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Tag Archives: Sabbath

Mark 2:23-28

20 Jan

23 One Sabbath day as Jesus was walking through some grainfields, his disciples began breaking off heads of grain to eat. 24 But the Pharisees said to Jesus, “Look, why are they breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath?”

25 Jesus said to them, “Haven’t you ever read in the Scriptures what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 26 He went into the house of God (during the days when Abiathar was high priest) and broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of bread that only the priests are allowed to eat. He also gave some to his companions.”

27 Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!”

Mark 2:23-28

Dear God, I think I have a bad attitude this morning. And why? Why should I have a bad attitude? Is it because I have an event this afternoon, and I am afraid it won’t go well? Yes. I can feel my temper is short. I can feel that I’m irritable. I can feel my patience in thin. I need your fruit this morning. I need your fruit to grow out of me.

I see this in myself and then I recognize myself in the Pharisees in this story. They were just looking for a reason to accuse Jesus and his disciples of wrongdoing. Their tempers were short. They were irritable. Their patience was thin. They needed your fruit. Your fruit would have maybe had them ask the question, “Jesus, help me understand why the Sabbath rule is squishier than we think it is.” For me, I need to understand what exactly needs to be done with today. I need to understand what you want me to say to the crowd tonight. I need to know how to decrease and allow you to increase. I need to be excited about this opportunity to glorify you in front of those who need to see your glory.

Father, help me to not be like the Pharisees in this story. I don’t want to overlook opportunities to recognize you and learn from you. For me, tonight is a chance to recognize you for what you’ve done, glorify you, and then learn from you. You love the people who are coming tonight. You love the people we will be helping. Fill me with you so that I might have the strength to do what you’ve called me to do.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on January 20, 2026 in Mark

 

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Luke 13:10-21

27 Oct

10 One Sabbath day as Jesus was teaching in a synagogue, 11 he saw a woman who had been crippled by an evil spirit. She had been bent double for eighteen years and was unable to stand up straight. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Dear woman, you are healed of your sickness!” 13 Then he touched her, and instantly she could stand straight. How she praised God!

14 But the leader in charge of the synagogue was indignant that Jesus had healed her on the Sabbath day. “There are six days of the week for working,” he said to the crowd. “Come on those days to be healed, not on the Sabbath.”

15 But the Lord replied, “You hypocrites! Each of you works on the Sabbath day! Don’t you untie your ox or your donkey from its stall on the Sabbath and lead it out for water? 16 This dear woman, a daughter of Abraham, has been held in bondage by Satan for eighteen years. Isn’t it right that she be released, even on the Sabbath?”

17 This shamed his enemies, but all the people rejoiced at the wonderful things he did.

18 Then Jesus said, “What is the Kingdom of God like? How can I illustrate it? 19 It is like a tiny mustard seed that a man planted in a garden; it grows and becomes a tree, and the birds make nests in its branches.”

20 He also asked, “What else is the Kingdom of God like? 21 It is like the yeast a woman used in making bread. Even though she put only a little yeast in three measures of flour, it permeated every part of the dough.”

Luke 13:10-21

Dear God, these last two parables about the mustard seed and the yeast are interesting to consider when they are accompanied with the Sabbath healing story before them. And, for Luke, they are part of the same story. Luke makes it seem like Jesus said these words right after he challenged the Pharisees for their hypocrisy. So who is the mustard seed? Who is the yeast? I think it’s Jesus. I think he’s the one growing into a tree for us. I think he is the yeast in our lives and then in the world. And he was right. His life became Christianity, which I think is the largest religion in the world.

Okay, I just looked it up. Apparently, Christianity is 2.4 billion people and Islam is 1.9 billion. It said Judaism is only 15 million, so we will consider that as part of the rounding error for Christianity and say that 4.3 billion people about of the earth’s 7-ish billion people trace their faith back to Abraham. That seems very “yeast-y” of you. Maybe there’s something to this Yahweh. Maybe you’re really there, growing in us. Sometimes unhealthily. Sometimes we taint you, misrepresent you, and even pervert what you’re trying to do in us with our own selfishness and insecurities. We are very flawed, after all. But when you are doing your thing in us and we are doing the simple thing of loving you and loving others, it’s remarkable.

