The WOFOYO Podcast
The WOFOYO Podcast
Withered Hands and Wounded Egos: Pharisees vs. Jesus
C-Dub and Bones explore Jesus' controversial healings on the Sabbath and how religious leaders were more concerned with preserving tradition than celebrating restoration. Through examining scripture passages in Luke 6 and Luke 13, they uncover powerful insights about how modern churches can similarly prioritize rules over relationship.
• Jesus healed a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath, triggering outrage from religious leaders
• The withered right hand symbolizes how churches can lose their power and authority
• Religious systems often become more focused on methods than purpose
• We easily become indifferent or jealous when hearing testimonies of God's work in others' lives
• Churches enthusiastically pray for revival but may resist it when it arrives outside their control
• Fear of losing influence drives much religious opposition to God's unexpected movements
• We need to crucify our flesh daily, including our desire for control and recognition
https://wofoyo.org/ #wofoyo
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Speaker 1:Hey, everybody, welcome to another edition of the Wofo Yo podcast with C-Dub and Bones and it's actually C-Dub and Bones talking Been a minute. Mm-hmm, feels good to be back. You know, went and had those other two episodes that we did and just praying about it. Lord, what do you want to talk about? And inevitably all you got to do for that is get in the Word for yourself, as Wolfo Yo means. And so daily scripture reading, having to come across this passage, and it brought back some things. When the Lord first, I say when the Lord first started talking to me, I knew I was getting called back up to do some things and I probably just started hearing better, to tell you the truth. But you know, you say tomato, I say tomato. The effect was the same Luke 6, verse 6.
Speaker 1:Now it happened, on another Sabbath also, that he entered the synagogue and taught and a man was there whose right hand was withered. So the scribes and Pharisees watched him closely whether he would heal on the Sabbath, that they might find an accusation against him. But he knew their thoughts and said to the man who had the withered hand Arise and stand here. And he rose and stood. Jesus said to them, and he did so and his hand was restored as whole as the other. But they were filled with rage and discussed one another what they might do to Jesus.
Speaker 1:And before this, some of the Pharisees had caught the disciples as they were walking on a Sabbath, picking some grains and rubbing the grains in their hands and eating them. And Jesus even told them. He said don't you remember when David was hungry? He and those who were with him? Now he's being chased by Saul. David is in this story. I went into the house of God, took an eighth of showbread and also gave some to those with him, which is not lawful for any but the priest to eat. And he said to them the son of man is also Lord of the Sabbath. So you have these two stories back to back. And just to show you that this is nothing new, we have a real, real, similar story over in Luke 13. Starting in verse 10 and going through 17.
Speaker 1:Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath and, behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity 18 years and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up.
Speaker 1:But when Jesus saw her, he called her to him and said to her Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity. And he laid his hands on her and immediately she was made straight and glorified God. But the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath. And he said to the crowd there are six days on which men ought to work. Therefore, come and be healed on them and not on the Sabbath day. The Lord then answered him and said Hypocrite, does not each one of you, on the Sabbath, loose his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it away to water it so? Ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham who Satan has bound, think of it for 18 years, to be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath? And when he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame and the multitude rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him. Love it.
Speaker 2:Oh man. So I get a big chuckle out of this. But I know I shouldn't, but yet I do. Just the idea, or the notion here you know this kind of going back and forth where this woman's getting healed and here you have Jesus doing a good thing for somebody and this group of Pharisees more concerned about doing it on the wrong day. You had six other days you could have done this, but you decided to do it today. Come back some other time. It's kind of where they're coming from. Yeah, oh man, that's crazy. Oh man, that's crazy.
Speaker 1:So we did an episode about the demoniac of Gadara, or the Gerasenes, depending on which version you're reading, you know which gospel and that man got delivered and the people got scared. It made an impact on their business, made the impact on their economy. They were raising swine out there and all them swine go out into the ocean. You have a similar thing here, although it's not necessarily monetary like it was with the inhabitants of that land, although it is a comfort thing Because you have people. And if you think we're different in the modern Western church, you're wrong, straight up wrong. You have people that would, that would rather. They would rather have their doctrine be verified than somebody healed or delivered.
