[ Today's Readings ]
What do you possess that you have not received?
But if you have received it,
why are you boasting as if you did not receive it?
We are always looking for something to boast about, even though we don't always realize it. We want to feel good about ourselves in comparison with others. But these aren't the kind of riches we need. These aren't the kind of distinctions we truly desire.
You are already satisfied; you have already grown rich;
you have become kings without us!
Indeed, I wish that you had become kings,
so that we also might become kings with you.
Instead, it is better to be like Paul, a spectacle to the world and fools in the eyes of others. Even if it goes so far that we are persecuted, ridiculed, and roughly treated, it is worth it if we are living for the one from home true riches come. Even if we become like the world's rubbish, the scum of all, we find a freedom that we can never have when we have something to prove in the eyes of the world.
“Why are you doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?”
Jesus said to them in reply,
“Have you not read what David did
when he and those who were with him were hungry?
How he went into the house of God, took the bread of offering,
which only the priests could lawfully eat,
ate of it, and shared it with his companions?”
We become free to just follow Jesus. There are no other criteria to weigh or to measure. Only his perspective matters.
Then he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.”
The LORD wants to show us a way beyond puffed up pride and constant comparison. He wants to show us how to make his concern to be our only concern, to show us how to love as we are first loved by him.
He fulfills the desire of those who fear him,
he hears their cry and saves them.
The LORD keeps all who love him,
but all the wicked he will destroy.
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