the crime of loving

Devotions from Jefferson Vann # 2395

John 5:9b-18

John 5:9b Now that day was the Sabbath,
Joh 5:10 and so the Jews said to the one who had been healed, “It is a Sabbath. The law does not allow you to take away your pallet.”
Joh 5:11 He answered them, “The one who made me whole told me, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk.'”
Joh 5:12 “Who is this man who told you, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk’?” they asked.
Joh 5:13 But the man who was healed had not know who it was, because Jesus had withdrawn into the crowd in the place.
Joh 5:14 After this, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “You see that you are whole. Do not sin any longer, so that something worse doesn’t happen to you.”
Joh 5:15 The man went and reported to the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him whole.
Joh 5:16 This is why the Jews began persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on a Sabbath.
Joh 5:17 Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working too.”
Joh 5:18 Because of this statement, the Jews began trying even harder to kill him, because he was not only abolishing the Sabbath, but he was even saying God is his own Father, treating himself the same way as God.

the crime of loving

In the process of healing this man, Jesus deliberately commanded him to ignore one of the customary Sabbath regulations. That did not set too well with the religious officials. But it was important that this conflict take place, because the issue of Jesus identity was to be the one that would eventually lead him to the cross. He would die between two criminals, but not for a crime. He died because he was God’s Son, doing God’s work — a work that humanity rejected. It was not just God’s love that sent Christ to the world, it was his love that put him on the cross.

LORD, continue your work of loving others through us.