Speaker 2:Here's something I thought was kind of neat there. You know you got six days to work. Don't do this today, okay, um, was y'all having synagogue on them other days? No, today's the day that we all meet, oh, yeah, so the synagogue wasn't open on them other days. Um, not for, not for this sort of thing.
Speaker 2:Anyway, I was listening to some Fleetwood Mac earlier and I like Fleetwood Mac, I love that genre, I love that era, mostly because I like the imagery in the lyrics. My wife and I, we talk to our daughters all the time about stuff like this. Today's lyrics and songwriting. They're, they're too much to the point. There's no, there's no imagination in the lyrics. Yeah, you get back into the seventies and sixties. Seventies and eighties. There was a lot of, there was a lot of artistic, was a lot of artistic flair in the lyrics. Lyrics could mean something to someone and mean something else to another, depending on what that person had been through, that person's worldview and stuff like that. So there was a lot of artistry involved.
Speaker 2:So anyway, I was sitting there listening to Fleetwood Mac and I was reading this passage here in Luke 6. I started at the beginning of the verse and I could kind of see some things here. Some things that kind of leap out at me or kind of jump out at me is that at the very beginning of the chapter it's a Sabbath, but they're walking through the grain fields, the story we're referencing he says it's a different Sabbath On another Sabbath On another Sabbath. Okay, and they're in the synagogue. Go back, go a little bit further into Luke 13. They're in the synagogue. Go back, go a little bit further into Luke 13. They're in the synagogue.
Speaker 2:So the Lord starts speaking to me because, you know, because imagery and symbology and type of pictures, grain fields have a tendency to represent God's people, god's people, congregation, christians. Okay, synagogue has a tendency, for me anyway, to invoke thoughts of religious system, church, proper, things of that sort, the leadership aspect of ministry, things of that sort. So when I started looking at the man with the shriveled hand, and even into chapter 13, the scripture is saying that there's something shriveled, there's something crippled, there's something broken down With the shriveled hand, the Lord started showing me I know I'm not the only one he's ever showed this to, but the hand it's a right hand especially often refers to power, your authority, your authority, yeah, your ability to do things.
Speaker 1:And he raised his hand in an oath, in an oath exactly.
Speaker 2:So what we have here is, for our sake, here today, god trying to show us. I think, sometimes that the body of Christ itself, the ministry, the ministry aspect itself, sometimes gets a little crippled, loses its authority, loses its ability to do what it's supposed to be doing. And the reason is is because we have focused more on the how we do things rather than the why we are doing things and the who and the who we should be doing it for. So, anyway, that's just what popped out of me in the first few minutes of reading earlier today and listening to Fleetwood Mac the first few minutes of reading earlier today and listening to Fleetwood Mac.
Speaker 1:Well, if you want to hear a song, if you want to hear a song, we'll talk about music for just a split second, one of my favorites. You ever want a good concert experience? Check this guy out. Good visual and audio, both presentation A dude named Charlie Crockett, out of Texas and he has a song called Loretta.
Speaker 1:Now, the way I described it to my friend, my friend Davey, that we talk music all the time and he's the one that turned me on to the song I said, the more I listen to that song you were talking about, rather than being to the point, and let's be quite honest, a lot of today's music is so to the point, it's vulgar and damn pornographic. Exactly, rather than having some romance, which is what you're talking about. You know painting that imagery, but I said the words in this song, everything he says without saying it directly Adam Wainwright, painting around the corners and 96 miles an hour before he drops that breaking ball right in at about 87, straight down the middle. Yeah, it fools you. So it says that there there is a romance. That was there, and I think a lot of our poetry has been lost, or our ability to find beauty in things has been lost. But concerning this thing that's going on, this criticism, jesus is doing the business that his father has set him about. You were talking about that withered hand and that woman being bowed as symbols of things as a church having a withered hand and maybe their authority and their ability to do things and function and be effective being withered. They didn't see it as that. But here's the deal if we're all members of the same body, then that whole congregation had a withered hand and so we view it as jesus. You're healing that person on the sabbath, don't you know? That's against our doctrine, rather than you're healing us because we're members of the body and we see that if somebody gets healed or something happens, if somebody has a bad situation and all of a sudden there's relief, there could be healing. It could be a financial situation that some money comes in.
