Show off

Stand up in front of everyone (3:3)

Does anyone else find this strange? Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, Jesus says about good deeds, and then goes and does one in about as public a place as possible. Well, I guess if you dig a bit deeper, Jesus was talking about the good deed of giving money, so the parallel is not exact, but it still feels odd. It is almost like he is showing off, and no one likes a show off, do they?

Well, Jesus is showing off. He's showing off the man's healing. This is important for the man's well-being. He is trying to appeal to their compassion, so that they will not take their anger with Jesus out on him. But he is also showing off their hard-heartedness to all. They are like whitewashed graves. Attractive on the outside, with their careful keeping if the law, but inside full of putrefaction, of rotting flesh, happy to see someone suffer just to make a point. Sometimes we need our true selves revealed, 'shown off', but it is rarely comfortable viewing.



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