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Sound & Season is a daily audio devotional designed to connect the routine moments of life to the rhythms of the Church seasons.
This is Sound and Season. It's Tuesday, 6th day of Lent. Our passage today comes from the gospel of Mark chapter 3 verses 1 through 19. Again, Jesus entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand, and they watched Jesus to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so they might accuse him. And he said to the man with the withered hand, come here.
Jeffrey Heine:And he said to them, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill? But they were silent And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and he said to the man, stretch out your hand. He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him. Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem, and Udemia, and from beyond the Jordan, and from around Tyre and Sidon.
Jeffrey Heine:When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him, and he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they crush him, for he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him. And whenever the unclean spirits saw him they fell down before him and cried out, you are the Son of God. And he strictly ordered them not to make him known. And he went up on the mountain and called him those whom he desired, and they came to him. And he appointed 12, whom he also named apostles, so that they might be with him, and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons.
Jeffrey Heine:He appointed the 12, Simon to whom he gave the name Peter, James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James to whom he gave the name the sons of thunder, Andrew and Philip and Bartholomew and Matthew and Thomas and James, the son of Alphaeus and Thaddeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. The Pharisees and the scribes were looking for a way to discredit Jesus. Their plan was to see if Jesus will heal on the Sabbath.
Jeffrey Heine:These men looked at the man with the withered hand, but they did not see a man who was suffering. They only saw an opportunity to ensnare Jesus and accuse him, once again, of breaking the Law of God. Jesus initiates interaction with the man, calling him over so that all the Pharisees could see. Jesus asks them if it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. Even as the man stood in front of them, the Pharisees did not see him or his suffering, nor did they have compassion for him.
Jeffrey Heine:Mark says that Jesus saw their failure to truly see the man and he was angered and grieved. Paul tells the Philippian Christians that by the work of the Holy Spirit they have been given the mind of Christ and with the mind of Christ they are able to do something wholly unnatural. They can consider the needs of another as more significant than their own needs. Oh, that the spirit of the risen Christ would give us today the eyes to see as he sees us. Lord, hear our prayer, and let our cry come to you.
Jeffrey Heine:Let us pray. O God, you have delivered us from the dominion of sin and death and brought us to the kingdom of your son. We pray, that as by his death he has called us to life, so by his love may he raise us to eternal joy. This Lent, O Spirit, renew the joy of our salvation, so we might join the angels and the archangels declaring, holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty. The whole earth is full of your glory.
Jeffrey Heine:O Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.