogue, in the midst of a really excellent teaching and this doubled-over woman catches His eye. He calls her over and pronounces her freed from her sickness. Her response is quite appropriate: she stood up straight and began glorifying God. How scandalous, that a woman should start praising God in the midst of synagogue.

We immediately see the hardness of the hearts found in the religious authorities. How dare you heal on the Sabbath! Yes you may teach, indeed even teach with authority never heard before, but don’t start healing, especially don’t heal a woman.

I’m pretty sure that it was not Christ’s goal to humiliate his adversaries. They did that quite handily themselves. Indeed, I believe that He would have eagerly healed them from their pride and arrogance, and even their hard hearts, if had they only asked.

The application is: Jesus sees us in all of our infirmities, sins, and brokenness. We all need healing. So let us be bold in our infirmities; let us acknowledge what He already knows and then be healed by Him. We would probably receive the same scorn that she did, for interrupting their religious service, but it will give you the opportunity to straighten up and glorify God.

One more thought about being made straight by Jesus. Are you straight? Or are you bent over with a load of sin? You were never intended to carry that load. Yes, it is yours. You certainly deserve it and have quite properly earned it. But it should not be carried by you. Christ has already taken that burden upon Himself at the cross. Now if He has already laid down His life for you, and left your sins in the grave, why aren’t you standing straight and glorifying God?