Jesus, at those critical times when he had momentous decisions to make, withdrew to the hills to pray. In the sixth chapter of Luke's gospel, when he had healed that man's withered hand in the synagogue on the sabbath, he threw the gauntlet at the rules and regulations that for so long had choked out the kingdom of God. To the scribes and the Pharisees he offered this challenging question: "I ask you, is it lawful on the sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?" Luke tells us these scribes and Pharisees were filled with fury (the word actually means madness). They lost their good sense as they discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.

Before he made his next move, Jesus withdrew from those scribes and Pharisees with their unbridled, senseless anger and …