Power and control
This week is on Luke 6:1-11:
These verses are all about power, and the need of human beings to try to maintain control over their surroundings. In this case, it was about the religious elites wanting to hold political power over the people they were supposed to shepherd. In Jesus' day, the Pharisees were one of the groups of religious elites who would determine what people had to do in order to be seen by society as righteous. In this case they were enforcing an overly strict interpretation of sabbath law. By getting people to obey some small command, they were able to get them to obey pretty much anything, by setting themselves up as an authority.
God doesn't respond to human authority. And love is not constrained by any religious law. Jesus demonstrated that God's love surpasses the law, and that God's power is not subject to human restrictions, by healing a guy on the sabbath. He did it publicly to demonstrate that the Pharisees were not in control. It wasn't their law to enforce. And their restrictions were useless in the face of God's love. He was saying "These guys want you to jump when they say jump, but I say that love comes first. They are not the highest authority. I am."
The Pharisees were furious. Jesus had just humiliated them in front of the people. They had been made to look evil and weak in front of the people they desired to control. Their power was slipping away from them. All they could do was plot to kill Jesus. They wanted him gone, no matter what the cost.
And that's the difference between God's love and power, and the counterfeit love and power of human religiosity. And by religiosity, I mean any belief system or framework of self-declared righteousness. There are small independent churches and secular non-profits out there that are every bit as pharisaic as the big religions people like to point their fingers at. If people are choosing control instead of love, their power is illegitimate. God's love and power are supreme. Anything that tries to set itself up against it, like the pharisees, gets brushed aside like it's nothing.
God wants us to do well. His power is not a heavy yoke of bondage. His plan is not a plan of heartless domination. He created the sabbath in order to bless us. His blessings are so powerful that nobody willing to receive them can be denied them. The man with the damaged hand wanted to be healed. God wasn't going to deny him his blessing because he happened to ask on the wrong day of the week. God's power is greater than any law or any human authority bent on enforcing their will over others.
One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels. Some of the Pharisees asked, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”
Jesus answered them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.” Then Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Get up and stand in front of everyone.” So he got up and stood there.
Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?”
He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was completely restored. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.
These verses are all about power, and the need of human beings to try to maintain control over their surroundings. In this case, it was about the religious elites wanting to hold political power over the people they were supposed to shepherd. In Jesus' day, the Pharisees were one of the groups of religious elites who would determine what people had to do in order to be seen by society as righteous. In this case they were enforcing an overly strict interpretation of sabbath law. By getting people to obey some small command, they were able to get them to obey pretty much anything, by setting themselves up as an authority.
God doesn't respond to human authority. And love is not constrained by any religious law. Jesus demonstrated that God's love surpasses the law, and that God's power is not subject to human restrictions, by healing a guy on the sabbath. He did it publicly to demonstrate that the Pharisees were not in control. It wasn't their law to enforce. And their restrictions were useless in the face of God's love. He was saying "These guys want you to jump when they say jump, but I say that love comes first. They are not the highest authority. I am."
The Pharisees were furious. Jesus had just humiliated them in front of the people. They had been made to look evil and weak in front of the people they desired to control. Their power was slipping away from them. All they could do was plot to kill Jesus. They wanted him gone, no matter what the cost.
And that's the difference between God's love and power, and the counterfeit love and power of human religiosity. And by religiosity, I mean any belief system or framework of self-declared righteousness. There are small independent churches and secular non-profits out there that are every bit as pharisaic as the big religions people like to point their fingers at. If people are choosing control instead of love, their power is illegitimate. God's love and power are supreme. Anything that tries to set itself up against it, like the pharisees, gets brushed aside like it's nothing.
God wants us to do well. His power is not a heavy yoke of bondage. His plan is not a plan of heartless domination. He created the sabbath in order to bless us. His blessings are so powerful that nobody willing to receive them can be denied them. The man with the damaged hand wanted to be healed. God wasn't going to deny him his blessing because he happened to ask on the wrong day of the week. God's power is greater than any law or any human authority bent on enforcing their will over others.
Comments
Post a Comment