Gospel Harmony Joy Note 10...

I do not know if I have missed something, but I think I just came across the first mention of Jesus' grief. I oft wonder the weight of that, of how there was no place He could be or even look without reminders too numerous to count of how sin was ravaging all that had come into being through Him.

I have now read three instances where Jesus broke the laws of the Sabbath, according to the pharisees scrutinizing His actions on the Sabbaths. First, the paralytic. Second, the of gathering food by His disciples. Third, the withered hand. It is in this third instance that I read of the myriad reason why the Sabbath was not "broken" by Jesus, chief among them the first instance, that I have noticed, of Jesus proclaiming, in a sense, that He has come to fulfill the Law, i.e., that He was Lord of the Sabbath.

Of the other points of argument, two speak volumes to me: 1) the reference to Hosea 6:6 that God desires compassion rather than sacrifice and 2) that the Law was made for man and not man for the Law. These days, it seems to me too many Christians forget this latter point.

But, in the end, the verse that holds me is Mark 3:5, where I read that Jesus was grieved at the pharisees hardness of heart. Even knowing their hearts, even knowing that their very flesh stands against God, rejecting what is before them, as noted in John 5:19-47, still Jesus asked, taught, and then showed His authority. He was angry, yes, as we read also in that verse and in His actions at the temple with the money changers a short while ago (in my parallel Gospel). But Jesus was also grieved. He sorrowed for the sin that angered Him.  He sorrowed for those caught in its snare.

Reading Mark 3:5 called to mind what I had read just a while ago, with the cleansing of the leper. That glorious instance of the verb To Be, where God spoke and it was so. Admonished to speak not of what had happened but instead to fulfill the law by giving an offering, the leper spoke anyway. Multitudes came. The sick, the possessed, the injured.

"But He Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray" (Luke 5:16).

Before reading this parallel presentation of the Gospels, I knew of just two instances of a praying Jesus: 1) when His disciples kept falling asleep on Him and 2) when He asked if the cup might be passed. Perhaps these are the same ... I cannot remember and do not wish to frustrate myself by trying to find them ... but clearly Jesus prayed more than those two times ... or that one time.

Why does Mark 3:5 (and Luke 5:16, for that matter) hold me, then? For this reason: When I hear of the passion of Jesus, I hear of His trial, persecution, suffering and death ... I hear of Holy Week. But I wonder if, perhaps, the true passion of Jesus Christ began the moment of His conception, the moment He stepped into, He tabernacled in, a fallen world. Every day of His life, every moment, He was confronted with how sin had twisted and corrupted all of creation. Jesus knew. He knew what this world, what man, was meant to be. Surely His agony of spirit was born and borne long before He came to Calgary.

Such love for me!

Lord, I believe.  Help my unbelief!