Put Up Or Shut Up

“And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day. The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day? And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed: and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him” (Lk. 13:10-17). The old saying is, “things aren’t always what they appear to be.” That is so true, but when the holy Ghost sets things in order in front of you, things are ALWAYS what they appear to be.

So what is my point here? The point is that the moral of this story is that we want to be LIKE Jesus, not AGAINST him. Jesus’ disciples were doing works like he was doing, and the ruler of the synagogue here should have wanted to know where to get in line to get the capacity to do these works of marvelous good himself. Instead he deceitfully tried to make it appear that Jesus was doing evil, and he tried to use the law of God to support his envious claim. But Jesus was doing GOOD by restoring an afflicted person to their normal state, and the synagogue ruler was doing EVIL by being opposed to that good. Jesus’ rebuke of this man’s hypocrisy was just a matter of declaring what was obvious, and in so doing he stuck this man’s lying tongue back down his throat where it belonged. Doing good is always good, and no amount of religious confusion or any other kind of confusion, can change that. Jesus said, “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father” (Jn. 14:1). A lot of folks, including God’s Spirit-baptized people, are too busy looking for fault with those who are doing the works of Christ; when they should be busy finding out how to do these works themselves. The conclusion of the matter? Put up or shut up. Amen.