Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Bruno on the sabbath

Been reading a really interesting and unique book..  The Good Wine by Bruno Barnhart.  Subtitle is, "Reading John from the Center."  It's pretty deep.  I thought he had some excellent comments on all the sabbath wars that were going on between Jesus and the Pharisees:

"The divine word embodied in the law had been virtually paralyzed, (much like the paralytic himself) and this was exemplified by the legalisitic interpretation of the sabbath in terms of complete inactivity.  Jesus brings the word of the sabbath back to its original meaning in the sense of re-creation, return to the font of life.  (..."The Father is working..")  Once again, the movement from exodus to creation is a movement from human religious structures, imperfect, impotent and sometimes perverse and inimical to life, to a faith which relates the person immediately to God's creative power."

The Pharisees mistakenly held to a sabbath of impotent, lifeless, and inactive death..  Jesus brought re-creation and life-giving rest.

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