We find lots of really good stories in this week's reading! Jesus had so many healings, forgivings, and raisings of the dead that in some places he could not even find a place to sit down for dinner. Some chased him out of town out of fear. The Pharisees? Well, you’ll see...
First we read about the man at the Bethesda pool, where the angel stirs up the waters. Jesus heals him on the Sabbath, and the Jews were there to nitpick. “This man can’t carry his pallet on the Sabbath; you can’t heal on the Sabbath.” Jesus responded by telling them that God, who made the Sabbath, was His father. he spoke truth; they heard blasphemy. (And yes, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.) The Pharisees want to destroy Him already.
Next the 12 apostles are rounded out: Simon/Peter, James, John, Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew/Levi, Thomas, James the son of Alpheus, Thaddeus/Judas (not Iscariot), Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him. Luke tells us that there were many more disciples, and Jesus chose these 12 from among them. Jesus then gives the Sermon on the Mount, recorded in Matthew and Luke.
Some highlights of the Sermon on the Mount:
Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law...I came not to abolish, but to fulfill.”
Luke 6:31 “Treat others the same way you want them to treat you.”
Matthew 6:33 “Seek ye first His Kingdom, and His righteousness...”
Luke 6:38 “Give, and it will be given to you...pressed down, shaken together, running over...”
Next, a centurion’s servant is healed--Jesus spoke of this man’s great faith. Jesus then confirms that John the Baptist is indeed the one spoken of in Malachi, who will prepare the way for the Messiah. We read about a sinful woman who anoints Jesus’s feet with perfume and wipes them with her hair. Jesus forgave her sins, ruffling the feathers of the Pharisees even further.
Jesus goes head to head with the Pharisees as they accuse Him of casting out demons in Satan’s name. He replies, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Jesus also foretells that He will be in the ground 3 days and 3 nights--the sign of Jonah. He declares that His mother and brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it. The parable of the soils is given.
The parable of the soils is privately explained to the apostles (Jesus did this often, speaking a parable to the people and explaining it only to the twelve.) He also speaks the parable of the wheat and weeds. Jesus calms the storm and the disciples wonder, “What kind of man is this, that the waves and sea obey Him?”
Jesus then heals the demoniac at the tombs. “My name is Legion,” the demons say, “for we are many.” The demons entered a herd of pigs, who were unclean animals. The people who were tending them were Gentiles; someone outside God’s Chosen People has the chance to see Jesus at work. Unfortunately, the townspeople were afraid and asked Jesus to leave. After this, Jesus healed the woman who had been bleeding for twelve years and raised Jairus’s daughter from the dead. What I love is how Jairus and his wife react: “And immediately they were completely astounded” (Mark 5:42).
The pattern is established: Jesus does good, people react strongly. There is no mild way to react to the working of Jesus in people’s lives. Some reactions will do good, some will lead to prophesied evils.
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