Speaker 1:I've been praying for this and I finally got out of a job that was very antagonistic to living a Christian life, and now I've found a job that isn't All these testimonies. I remember seeing a job that isn't All these testimonies. I remember seeing Somebody says I had a child that had gotten into witchcraft and had become possessed, and they are now delivered. I've been set free from alcohol, all these things, and we look from the pew and all too often it's just very easy to go. Well, isn't that nice? Or, in some cases, the worst side of our humanity is when we go. When's my check coming in? Bingo, because I've seen it both. But the other, to me at least. You're passionate and you know that God can. You might be mad that God didn't do it for you, but the other it's just like oh, isn't that special. Oh God did something for you. Sure, sure, he did. It's like people are disinterested.
Speaker 2:Oh God did something for you, sure, sure he did.
Speaker 1:It's like people are disinterested in somebody else's victory, in the Lord coming to bat, so to speak. For somebody else, we can have it, it's all too easy to have that mindset. Else, we can have it, it's all too easy to have that mindset. But what you really see in the leadership here, though, is you're screwing with our doctrine, Jesus. We have all this tradition that we know we're right. We know it because the rabbis that taught us said so. My apostle, my pastor, my mama, mama and grandma are more sacred than the pastor and the apostle, but guess what they can be wrong. You know, just like Colonel Sanders said in Waterboy guess what Mama's wrong, mama's wrong.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, you're wrong, colonel Sanders.
Speaker 1:You're wrong, colonel Sanders. Something wrong with that, boys, but do the oblong gotta.
Speaker 2:Well, I think, with these Pharisees, these religious leaders, there's a lot of fear. There's a few things. There's some fear that's going on. A lot of fear, a lot of fear. There's a few things. There's some fear that's going on. A lot of fear, a lot of fear. They're afraid that they're coming under attack, that they're going to start to lose their favor with the people. In losing their favor with the people, then they'll start losing their standing, so on and so forth. Kind of like today, if the pastor starts losing his favor with the people, maybe the tithes and offerings will start to slow down, so on and so forth. Connection with that charisma and personality and all that comes with that. You know your pastors and your leaders. They all want to stay relevant and popular because they equate that popularity to power. But it's not. It really isn't. I also see what the gospel says in Luke, chapter 17. Things that cause offenses, things that cause people to sin, are bound to come. Yep, and that's another thing that I see. People are just going to get offended.
Speaker 1:Amen.
Speaker 2:And what we do with that offense, how we handle that offense uh carries a lot of weight, uh in, in, in how we, you know, in in how we, we, we become, whether we become compassionate, discompassionate, things of that sort. So if we can't learn to forgive, if we can't learn to forgive those people who have sinned and whether or not they've sinned against us directly, it doesn't matter Then we'll start to grow apathetic and uncaring. We'll start to be more me-focused I, me and my. The ego starts to grow, and that's really what that is. When you said, you know where's my check, where's it coming, you know, that's really what that is. It's a I, me and my focused. What that is? It's uh, I, me and my focused um gospel.
