John 5:1-16 Do You Want to Be Well

There was a man who'd been sick for 38 years sitting in the porticos of the Sheep Gate.  Jesus asked him, "Do you want to be well?"  (Note the irony that the Good Shepherd is taking care and healing his sheep at the gate.)

Human compassions would dictate that our hearts yearn to help those in need.  God's is no different.  Although the Jewish law dictates that no healing should be done on the Sabbath, God is greater than the Sabbath, and the Son of God heals this man.  God's mercy and compassion are endless for all days and all times. 

There is much in our world that we wonder where is God's mercy.  A child recently told me that sometimes God takes people away so they don't do really bad things.  Why is it so easy for a child to understand this and difficult for adults?  There is a man who is busy trying to take care of his grandchild because the boy's father wont.  He is trying not to become bitter, and wonders where is God's mercy in this situation?  Many of our saints remind us that when we ask God to help us with difficulties we have a preset idea of what God should do.  We forget that God will do what is best for us even if it takes us on a journey that we don't expect or are sometimes not entirely thrilled with.  Is it easier to fight God's will, or to put our will in-line with His letting ourselves be vessels of his love?

Mark 3:1-6 The Man with the Withered Hand

"Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath rather than do evil, to save life rather than destroy it?" Jesus asks in today's Gospel. 

How very dead and lifeless the Sabbath seems in Jesus' time as it has succumbed to merely following lifeless rules; that the idea of caring for and bringing new vitality to a person would seem so against what the priests ordain as godly, is absurd.  The Pharisees always seems to be plotting against Jesus, trying to trick him and trap him into doing something against their laws.  We get a real sense that the man with the withered hand was placed in the synagogue on the Sabbath to see if Jesus would heal him.  Jesus' words should have had a biting effect and made them feel shame.  They are intolerant of a man who has just healed another on the Sabbath and picked the grain from the field because he was hungry.  Now, they want him to "condemn" himself even more. 

Sometimes in our own lives we feel like this too, that the world is against us, that at moments we feel that we can't trust others.  The Gospel tells us that he felt righteous anger toward them and grieved at their hardness of heart.  Nonetheless Jesus cannot waiver in the love that he has for mankind.  He came to save us from the power of sin and death.  If a withered hand brought a form of death to this man, then he will heal this man and set him free from not only the physical infirmity, but also his sins.  Christ Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath.  As Christians we are called to be a pro-life people in all the forms that being pro-life may take, whether it is encouraging a friend, empowering children to be good stewards, respecting elderly persons, or upholding the dignity of the unborn child.  In this year of mercy, have you today followed Jesus by sharing His life with others? If not, what one thing can you do for someone else in God's name?  Remember, it doesn't have to be big, Jesus calls us where we are to work within our circles of friends and families first.  The Kingdom grows from there.

Mark 2: 23-28 Picking the Grains of Wheat

Have you ever judged anyone before learning about their circumstances?  Sometimes this happens to each of us.  This happens within today's Gospel, and even the first reading (1 Sam16:1-13 where Samuel is seeking for God's anointed one, not the strong and mighty, but the young inconspicuous boy, David.) In today's Gospel the scribe watches Jesus picking the wheat and eating it on the Sabbath.  Based on his strict religious laws, he is judging Jesus and the disciples.  The scribe isn't looking at them with the love, compassion and understanding that they laws could originally have held, especially if he understood how hungry they were carrying nothing for food and wandering for days without shelter overhead.  No, the scribe looks upon them in judgement with the rigidity of the old law. 

Jesus on the other hand reminds the scribe of how David long ago ate what was apportioned to the priests even though it was unlawful because he and his companions were hungry.  Then he makes a further statement, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. That is why the Son of Man is lord even over the Sabbath."  The Sabbath is that day set aside for rest and worship.  Yes, what Jesus and the disciples was doing was considered work, but it was necessary so they did not starve.  Jesus' point is that it was necessary for life and thus overruled the law.  The Sabbath was created to remind all of human kind to give thanks to their creator, and that is why the Son of Man, God made manifest is ruler of the Sabbath.

Mark 1:29-39

There are several aspects to this Bible story.  Many women I know lament the fate of Simon's mother-in-law thinking it so unfair, so let's address that.  We know that Jesus and the others have left the synagogue where Jesus was teaching.  that indicates the day of Sabbath, the Lord's day.  No one is to do work that day and food preparations would have to have been taken care of the day before.  Jesus with James and John visit their friends, Simon and Andrew.  Simon's mother-in-law lives with them.  We know that she has a fever.  If you can recall a loved one or yourself who have been sick, especially with a fever, you know how they are quiet, lethargic, and can't eat.  Noise can bother them, they can't read.  They just lay there languishing.  You worry about them and try to get liquids like chicken broth into them so that they do not become dehydrated.  There is always that fear that the temperature can become so great that either it or dehydration could cause death.

Simon and Andrew tell the Lord about her condition: they are in need of his help for her. There is a correlation between this aspect of the story and our own prayers for each other.  Note the words that are used to describe Jesus' actions, "He approached," "He grasped her hand," "He helped her up."  This is what our God does.  Do we not do these for those whom we love?  A love approaches his bride and will tenderly hold her hand.  This is God to us.  But when we are sick as we are with sin, he helps us up and raises us, which is demonstrated through Jesus' ministry as Jesus approaches, grasps her hand, and lifts her up.  When we are lifted up, we become healed.  Isn't it similar on the spiritual level when we are healed, our sins are forgiven?  For the mother-in-law, she was completely healed.  She had no more fever.  Her strength and energy were returned to her.  She was filled with joy at seeing her friends and receiving this gift.  This is her home.  How does she repay this kindness?  She desires to serve him as she is now able to do so.  This should be our desire too when the we are healed.  What better way to give thanks to our God for all his works, than to love and serve the Lord with all our whole self?  As soon as the Sabbath is over she opens her home so that jesus may do the same for others.