Do not judge by appearances ...

Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?” The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?” Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you all marvel at it. Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man's whole body well? Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”

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The way that the religious elders treated Jesus was never about anything that Moses ever wrote. Their rejection of the Son of God was always about them. Nothing in the scriptures ever substantiated their actions. Their hatred of their Messiah is evident in every interaction with Jesus. These often hid behind accusations like the one here - a demon? Seriously? How could anyone take them seriously? Their indictments reveal an illogical spin that resembles the political rhetoric of our day. Perhaps this demonization of Christ is just spin?

Using the example of Sabbath circumcisions he points out the utter craziness of their objection to healing a man on the Sabbath. The lesson from this passage is that people, even religious people, are not qualified to judge because our senses are limited to externals. Only God can see beyond our externals. The exception is ourselves. To judge with right judgment we must first judge what is in our own hearts. The religious leaders would have been wise to judge their own hearts before they judged the actions of Jesus.

Lord, help me to remove the log that obstructs my vision and causes bad judgment.