Today, I am reading and commenting on  Luke 6-7.

The way Luke presents the two stories about the Pharisees confronting Jesus over the Sabbath indicates that he wants us to see a common theme between them.  Both of these stories remind us that we should not allow a rigid adherence to rules, even otherwise good rules, prevent us from caring for ourselves or doing good.  We should take a day each week to relax and worship God, but there is nothing wrong with doing things on that day which bring us joy and there is never anything wrong with doing things which improve the lives of others.

I feel like I need to write about Jesus’ instructions that we love our enemies and the story about the woman who anointed His feet.  My thoughts about them are linked, but I am not sure I am going to be able to actually put that in writing.  When Simon the Pharisee thought that Jesus should not allow the woman to touch Him, Simon was doing exactly what Jesus meant when He told us not to judge others. I want you to consider Jesus’ response to Simon here.  He called him out for what he was thinking about the woman.  It appears to have worked, because how do we know what Simon was thinking?  Clearly we know because Simon became a Believer and told this story on himself.  Simon thought of this woman as the “other”, one of those whom he did not need to love because they had put themselves outside of the acceptable by their actions.  Let us not make the mistake Simon made.  Let us make sure that the “others” know that God loves them and that nothing they have done is so bad that God will not forgive them.  And let us not hold the sins which God forgives against them.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.