Be A Blessing — Scripture Reflection #013
Mark 3:5 (New Living Translation)
5 He looked around at them angrily and was deeply saddened by their hard hearts. Then He said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” So the man held out his hand, and it was restored!
In this story about Jesus healing a man on the Sabbath day, we see Jesus being challenged by the religious leaders for breaking the rules of the Sabbath. They were more focused on following each letter of the law rather than seeing what God’s intention was for creating it. God created the Sabbath so that His people would be able to find restoration, healing, and time to worship God.
Similar to the religious leaders of that day, I find that I sometimes hold a legalistic, borderline self-righteous attitude about following rules. I think that it stems from some combination of perfectionism + control. Whatever the case, this attitude causes me to judge people who are not following the rules as I feel they should. However, this is not what God is asking of me. He wants me to treat people with love, kindness, and grace, seeking their interests above my own.
Let today’s scripture and lesson from Jesus to the religious leaders be one for me and you as well: let’s go out of our way to help and be a blessing to others whenever we can.
