Dear Luke,
I want you to know that I
understand your struggle. It’s not an
unfamiliar one for many who come to Jesus with certain expectations, as you
mentioned in your last letter. We expect
Jesus to live and act in a certain way and, when he doesn’t conform to what we
expect, we try to figure him out, much like the Pharisees were trying to do,
albeit quite a bit more antagonistically than you are.
How I interpret all of this is that
Jesus has come to help us understand life, all of it, in all of its
complexities and relationships. Jesus
came to teach us how to live, how to celebrate life and the wonder that is
within it. Whereas many in the religious
world had spent centuries drawing careful lines about what boundaries in which
we might find God, Jesus comes to explode those boundaries and help us see that
God has created everything and loves all of creation. The only line that he draws is that we have
to understand that we are called by him and we must follow him. Beyond that, he calls us to enjoy life, to celebrate
the wonder in it. We have to turn from
the sinful things in the world, but that doesn’t mean we have to hideout from
life in the church—we’re to go out of the church and help people see that Jesus
was a God of abundant life. I don’t want
you to think that there are no boundaries in life, that there aren’t things we
can’t partake in, but we don’t have to live in constant fear of messing
up—instead, we should recognize that Jesus calls us and changes the way we see
life, so that discipleship is something we do all the time, not only when we’re
in church. Radical thoughts, I know, but
you’ll continue to see Jesus change people’s expectations of what it means to
be a follower of him in almost every story we have.
Speaking of this, we turn next to
another conflict with the Pharisees. The
Pharisees have is so deeply ingrained in their minds what the religious life is
like—the only problem with this is that their idea of religious life is so
defined by rules about what one can and cannot do, that they have made the
rules their god, and their hearts are far from God. Jesus has come to call them back to faithful
religion, but they’re not going to listen, because they are so certain as to
how God should be worshiped that they are afraid of hearing contrary news.
Jesus and the disciples were in the
grain fields on Sabbath, and if you’ve ever been poor and in a grain field, you
know how tempting it is to eat some of the heads of grain. The disciples were doing just that. It’s nothing that you or I would think would
be a problem, but the Pharisees lit upon this as doing work on the
Sabbath. I doubt that anyone else saw it
as work, but the Pharisees were so zealous for their rules that the slightest
violation, or any action that could be interpreted as a violation, was an
egregious sin against God. Thus, the
Pharisees pounced, questions why the disciples were breaking the rules about
the Sabbath.
Jesus must have had pity for their
enslaved hearts, prisoners to the elaborate system of rules that kept their hearts
far from worship, but he kept pushing on them, hoping they would see the error
of their ways, just as Jesus will challenge you and I, Luke, that we might see
our ways as filled with errors. Jesus
asked the disciples if they remembered reading about King David and his
companions eating bread that was, by law, only for the priests of the temple to
eat. Seeing their faces go blank at his
question, he told them that the Son of Man, as he called himself, was lord of
the Sabbath.
Luke, Sabbath is an often abused
idea in our culture. It’s meant to be a
day of rest, of enjoying God’s abundant creation, but we have often neglected
the practice, instead using it as a day to complete all the labors we haven’t
finished in the six previous days.
Rather than enjoy what God has done, we place special emphasis on what
we have to do. We get it backwards. Truly celebrating the Sabbath involves joy
and trust in God rather than rules that seek to limit. Some of the rules could be beneficial, but
any time we start setting boundaries, we drift into the world of the
legalistic, and Jesus wants our hearts to pursue God with reckless abandon,
rather than be legislated into following him.
There was another clash between
Jesus and the Pharisees regarding the Sabbath.
Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the Sabbath and a man was present
who had a withered right hand. Knowing
what we do about Jesus’ healing powers, we can sense the problem straight
away—if Jesus heals this man on the Sabbath, it’s considered work, but healing
would be a great gift to this man. Luke,
what would you do—constrain this man’s life for one more day, or bring joy and
faith in God to this man’s life straightaway?
The scribes and Pharisees watched to see what he would do, wondering if
they would soon have a reason to accuse him of being a lawbreaker, while
suspecting that he might do exactly that!
Jesus knew what thoughts their
minds held, and to put them in a tough position, he had the disfigured man come
and stand beside him, doubtless feeling awkward about being the center of
attention, while Jesus looked at the gathered crowd and asked, “Is the law of
the Sabbath meant to help us do good or harm, to restore life or steal it
away?”
One could feel the tension rise in
the room, and the Pharisees shoulders slumped, sensing the impossibility of the
situation. They couldn’t give the
(obvious) right answer, for that would free Jesus to heal the man, handing him
a victory and accepting another bitter defeat, and they couldn’t stand in a
synagogue and argue that the laws of the Sabbath were intended to harm
humanity. Surely they knew that would
turn the citizens against them. They
were stuck, despising Jesus for embarrassing them and wishing for any solution
to the quandary this man presented.
You or I, Luke, might reasonable
give up our witch hunt and follow this brilliant man, this inspirational
leader, even if you didn’t believe he was the Son of God. We might follow a man who triumphed over
those that opposed him and seemed destined for incredible things. We might also wonder why the Pharisees
opposed him, but that would be underestimating the sense of pride these men
had. They couldn’t drop their
opposition, and they would see it through.
Jesus didn’t hear any answers to
his question, and after a suitable pause he said to the patiently waiting man
beside him and told him to stretch his hand out, and when he did a sense of
wonder held all in the synagogue, and the joy of the now-healed man was
transparent, radiating to every corner of the room. Jesus does marvelous things!
But somehow, the Pharisees and
scribes managed to shield themselves from this joy. It was as though they could turn away all
positive feelings about the man and focus only on his faults. Their anger & fury was evident, and while
many in the synagogue may have wondered why they were so angry about such a
wonderful thing, the Pharisees were too busy discussing their plans for Jesus
to notice or care about the reaction of others.
They were intent on ruining the man, and no crowd would keep them from
this.
Interesting times these must have
been for the disciples. If you chose to
follow Jesus, many may question the good sense of your decision, as you
probably have of others, but none will oppose you as violently and maliciously
as these Pharisees opposed Jesus and the disciples. We live in different times, and while it is
still not easy to be a Christian, it’s not nearly what it once was. The biggest challenge is not from society but
rather from the God who calls us to love him with all of our sinful hearts—to
give up sin and follow him is more difficult than you can imagine, Luke, and it
is a commitment that I seek to follow every day of my life, and I pray each day
for new strength for my efforts to be a disciple.
Sincerely,
Theophilus
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