Day 17: John 5:1-12, 7:21-24


Jesus wasn’t concerned with man made traditions, he was concerned with the heart of God. Jewish customs concerning the Sabbath had become so restrictive that they had come up with 39 activities that were not allowed on the Sabbath. From the one commandment, “Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy,” they had added 39 other rules that had to be followed. For instance it was against their rules to sort grain on the Sabbath, unless, of course you met these three criteria:

  1. You were doing it by hand and not with an instrument of any sort that would require extra “work” to lift.

  2. You were picking the desirable pieces from the undesirable, and not the other way around.

  3. You were sorting the grain for immediate use(although there was no definition as to what “immediate use” meant.).


These rules were very arbitrary, and were commonly broken based on extenuating circumstances. And yet, the Pharisees were ready to kill Jesus for healing a man on the Sabbath. Their traditions had become more important to them than the well-being of a fellow Israelite. As teachers of the Law and Priests, it was their responsibility to care for the Jewish people spiritually, but they were more concerned with the fact that this man was carrying a mat on the Sabbath than the amazing healing that had just taken place in his body.

It’s easy to point out the speck in the eye of the Pharisees and miss the log in our own eye. What if someone shows up to your church dressed inappropriately? What if they don’t do or say the right things? What happens when the man made traditions that we have become accustomed to get in the way of what God is trying to accomplish in someone’s life? Do you think that God really cares if we have pews or chairs? Does it matter to God if we sing hymns out of a 60 year old book or choruses from a projector? We need to evaluate whether we are trying to put our own rules on the same level as the Word of God, and become more concerned with loving people the way Jesus loved them instead of loving our own comfort and traditions.