Speaker 2:That is just not in the new testament, uh, so, yeah, I mean it's. I really see that too. Where and I've been there, um, I've had that feeling before where you listen to someone's testimony and I'm sitting there, going man, where's my deliverance? At, you know where's my yeah, and boy, I'll tell you what. It's a kick in the pants, because the next kick right behind it is how dare you, you know, as I'm sitting there, going man, where's my deliverance, shut up man Be happy for this person. Oh, yes, lord. Okay, you know, because we are still flesh. No matter what kind of relationship we have with the Lord, how long we've been serving the Lord, we still have that flesh in us that likes to rise up and say, hey, what about me? So, yeah, we got to crucify that flesh daily.
Speaker 1:You talked about motive and over in john 11 what has just happened is lazarus has been raised from the dead, starting in verse 45. Then many of the jews who had come to mary and had seen the things jesus did believed in him. But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them the things Jesus did. Then the chief priest and the Pharisees gathered a council which lets you know, the chief priests were not Pharisees and said what shall we do? For this man works many signs. If we let him alone like this, everyone will believe in him and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation. So a little historical note I've been reading some historical books. Earlier this year I finished Flavius Josephus, antiquities of the Jews. That's a long read but it gives you some historical context. Right now I'm about two-thirds of the way through one called the Church History by a guy named Eusebius. But what you need to understand the Romans will come and take away both our place in our nation if we let it alone. Is that this is not part of the discontent, like you're saying that you know the crowd might stop giving, we might fall out of favor. Part of the thing is their political appointees Right.
Speaker 1:Who appoints the Sanhedrin? Who appoints the head priest? It's Herod, or Herod's predecessor, or whoever comes after, is appointing the high priest, and so the first one to do it was Herod the Great At the time this is going on. This is Herod Antipas. There was this whole dynamic where the high priest would get put in, taken out, put in, taken out. There's a dude named Harkannas who was a high priest. Eventually, herod has him killed. So this has all happened right before Jesus is born, and it is definitely fresh in the memory of all those guys on the council.
Speaker 1:They're the Sanhedrin, and one of them, caiaphas, said that year to them you know nothing at all, nor do you consider that as it expedient for us that one man should die for the people and not the whole nation should perish. They did this not to say on his own authority, but being high priest. That year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for that nation only, but he would gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad. Then, from that day, they plotted to put him to death. Therefore, jesus no longer, no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went from there into the country near the wilderness, to a city called Ephraim and remained there with his disciples.
Speaker 1:So you see right now that, oh, we know what we're going to do, matter of fact. We had that prophetic word. We're going to make it come to pass. Oh, we know what we're going to do, matter of fact, we had that prophetic word. We're going to make it come to pass. And you know, jesus still said no man takes my life from me. I lay it down freely. And if I lay it down freely, I lay it down willingly. I'll take it up again, which he does. But we have this mindset. As someone who has witnessed revival, we want to pray for revival. Yes and amen. Oh, brother, let's pray for revival. We need revival, t-shirts about revival, songs about revival. But yet if we can't control revival, we'll kill it. Amen, same spirit, same attitude.
Speaker 2:But you get credit for it, though. Oh man, that's really what it comes down to. If we can just cut the brass tacks, that's what it comes down to. It's kind of like offering someone a helping hand and you do it because it's the nice thing to do. It's the it comes to.
Speaker 2:It's kind of like offering someone's you know a helping hand, and you do it because it's the nice thing to do, it's the polite thing to do, and you know they're not really going to call you on it, but you get the credit for being a nice guy, you know, until they said oh yeah, matter of fact, I could use some help. You think you can do this for me? Oh well. Well, next thing, you know, you've got all kinds of reasons why you can't do the very thing that you were offering to do. So, yeah. So there's this going on here where we want to pray for revival, we want to fast for revival, we're going to make up some shirts and coffee cups and all these things, but when revival comes along, yeah, we're going to pee on that real quick.
Speaker 1:Yep, everybody. Thanks for listening. We are going to continue this conversation. Next episode we're going to talk about man's attempt to control the moves of God. You can always check us out at wofoyoorg to find out how to contact us, or subscribe on our podcast, spotify or Audible. Remember folks, if you're going to grow, you've got to Wofoyo. Get in the word for yourself.