Tuesday's lesson and please open your Bible to John chapter 5, at the very end of verse 9, there is interesting information. Immediately the man saw himself healed and taking up his bed, he began to walk. And that day was Saturday.
This information is important Why? Because now continuing the story, we now come to verse 16, verse 15, it says like this. The man left and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had cured him.
Verse 16 And the Jews persecuted Jesus because he did these things on the Sabbath. Verse 18: Therefore, the Jews sought to kill Him all the more, because He not only violated the Sabbath, but also said that God was His own Father, making Himself equal to God. So, here we clearly see that the result of Jesus performing that miracle was confusion.
And the confusion was that the Jews now looked at that fact and they didn't even look at the guy like this: Look how wonderful, that man was there for 38 years suffering. Because they did not understand the essence of the law. What is the essence of the law?
It is loving God above all things. In other words, I cannot break my covenant with God. Which is right with God, but I must also love my neighbor as myself.
From the moment I transform traditions into something superior to love or my respect for God, or the kindness I should have towards others, I have to stop and I have to think, I have to think. You know that thing where people say: No, because here in the church, here in the church I really speak the truth. You know, sometimes speaking the truth with harsh words hurts much more and causes much more trauma than anything else.
So, just because it's the truth or what I think is the truth doesn't mean I should say it to hurt other people. I must look at the other one too. I must look and be happy, even when people are healed, when they are happy, something that the Jewish leaders did not have.
At that moment, they simply looked and said: Don't calm down, he's cured. But he was cured on Saturday, how can something like that happen? And then they went to Jesus.
And then it happens that in several moments in the gospels, Jesus, He tries to fix the path of what the Sabbath is. So, what is the problem with human beings today? We are generally at the extremes.
So there are those people who say: No, the Sabbath no longer needs to be kept, because on the cross of Calvary this all fell apart. There are those who say this. And there is that other who looks at Saturday and turns Saturday into such a bad day, such a boring day, such a heavy day, that Saturday stops being what it should have been from the beginning.
Which is a day of joy, a day of hope, a day of peace, a day of family, of rest. You understood? So, Jesus said this: It's not even that, because at no point did Jesus say that the Sabbath ceased to have its validity.
In no time! Jesus kept the Sabbath. The disciples kept the Sabbath.
The disciples continued to keep the Sabbath after Jesus left. So biblically, there is no room for us to think that Saturday, for some reason, is no longer important. No.
On the other hand, I have to transform Saturday into a day of joy, of enjoyment, of satisfaction. And that's exactly what Jesus was doing. Because in His time, the Jews had turned the Sabbath into a heavy day, into a complicated day, into a boring day and to the point that a person who had been there for 38 years, was paralyzed, suffering on the bed of pain and death.
The fellow, he went and he just got cured. He took his bed. Do you know what the bed was like back then?
It was as if it were a wicker mat, something extremely simple, extremely light. And he went there, picked it up, put it on his back and walked away. The Jews.
. . Wow, how absurd that he should be working on Saturday.
People, he just got cured, that's not that important. So Jesus, He came to this earth not to say that Saturday is not a holy day. He came to say that the Sabbath needs to be kept with the correct spirit.
And part of that spirit means doing good for other people. So it's on Saturday afternoon, I leave my house to go to a person's house who is in need of food, care, attention, a hug, affection. It is a prayer for those who are sick.
Guys, this goes really well with Saturday. What doesn't match? It doesn't suit me doing my own interests.
What doesn't match? I slept all day on Saturday to say I'm resting. No no.
We need to understand the essence of Saturday. And part of this essence is loving others, and having attitudes of love on that day. See you tomorrow.
