Luke 6:1-26 It's All About Perspective

I’ll bet that the Pharisees would have been the best hall monitors any school could ever have.  What a bunch of pinheads!  They thrived on making others miserable about the silliest things, not realizing how they were probably driving people away from God!

The Sabbath was God’s gift to man, but they’d turned it into a burden no man could keep with their silly rules!  Jesus was about to show them how far off base they were!

In the field, they jumped on the disciples for taking some wheat and eating it.  “The law in Deut. 23:24-25 actually said not to fill a container or use a harvesting implement;”  they extended that to simply human eating!  My commentary said that the Pharisees did not miss Jesus’ meaning when He called Himself Lord of the Sabbath.  “He was claiming to be Jehovah God, because it was the Lord who established the Sabbath.  If Jesus Christ is indeed Lord of the Sabbath, then He is free to do on it and with it whatever He pleases.”

Their thoughts while in church couldn’t have been more inappropriate.  They weren’t focused on worshipping God, but on collecting evidence to allow them to kill Jesus!

Jesus spent an entire night in prayer afterwards, getting ready to name His apostles.  You’d think that, being God and knowing everyone’s thoughts, He wouldn’t need even 5 minutes to pray.  So what does that tell me about my prayer life?

As He went over some of the beatitudes, my commentary said, “Jesus was preaching to His disciples as well as to the multitudes, for even the Twelve had to unlearn many things before they could effectively serve Him … The Lord explained in this sermon that the truly blessed life comes not from getting, or from doing, but from being.  The emphasis is on Godlike character … Imagine how surprised they were when they heard Jesus describe happiness in terms just the opposite of what they expected!  They discovered that what they needed most was not a change of circumstances, but a change in their relationship to God and in their outlook on life.”

Father, help me to strengthen my relationship and dependence upon You.  Let me not settle for less than Your best.  Help me to see Your perspective on my circumstances and know that through them You are building my character to be more like Yours.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford