Monday, September 5, 2016

Luke 6: 6-11

On a certain sabbath Jesus went into the synagogue and taught,
and there was a man there whose right hand was withered.
The scribes and the Pharisees watched him closely
to see if he would cure on the sabbath
so that they might discover a reason to accuse him.
But he realized their intentions
and said to the man with the withered hand,
“Come up and stand before us.”
And he rose and stood there.
Then Jesus said to them,
“I ask you, is it lawful to do good on the sabbath
rather than to do evil,
to save life rather than to destroy it?”
Looking around at them all, he then said to him,
“Stretch out your hand.”
He did so and his hand was restored.
But they became enraged
and discussed together what they might do to Jesus.

I have heard it said that God has a problem; he thinks he’s God. Doesn’t he understand that there are rules that have to be followed? Doesn’t he remember that he handed down the Law for all? Are we really that far removed from the Pharisees? Do we not argue about our rules?

I know of a woman who proselytized to her mother for years. She told her mother that unless she accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior she would go to hell. On what authority did she base this on? Like the Pharisees she went by strict interpretation of what she read in the bible. The bible tells us that unless we accept Jesus we will not receive everlasting life in heaven.

The problem with this belief is it puts restrictions on what God can and cannot do. God can save whomever he pleases and it does not matter if the person accepted Jesus in this life, was baptized, did good works, or had faith. At the time of death Jesus will be his own best advocate. There will be a lot of atheists in heaven and a lot of christians in hell. That is for no one on this planet to decide.

A Saint is any person, angelic or human, living with God in heaven. The Catholic Church does not make someone a Saint. The Catholic Church does officially recognize a person as a Saint when there is evidence to make the claim. To date the Church has canonized over 10,000 people as Saints. Do you know how many people the Church officially recognizes as being in hell? Absolutely zero. Not Judas, not Pilot (a Saint in the Orthodox Church), not even Hitler or Margaret Singer. We do not know who is in hell because we do not know who the Lord grants salvation to in his great mercy.

We have been shown a way to ensure our salvation. We have been given a path to follow. This is for our benefit, not God’s. God does what he chooses to do. He can choose to let an atheist into heaven and he can choose to heal a cripple on the Sabbath.

God is God, we are not. The rules of the game are for us, not he who invented the whole thing.