Faith Question for the week of Aug. 25

“When Jesus said this, all his opponents were put to shame, and the entire crowd was rejoicing.”
Here a church leader and a whole congregation grew spiritually. It happened through a painful experience of shame, as they woke up to how evil, crippling, and oppressive their inaction had been. Then after the shame, deep gratitude.
Jewish teaching on Sabbath was not bad. Not at all! Instead, these folks were asleep to God’s true Sabbath gift. Real religion is always waking up to God, more than cleaning up our act.
Cleaning up (following rules and living right) is good and necessary, but it’s only the beginning. All of our clean up strategies must be similarly, and painfully, exposed, so we can find more fully God’s urgent, liberating love.
What hard truth are you ultimately grateful for? Ask Christ for help embracing the two steps backward (the cross) as integral to the three steps forward (resurrection).