Scripture Union Daily Discovery 26th October 2020 Today Monday
TODAY’S TOPIC: ARE YOU RELIGIOUS?
Opening Prayer: I invite You, Jesus, to come and bring Your healing today.
Read Luke 13:10–17 – Jesus Heals a Crippled Woman on the Sabbath
10 On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, 11 and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” 13 Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.
Today Monday’s Scripture Union Daily Discovery 26th October 2020
14 Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”
15 The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? 16 Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”
17 When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.
New International Version (NIV)
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Reflect: Scripture Union Daily Discovery 26th October 2020
Are you religious or spiritual? Or do you have a relationship with Jesus? Any or all of the above?
Often when people discover that I go to church they quickly assure me that they aren’t religious; but then add that they are quite spiritual. The two words, “religious” and “spiritual,” appear at opposite ends of the spectrum, with “spirituality” being a Good Thing and “religious” definitely not! Might Jesus have agreed with them? He healed the outcasts of society (10, 11), and he often encountered the disapproval of the “religious” people who didn’t like his “spirituality” (14). He was shattering their ideas, their systems of institutionalized religion.
Their nation had had a special relationship with God for generations, but now, Jesus challenged their dry religion to show them the true kingdom of God. The religious leaders wanted the healing to wait until the Sabbath was over (14) but Jesus shows that healing can happen at any time (15, 16). And he exposes their hypocrisy – animals may be helped on the Sabbath but not a person (15).
Jesus doesn’t just heal the woman, he also teaches the people – the healing is a physical parable. A bent back was a symbol of Satan’s oppression (11), robbing the crippled woman of her dignity and keeping her imprisoned. The Jewish people were also under oppression and Jesus, the Messiah, had come to set them free. He still comes to heal the broken-hearted and to set the prisoner free.
Apply: How are you broken-hearted or imprisoned? What does Jesus say to you (12)? Write down this verse and carry it with you.
Closing Prayer: Jesus, I need freedom from… Please meet me here and now. Help me to walk in the freedom Your forgiveness brings.
THROUGH THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR
Jeremiah 47, 48; John 16
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