He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He did so, and his hand was completely restored. – Luke 6:10

Today's Scripture Reading (December 19, 2023): Luke 6

"Gentle Jesus, meek and mild."  It was Charles Wesley who wrote those words.  His words described a Jesus that children could approach, a Jesus to whom even the shyest child could come and sit on his knee. Is it an accurate portrait of Jesus?  Yes - and no.  Wesley's hymn has been blamed for what has been called the feminization of Jesus.

But he was also someone who didn't give in to public opinion.  He was firm in his convictions and was unwilling to give in to his critics. He was secure with who he was and was not looking to others to find his identity.  And Jesus got angry.  In this passage, it is not the gentle Jesus, meek and mild, being described but a very angry rabbi. Jesus's anger burns whenever we get our priorities messed up, and his anger is always present when rules are followed at the expense of God's children.

The idea that people are more important than rules is one with which we have always struggled.  Rules are easy to follow; sometimes, we make them holy.  That was precisely what was happening in today's passage.  The rules said that no work could be done on the Sabbath.  The healing of a sick person was considered work.  So, healing in any form could not be done on the Sabbath.  The logic was that a sick person had six other days to be healed.  It didn't have to be done on the day God had declared as one of rest.  But Jesus raised the well-being of a person above the law. He argues that a person's salvation is more important than the rules. It was an area that placed Jesus in direct conflict with the religious elite. But Jesus would not be moved from his belief in the priority of the person over that of the law.

We still struggle with the idea.  And we still tend to want to follow the rules rather than save the person, but the person is always more important. In our culture, it often seems to be the poor and sick that get overlooked. But that wouldn't have been Jesus's priority. They would have been the ones Jesus would have sought out and placed above the law and rules. He would have put them first. Can we?

Have a great day being Jesus, wherever you are!

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Matthew 11

See Also Mark 3:5