Going back to the things I get frustrated with people over, I hope the things that frustrate me are the things that frustrate you. I hope we are aligned in that way. I know you got frustrated and continue to get frustrated (even with me), so I think it’s okay for me to be frustrated. I just need to be frustrated by injustice, lack of mercy, unkindness, and meanness. If I start allowing myself to get frustrated because someone isn’t following a legalistic rule I think they should then I just need to pray for them that they will work it out with the Holy Spirit. I guess I just need your discernment at any given time.

Father, I adore you. I lay my life before you. How I love you. Jesus, I adore you. I lay my life before you. How I love you. Spirit, I adore you. I lay my life before you. How I love you.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on October 27, 2025 in Luke

 

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Luke 6:1-5

06 Sep

6 One Sabbath day as Jesus was walking through some grainfields, his disciples broke off heads of grain, rubbed off the husks in their hands, and ate the grain. 2 But some Pharisees said, “Why are you breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath?”

3 Jesus replied, “Haven’t you read in the Scriptures what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He went into the house of God and broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of bread that only the priests can eat. He also gave some to his companions.” 5 And Jesus added, “The Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath.”

Luke 6:1-5

Dear God, so this is an interesting example for Jesus to use when he refers to David and his men eating the sacred loaves when he was on the run from Saul. I say it’s interesting because I was always uncomfortable with that David story. He lied to the priest (which eventually led to Saul killing that priest and all but one of the others). And frankly it’s not even clear from the way the story is told (1 Samuel 21) that he actually had any companions with him at that point. From the way I read it, he only said he had companions waiting for him. But in Luke’s telling of this story, Jesus affirms that David told the truth about the companions and he was justified in getting the sacred bread. In any disagreement between my biblical interpretation and Jesus’s interpretation, I will yield and say that I am wrong, but this is curious to me. It’s the lying in the story that bothers me the most. I can see where taking the bread was justified. But the way he did it was deceptive and set Ahimelech up to be brutally murdered (1 Samuel 22).

Not to harp on this too much, but it reminds me of my feelings on Lance Armstrong’s performance-enhancing drug (PED) use. It doesn’t bother me that he did the PEDs. I truly believe everyone was doing it and the only way to compete was to do it. What bothers me is the lies he told when others told the truth. He ruthlessly destroyed people’s reputations and ability to make a living to protect his lie. That is reprehensible to me. It’s one thing to do something wrong and take responsibility for it. It’s another thing to make others pay for what you did, and he (and David with Ahimelech) made others pay.

Okay, that’s enough of that soap box. Back to Jesus dealing with the Sabbath and the teaching of the day. I’ve sometimes ruminated on the idea of moving to a more Godless area and living as light in the middle of darkness, but then I remember that the area where Jesus lived and taught was actually more like where I live now. What I mean by that is I live in a very conservative area of Texas where calling yourself a Christian is the politically correct thing to do. People are culturally Christian, but many are not actually pursuing relationship with you and working out their faith with fear and trembling. It’s a lot like the Israel of Jesus’s day. There were a lot of philosophies about what it meant to be Jewish and hold to your law, but there wasn’t a lot of deep introspection of how they might be missing you in the process.

So Jesus, in this story, is teaching them that there is a line between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. By the letter of the law, the disciples were wrong. And the Pharisees only cared about the letter of the law. But what was the spirit of the law? What was the why behind the commandment for us to observe the Sabbath? That’s what I think Jesus was trying to get them to consider in this story.

Father, teach me your whys. I want your law written on my heart, but I don’t want it so that I can just follow your rules so you’ll be happy with me. I want to understand the why behind the commands. I want to fall deeper and deeper into knowing you and letting my knowledge of you and the love and mercy you have for me extend to the world through me. So teach me today. Show me the why in everything you have for me to learn. I want to be able to, in turn, show it to others so we will be the most effective worshippers and followers of you we can all be.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on September 6, 2025 in Luke

 

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Matthew 4:1-11 — Pursuing the Desert

19 Mar

1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil. 2 For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry.

3 During that time the devil came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.”

4 But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say,

‘People do not live by bread alone,
    but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

5 Then the devil took him to the holy city, Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, 6 and said, “If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say,

‘He will order his angels to protect you.
And they will hold you up with their hands
    so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.’”

7 Jesus responded, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God.’”

8 Next the devil took him to the peak of a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 “I will give it all to you,” he said, “if you will kneel down and worship me.”

10 “Get out of here, Satan,” Jesus told him. “For the Scriptures say,

‘You must worship the Lord your God
    and serve only him.’”

11 Then the devil went away, and angels came and took care of Jesus.

Matthew 4:1-11

Dear God, I heard a great sermon on this passage last week, and now, sitting down to spend time with you this morning, I picked up a book by Steven Purcell called Even Among These Rocks: A Spiritual Journey I opened to a page on this passage. What Purcell wrote about it is worth putting here:

Throughout biblical and church history the people of God are frequently found living in the desert. The desert is the geographic setting of the Exodus, Christ’s temptation and home to the desert fathers of the fourth century. But the desert has also been used to symbolize the geography of the human heart. With desert metaphors we are able to express the barrenness, aridity and vulnerability often felt within our souls. Many people have purposefully entered the desert in order to submit themselves to physical as well as spiritual conditions that expose the soul. On the other hand, many of us find ourselves in spiritual deserts against our wills. Nevertheless, the effects are the same: The desert exposes and lays bare. In it we are tempted and suffer as Christ was tempted and suffered. The significance of the desert experience, chosen or not, is that by if God is able to reveal the true condition of the human heart. The wild, trackless and vulnerable experience of the spiritual desert exposes our personal vulnerability to all sorts of evil and our absolute dependence on God’s grace. As the first steps of Christ’s ministry began in the desert, so too our Lenten journey home begins there. Having accepted Christ’s invitation to follow him, our journey has begun.

As I am going through Lent, as I go through deserts both chosen and unchosen, I cannot help but wonder what you would like to “expose and lay bare” for me.

I was talking with a friend yesterday, and his comment to me was, “I can tell you are really hurting.” I accepted it as truth at the time and I sat with it all day. Yes, I am hurting. I’m not doing well right now. A friend asked me recently how I’m doing and I told him I’m about a “6” on a scale of 1-10. Most of my life is good, but the parts that aren’t are incredibly painful. That is the desert I didn’t choose. But now I’m going through Lent and a specific kind of desert that I did choose. A denial of myself out of respect for what you did and to also use it to reveal what you are “exposing and laying bare” for me to see.

Father, I suppose this is the thought I will sit with today. What are you exposing and laying bare. How are you making my desert count for your glory–not only for me, but for others as well? The first thing I have to do is re-enter this discipline of spending this kind of time with you every day. Ironically, I think listening to the daily Bible-in-a-year podcast has somehow taken me from this discipline of worshipping you. So while I would still like to keep that up, I think I have to do this first. I have to spend this time with you. I love you. My hope is in you. My faith is in you. My only certainty is in you. It is not in my wife, my children, my parents, my job, my country, or my world. You are my only hope. I will rest in you today.

Oh, and one more thing before I finish this prayer. I was with some pastors this week through our local ministerial association and the Seventh Day Adventist pastor talked about the Sabbath. The part of the conversation I internalized was that it’s more than talking about having a restful day. It’s about having a restful and restorative day with you. It’s allowing you to minister to me through my worship of you. He talked about taking his day off each week and using that as his Sabbath. As he was complaining to you about his week, his job, etc., he heard you say, “Leave all of that behind. Today, just be with me.” So as I figure out what to do with a weekly Sabbath and my desert, help me to find some time to leave it all behind and allow you to restore my soul through me just being with you.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen

 
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Posted by on March 19, 2022 in Matthew

 

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