Bible
Study: Romans 9, 1 to 5. And Luke 14, 1 to 6.
At the
heart of all the commandments God demands of us, is Love. Remove it and
everything else becomes useless. “If I speak in the tongues of men and of
angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I
have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I
have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If
I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not
love, I gain nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13, 1 to 3.
No matter
how holy we may think we are, if we do not love, our holiness is useless. This is
what Jesus demonstrates in our Gospel passage this morning. He was invited to
dine in the house of a ruler who belonged to the Pharisees and he knew that
even those at table with him were not really his friends. They had not invited
him out of love but as a test, they wanted him to say or do something that
would be used against him. Jesus went there as a friend and for love of them
but they received him as an enemy. There were a lot of fake smiles over dinner,
as usual with occasions like this, with lots of pretences here and there but
unknown to them, Jesus could see through their cold hearts.
And
behold, out of the blues there arrived a man in the banquet hall who had a
dropsy. Was this man also invited? We are not told. But then, given the fact
that the purpose of this dinner was not to honour Jesus but to find something
to use against him, it is safe to assume that this man was brought in by one of
the Pharisees to see what Jesus would make of him on such a Sabbath day. Note
that, doing any work on a Sabbath was considered as an act of disrespect
against God, as it was a day dedicated entirely only to the worship of God.
Now, the
question was: “Would Jesus decide to turn a cold face towards this man and
pretend as if he didn’t notice his malady? Or would he just go out his way to
heal this man and thereby break the Sabbath law? Was he going to fall into this
trap and show he had no regard for God or was he going to turn down an
opportunity to show love by healing this sick man?
The wise
Jesus simply looked at the scenario and decided to teach everyone present a
lesson in love. Without waiting for them to say anything, Jesus asked them: “Is
it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” meaning, “Does the Sabbath law
forbid anyone from performing an act of love?” They pretended not to get the
message by keeping quiet so Jesus clarified himself, “Which of you here would
sit down and do nothing if his son or even his animal falls into a well on a
Sabbath day? Would any of you wait till over the Sabbath since the law forbids
any work whatsoever? And again, their stricken conscience would not allow them
dare open their mouths to utter any word. They became ashamed of themselves. They
realised the foolishness of trying to keep God’s commandment without the added
dimension of love.
It is not just
enough for us to we keep the commandments, we must aim at the spirit of the
commandments which is love. If we simply strive to keep the commandments, we
become like children who are being forced to eat good food; they grumble and
play with food because they lack understanding. Like children, we often see God’s
commandments as infringements on our personal freedom, we feel we have more
important things to do or that we know better how to live. Once this inner rebellion
is in us, even our very best acts of worship or attempts to keep God’s
commandments become deprived of the essential element of love. We basically do
the minimum like a child eating just because mummy is watching, as if by eating
he or she is doing mummy a favour. No sooner had mummy turned her back, the
child would instantly stop eating. This is why we find it so easy to break God’s
commandments and sin again and again. We are yet to grow up because we lack
love!
Growing up
demands that we are no longer content with keeping the law as it is stated in
black and white but that we now aim to love God above all things and our neighbour
as ourselves. Growing up demands that our actions as well as inactions are
purely motivated by love rather than fear. Growing up means that we put our hearts
into what we do and love God in a manner that does not look as if we are trying
to do him a favour or as if he cannot survive without our love. Growing up demands
that we go beyond those fake “I-love-you”, “I-love-you” which we say at times
to deceive people or lure them into sin. Growing up demands that we feed the
hungry, clothe the naked and perform acts of kindness to people we do not even
know or expect any return, it demands that we actually go all the way even to offer
our very blood for the benefit of others. Like St. Paul who said in our first
reading: “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart… for the sake
of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.”
Let us
Pray:
Lord
Jesus, open my heart to love you as I ought and to love my neighbour and teach
me that it is only in love that I truly offer you any meaningful worship. Amen.
Good morning.
Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you.
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