1/17/21

"Then saith he to the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it forth: and it was restored whole, like as the other." (Matthew 12:13)
Jesus was visiting a synagogue in one of the cities near the sea of Galilee.
He was under scrutiny of the Pharisees because of His teachings, and the miracles that He performed. They were jealous of Him, and offended because He did not give them the recognition that they thought they deserved.
A synagogue was a worship center. The men gathered there for prayer, and for reading the scriptures. They would discuss the scriptures, and interpret them. They did not offer sacrifices at synagogues. That was done at the temple in Jerusalem.
A crippled man was present. It was a sabbath day. The Jews had some really specific rules regarding what could and could not be done on the sabbath. You could be stoned to death for gathering sticks on the sabbath day.
They watched Jesus to see how He would respond to the presence of the crippled man.
Jesus' compassion would not allow Him to overlook the need of the poor crippled man. He healed him! He did what no one else could do for this man, and it was easy for Him!
God did a good thing here, but the Pharisees missed it! They accused Jesus of breaking the sabbath! How blinded were they by their own ambitions, and envy?! "Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him, how they might destroy him." (v. 14)
When you reject Jesus, then you have thrown away any chance you might have of ever being healed, and forgiven of your sin!
Nothing is too hard for the Lord! Jesus can take this pandemic away from us as easily as he healed this crippled man. I ask Him for that miracle every day.
That poor crippled man had only one hope of ever being restored. His hope was Jesus!
We have only one hope of ever getting rid of the virus that has shut this whole world down, and turned it upside down. That hope is Jesus! And it would be easy for Him to take it away.
Don't reject Him. Doing so throws away our only chance of being right again.
From my heart to your heart.