Choosing the right perspective

When you’re going through something like this and you’re reading in your Bible, the desire is to read all the passages about how God strengthens us and gives us peace in times of trouble. But I’ve been sticking to my current plan of reading the book of Luke all the way through, and this morning I was in Luke 6 and the story of the man with a withered hand. It seems like an unusual story to try and apply to my life in this moment, but I’ll show you what God showed me.

This is pretty early in the ministry of Jesus. It’s the Sabbath, and Jesus is teaching in one of the synagogues. In attendance is a man with a withered hand. Now, it’s interesting to note that this guy isn’t asking for healing. He’s just here for church.

Also in attendance are the Pharisees and the scribes who are known for only keeping the Law for their own sake and for their own power. They’re not all that interested in growing closer to God, but their desire is to be righteous for the sake of having power over other people.

Because Jesus could read their thoughts and knew they were trying to catch him in breaking one of their laws, He choses to heal the man’s withered hand. The problem with this is that it’s unlawful to do work—in this case to heal—on the Sabbath. But Jesus asks the question, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good [to heal this man’s hand] or to do harm [to leave the hand as it is], to save a life or to destroy it?”

Now I think we can all agree that healing this man’s hand—even on a day designed for rest—is a good thing. We have the right perspective.

However, it says that the Pharisees and the scribes were “filled with fury” when He did this.

Nevermind that a man’s life was made better because of the healing of his hand.

Nevermind that they just witnessed a supernatural act right before their eyes.

This law of keeping the Sabbath is grounded in the Law given by God, but this particular nuance was actually created by the Pharisees. And all they could see is someone upstaging their power of righteous over other people.

Here’s my point.

Their perspective was so badly jaded that it prevented them from seeing the miracle right in front of them.

I’m getting ready to start chemotherapy on Monday. I’m not concerned that I have the perspective of a Pharisee (hopefully that’s not the case!). But I do want to make sure I choose the right perspective going into this. I desire a Godly perspective that’s based on what I know about God from my own personal experiences and what I read about in the Bible.

I don’t want to miss the miracle right in front of me.