Judge Rightly

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

JUDGE RIGHTLY

John 7:20-24

20 "You are demon-possessed," the crowd answered. "Who is trying to kill you?"

21 Jesus said to them, "I did one miracle, and you are all astonished. 22 Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision (though actually it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs), you circumcise a child on the Sabbath. 23 Now if a child can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing the whole man on the Sabbath? 24 Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment." 

NIV

We are just following the statement that Jesus said they were trying to kill him and so their response to that is to accuse him of being demon-possessed because they cannot understand who it is who is trying to kill him. It always amazes us that Jesus seldom actually answers a question, but speaks to the heart of issues. He did, however also accuse them of being sinners, as well as hypocrites. They claim to live by the Law of Moses, yet Jesus tells them not one of them keeps the law. We know, because of the truth that the law is powerless to save, so why bother trying to keep it. But we do have those today who have certain laws they believe they keep. But those laws, whatever they are, are also powerless to save. The difference in attitude may be that because we are saved, we need to adhere to certain laws. That too sounds a little strange, but it is the truth we should live in a manner that pleases God. Whether that translates into laws or rules, is the question. Well back to this next statement of Jesus. All this conversation stems from the fact Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath. The last time he was in Jerusalem he healed the man by the pool, telling him to pick up his mat and walk. The Jews were upset at the man because it was against the law to carry a mat on the Sabbath and when they found out the Jesus healed him on the Sabbath and instructed the man to break the law on the Sabbath, they were furious and decided it was time to kill this Jesus. Now Jesus speaks about the fact that although they have the law about the Sabbath, yet they circumcise a child on the Sabbath. The question he is posing is that in doing so, are they not breaking the law of the Sabbath. If by circumcision, they make the child a whole Jew, or then would it not be right to heal the whole man on the Sabbath, making him a whole Jew. What is it about the Sabbath? God said a man should keep the Sabbath Holy. There is more to that in that he instructed not a single person, free or slave should do any work and not even any of the animals should work, in other words, they could not have a donkey pull a cart, or turn a grinding wheel or a wine press, etc. No one is to labor on the Sabbath, keep it holy. It seems today some Christians believe we are to maintain the Ten Commandments, although they are part of the law Jesus fulfilled. One of those ten is regarding the Sabbath. Well, we sort of keep it holy, but not really, because Sunday is really not the Sabbath according to the law. But for the sake of saying it is our Sabbath, how then can the pastor preach? How then can the sound people move knobs? How then can the deacons carry a collection plate? How then can the singers hold a songbook or microphone? How can we do anything, drive our cars, or cook a meal, or cause someone to work at the restaurant so we don’t cook? This could get really out of hand if we were to start enumerating everything that would be considered labor on the Sabbath according to the law. So then do we cherry-pick the law? Maybe we should take Jesus as an example and say it is right to heal the whole man on the Sabbath. Then we would have to decide what kind of healing needs to be accomplished. Would it mean physical or spiritual? It seems we certainly do not follow his example very well, for we seldom, if ever, heal anyone on the Sabbath or any other day, for that matter. Then are we failing to keep the Sabbath holy? What about all the housework and yardwork we do on the weekends, including the Sabbath, which in the strict sense of the law is Saturday. There we are again making another day our Sabbath, because that is what we decided to do, or somebody did because that is the day Jesus was raised from the dead. By doing so, did he change the law regarding the seventh day, the Sabbath? Oh, this is a deep rabbit hole we could go down and keep going. Let us simply consider it is always good to do good things even on the Sabbath. Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath, if he can heal people, so should we, even on the Sabbath. It is not always the appearance that matters, but it is making the right call, the right judgment as to what is righteous, what is good to do even on the Sabbath. This would even include how we judge each other. We just have to judge rightly.