Jennifer Felsberg 1

Jesus’ Kingdom Activity

Jennifer Felsberg

Grand Canyon University

BIB 123, New Testament History

September 13, 2009

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The first story from Jesus’ Galilean ministry I would like to share comes from the book

of Luke 39: 17-26. This story is about a paralytic man. The man’s friends were determined to

get him to see Jesus to be healed. There was a large crowd and Jesus was inside teaching the

Pharisees. The friends finally lowered the paralytic man on a mat from the rooftop right in front

of Jesus. Jesus told the man that his sins were forgiven and told him to pick up his mat and go

home, which he did. Everyone was amazed except the Pharisees Jesus had been teaching. They

felt that only God alone could forgive sins and they were not open to the fact that Jesus was the

Son of God. This story is important because the Pharisees had become so preoccupied with

manmade traditions and keeping the law that they forgot what the scriptures were really about.

Jesus healed the man because of the faith of his friends. This shows how much our own faith

can affect others. The Pharisees had no faith; they only had their traditions and laws.

The second story I would like to discuss is found in Matthew 9:9-13. The gist of this

particular story is about Jesus eating with tax collectors. Jesus came upon Matthew sitting at the

tax collector’s booth and Jesus told Matthew “Follow me.” Matthew gave up his position of tax

collector to follow Jesus. Tax collectors made a lot of money; they over charged taxes and kept

the profits. For this reason the Jews hated tax collectors. They considered tax collectors

lowlifes. Matthew invited Jesus to dinner at his home. There were many other tax collectors

and sinners there. The Pharisees were outraged that Jesus would eat with such people and asked

Jesus’ disciples why. Jesus heard them and replied, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but

the sick. But go and learn what this mean: ‘I don’t desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not

come to call the righteous, but sinners.”- (Life Application Study Bible, 1997, p. 1550). Jesus

was trying to tell the Jews that we must repent to enter the kingdom of heaven. The Jews made

themselves appear good by publicly doing good deeds and pointing at the sins of others (Life

Application Study Bible, 1997, p. 1678 footnote). The Jews were always trying to trap Jesus
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instead of seeing Him for who He really was: The Son of God. The Jews were also more

concerned with trying to appear holy than with trying to help other people. Jesus was concerned

for everyone, the rightous and the unrightous.

The final story I chose comes from Luke 11:37-54. This is a rather long section where

Jesus criticizes the Pharisees. The main verse in this section I would like to focus on is verse 46:

Jesus replied, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with

burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.” -(Life

Application Study Bible, 1997, p. 1699). The burdens Jesus is talking about were the added man

made laws they added to God’s law. One of the Pharisees additions to God’s law to keep the

Sabbath Holy. They decided to come up with instructions on how far a person could walk on

the Sabbath, which kinds of knots could be tied, and how much weight could be carried before it

was considered unlawful. My husband was raised Jewish and much of this still goes on today.

It is like the Jews are trying to find loopholes and ways around the laws. In some places they

use the power and telephone lines to block off their communities. They decided that it is okay to

do certain things on the Sabbath inside of these communities. There is also a book with

hundreds of man made laws and additions to God’s laws. They go so far as to pre tear toilet

paper the night before the Sabbath and there is a law about how many times a man can shake his

private part after unrinating before it is considered masterbation. They also make reservations at

the synagogues on the High Holy Days, which are Rash Shana and Yom Kipper, so they will be

seen and can have good seats (Felsberg, 2009). I do not think this is how Jesus intended for it to

be. In fact, I know it is not. Jesus came to free people from these man made laws. When asked

what the greatest and most important command was he replied, “Love the Lord your God with

all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest

commandment . And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Land the
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Prophets hand on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:37-40, (Life Application Study

Bible, 1997, p. 1582).

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References

Felsberg, D. (2009, September 8). Mr. (J. Felsberg, Interviewer)

Life Application Study Bible. (1997). Grand Rapids: Tyndale House Publishers.

Luke 11 - IVP New Testament Commentaries. (n.d.). Retrieved September 11, 2009, from Bible
Gateway: http://www.biblegateway.com/resources/commentaries/IVP-NT/Luke/Controversies-
Corrections