Wring Away, Lord!
John 7:19, 24: “Did not Moses give you the Law, and yet
none of you carries out the Law? Why do you seek to kill Me? . . . Do not judge
according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”
Observation: Jerusalem Jesus, teaching in the
marveled that such wisdom and authority could come from one with no theological
education. He responded first by saying that anyone willing to do the will of
God would readily discern the truth of what He taught. Then He bore to the core
of His challenge: Why are you so upset with Me for healing that man on the
Sabbath? Moses gave you yourselves the law, yet you failed miserably at keeping
it. Why are you then casting verbal stones at Me?
What Jesus had done
in healing the man had been such a good thing, and in fact was a reasonable
extension of something everyone knew the law permitted: circumcision on the Sabbath. If that repair
to just a portion of the body was allowed, why not celebrate even more the
healing of the whole man? Then He got personal: “Do not judge according to
appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”
Application: My
tendency to cover my shortcomings by criticizing others’ is laid bare in this
passage. It is part and parcel of my human condition. I know God is wringing
that out of me as He works to replace my judgmentalism with a heart that is
compassionate toward the shortcomings of others. Sadly, I know He has not yet
completed the job. Jesus calls me to judge righteously,
which requires Holy Spirit empowerment. Without Him, I remain soaked in
hypocrisy, trying to cover or divert attention from my own problems by pointing
toward others.
Prayer: So wring away, Holy
Spirit! I’m so thankful You don’t give up. I am thankful for Your
patience and perseverance. Please, cleanse me of hypocrisy. Give me a new heart, one that’s clean, one
that is compassionate toward others, as You are toward me.
I apologize to all readers for garbling the first sentence of today’s devotional beginning at the “Observation”. Here’s how it should have read: “Jesus, teaching in the Jerusalem temple, was greeted by people who marveled that such wisdom and authority could come from one with no theological education.”