(Rm.9:1-5;   Ps.147:12-15,19-20;   Lk.14:1-6)

"They could not answer."

The Pharisees are dumb.  The leaders of the Jewish nation cannot speak as to whether a man should be healed on the sabbath.  How far they have fallen from the presence of God.

We know the Israelites were God's chosen people.  This is proclaimed clearly by both Paul and our psalmist today: "Theirs were the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the lawgiving, the worship, and the promises; theirs were the patriarchs, and from them came the Messiah"; yet when the Messiah, the Son, the fulfillment of all the gifts given them, stands before them… they are blind, they are dumb – they have no wisdom, no light.  This is the nation whom the Lord has given "His statutes and His ordinances…  He has not done thus for any other nation."  And yet they are unable to judge that it is right for a man to be healed at any time, that this is God's will, that human life supersedes the mere observance of law, a law they have suffocated of its life.

And we?  Again, being successors to the Jews we must always ask ourselves if we do the things which caused the promise to be taken from their hands.  Do we proclaim the glory of this Word?  Do we "speak the truth in Christ"?  Or do we keep silent, too?  And not the silence that bears all suffering as has our Savior upon the cross do I speak – I mean the death of the Word in our souls.  The inability to discern His will.  The fear to praise God by teaching the nations of the grace which has been granted us.  "He sends forth His command to the earth; swiftly runs His Word!"  But does that Word come through us, does it work through us who are the keepers of the New Covenant, or do we let it die in our throats?

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