one work too many

Devotions from Jefferson Vann # 2417

John 7:19-24

Joh 7:19 Didn’t Moses give you the law? Yet none of you does what the law teaches. Why are you looking for me to kill me?”
Joh 7:20 The crowd answered, “You have a demon!; who is trying to kill you?”
Joh 7:21 Jesus answered, “I did one work, and you are all amazed,” .
Joh 7:22 “This is why Moses has given you the circumcision ritual — not that it comes from Moses but from the fathers– and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath.
Joh 7:23 If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses won’t be broken, are you angry at me because I made a man entirely healthy on the Sabbath?
Joh 7:24 Don’t decide this kind of thing according to outward appearances; decide right decisions instead.”

one work too many

The one work Jesus referred to was his healing of the crippled man at the Sheep Gate (5:1-15). The man had no one to bring him into the pool — possibly because no one dared break a Sabbath rule by doing so. Jesus called on the man to actually break one of those “outward appearance” rules by picking up his pallet and carrying it away. When “the Jews” saw him doing that, they objected to his obedience.

Fast forward two chapters, and the controversy continues. Jesus points out that the problem is not with the Mosaic law. It was designed to promote mutual love and healthy living. But the legalism that had enslaved the law kept people from making right decisions about things.

LORD, show us how to do the right thing, even when it does not always look right.