In today's Gospel reading from Mark 1, Jesus healed a leper and said to him, "See that you tell no one anything, but go show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleaning what Moses prescribed." The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter. He spread the report so much that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly. Here is a case of emotion overriding obedience to the Lord. The other instance I recall appears in Matthew 16. After Jesus first revealed to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, suffer greatly, and be killed and then be raised, Peter rebuked him, "God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you." Jesus turned to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do." We human beings are so used to following our emotion and forgetting what God wants us to do. Self-directed emotion must be set aside to clear the way for total obedience to the Lord.
No comments:
Post a Comment