IN JESUS' TIME, THE PHARISEES HAD CLEARLY DEFINED WHAT they stood against. Over generations, using the basic laws of the Ten Commandments and the teachings of Moses, they had developed a vast legalistic structure—to the point that they argued whether it was lawful to eat an egg laid on the Sabbath.

They were against travel on the Sabbath. They were against impurity. They were against women in the inner court of the temple. Most of all, in their self-righteousness, they were against the people who failed to follow their religious rules.

Jesus? In the two great commandments—love God, love your neighbor—he stated not what he stood against, but what he stood for. For healing, even on a Sabbath. For forgiveness, not of sin but of the sinner. For reaching out to those in need. For love.

And when he died on the cross, Jesus stood for us all.

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    SUNDAY: Palm Sunday

    MONDAY: By Whose Authority?

    TUESDAY: What Jesus Stood For

    WEDNESDAY: The Price of Silver

    THURSDAY: Drops of Blood

    FRIDAY: Crucifixion

    SUNDAY: The Carpenter's Cloth

The Carpenter's Cloth by Sigmund Brouwer.
Copyright(c) 1997 by Sigmund Brouwer. Page 40.
Used by permission of J. Countryman.