Jesus went to the house of a Pharisee for lunch on a Sabbath and they were watching him closely. There was a man whose legs and hands were swollen. Jesus asked them whether it was permitted in the law to heal on the Sabbath or not but they kept silent. Jesus healed the man. He asked them whether if their ox fell on a well on Sabbath whether they wouldn't immediately pull it out and they couldn't answer.
The reason the Pharisees couldn't answer the two questions was because it revealed their hypocrisy. There was no command in the law that said you shouldn't heal on Sabbath otherwise they could have quoted it to him. They wouldn't leave their ox on a well without pulling it out because they knew it would die. Their hypocrisy blinded them to a simple fact that the life of a human being is more important than the life of an animal. They also had their own prejudices on what the law meant even though there was no scripture for it. They were always jealous of Jesus because many followed Him and he did miracles which they themselves couldn't do.
Are you a Pharisee? Do you look carefully to see faults with people whose lives and ministries bless people in a way you don't bless them? Are you jealous of someone who has gifts you don't possess?
Jesus also taught that when you are invited somewhere, you shouldn't go to the place of honour but in the lowly place otherwise a more honourable person than you will come and you will be humiliated before everyone as you are told to take a lower sit but if you are in a low seat you will be honoured before everyone as you are taken to a higher position.
If you humble yourself, you will be exalted but if you exalt yourself, you will be humbled?
You have a choice between humbling yourself or being humbled. To humble yourself is an act of your will.
When you make dinner don't invite those who can invite you back but invite those who are unable to invite you back and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you.
Jesus also gave a parable of the wedding feast as a reply when people said blessed are those who will eat bread in the kingdom of God.
He said the invited guests on the day of the feast when they were told everything was ready, they began giving excuses saying that their business had prospered and they had to take care of it, another bought a piece of land and another got married.
This is a picture of people who are invited in the kingdom of God and are excited to get born again but get sidetracked and loses the vision when God blesses them materially. The fire of God get quenched in their lives and they are more obsessed with the blessing and forget the Blesser. They no longer love God as they loved Him in the beginning.
The privilege that was for them, God gives it to others who are unworthy, the lame and the blind and the gentiles. Also a picture of those who get to know God from a young Stage but along the way loses sight of Christ and are taken up with possessions and God has to choose others who have wasted their lives in all kinds of evil and begins to use them in a mighty way. The first become proud and think that God understands when they compromise and stop walking the way of the cross, denying their own will to do Gods will and assume that because God has been blessing them, God will always bless everything that they do. When you stop walking the way if the cross, God will reject you like He did to Saul and replace you with another. The privileges God had for you, He will fulfill in another.
Take heed lest anyone take your crown.
If you get sidetracked from following Jesus to something else, you will hear at the end, "For none of those I first invited will get even the smallest taste of my banquet.’” Vs 24.
Follow Jesus until the end. Choose Him above your family, your work, your wealth. Let Him always remain number 1 in everything. If you make something else number 1, you lose Jesus. What do you gain?
You are blessed to be a blessing
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@Blessed Mshindi Mambo
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