What was true then is true now: Jesus’ ministry affronts those
in ministry. Jesus’ practice of religion challenges those who practice it.
To people around him, Jesus seems to be bending and
breaking rules. He seems flippant and just plain wrong. He even seems
antagonistic.
People are misreading him. His aim is not to insult people,
but to free them.
Religion dictates it’s time to fast, but can you fast when
you are elated? Or celebrate when you are sad? Can you schedule a time to cry?
Sometimes the seasons of life are too powerful for our
plans, and there is nothing to be done except to be swept up in them. Trying to
maintain a schedule or force an outcome, even a religious one, is just
unnatural. There is a time to work, a time to play, a time to rest, a time to
worship. Sometimes human need interrupts all of that. If someone is hungry,
cold, or suffering, isn’t their need greater than your plan?
The schedule will resume once the tide has turned.
People matter more than rules. The needs of a person in
front of you trump everything else. That’s why he heals the man with a withered
hand. Jesus elevates his neighbor above his own worship; he honors the people
around him more than his own fasting. He compels us to honor the people around
us, even at the expense of our rules, rituals, and religion.
Is Jesus saying that rules, ritual, and religion have no
value? Of course not.
He is actually demonstrating the power of them. Perhaps
Jesus is able to set aside the laws and rituals of his religion only because he
has practiced them deeply. Perhaps those things have made him right enough with
God to care more for one in need than for his own worship.
Text for the day:
Things to think
about:
When might “religion” get in the way of loving God and
others?
Things to do:
Set aside your plans to meet someone’s need today.
Where
I am withered, O God, restore me.
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