But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.
Luke 6:11, ESV
It’s hard to imagine people getting mad at Jesus for doing good, but this comes after he healed a man with a crippled hand. They were mad because he had done this act on a Sabbath, and he had called them out in their hypocrisy. Jesus was a firebrand in his time and continues to be in ours. When confronted with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, there comes a challenge. The challenge will either compel us to live into his calling or to rebel against it. Bob Dylan said it best when he sang, “It may be the devil, or it may be the Lord, but you know you gotta serve somebody.” Often, we are not aware of who it is that we are serving in our lives. When our beliefs are challenged, like the Pharisees, we can become angry and act out inappropriately. God wants us to be humbled in our lives and seek to bring hope to those who are bound up in the things of this world.
Let us pray. I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, your dear Son, that you have kept me this night from all harm and danger, and I ask you to protect me this day also from sin and every evil, that in all I do today, I may please you. For into your hands, I commend myself, my body and soul, and all that is mine. Let your holy angel watch over me, that the wicked foe have no power over me. Amen.