Faithbase

Ashes to beauty, day five. The beans, or the background. Before Jesus died to reconcile us to God, Jewish people followed strict rules to maintain good standing with God. Now, over the course of hundreds of years, these God-given rules got twisted, changed, and the list of rules grew tremendously. Leaders of the Jewish faith were more concerned with adhering to the law exactly as it was worded than they were with actually understanding the rules, the nature of God, and how the rules were meant to draw us closer to him, not push us away. One of these rules was to rest and not work on the Sabbath. Religious leaders wouldn't even heal people on the Sabbath because that was considered work. Watch Jesus's reaction. The verse, Mark chapter 3, verses 2 through 5. Some of them, the religious leaders, were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal the man on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, stand up in front of everyone. Then Jesus asked the religious leaders, which is lawful on the Sabbath? To do good or to do evil? To save life or to kill? But they remained silent. He looked around at them in anger and deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts as he said to the man, stretch out your hand. The man stretched it out and his hand was completely restored. Esteem. What does this mean to me and how can I apply it to my life today? Sadly, a lot of religious leaders and self-proclaimed Christians are actually the ones turning people away from God and all in the name of Jesus. I'll try really hard not to get on my soapbox today, however this one is very near and dear to my heart. Now by association of attendance, I have been a conservative Presbyterian in the PCA, I have been a Baptist, I've been an Anglican, and an ordained elder in the PCUSA. So I share that to say what I'm addressing today has nothing to do with different denominations and their doctrines. What I'm addressing has everything to do with specific people and how those individual people make others feel. But first, back to the verse. The Pharisees watching Jesus throughout his ministry were simply out to enforce rules and laws. As they raised the bar, placing more demands on believers, they felt this elevated themselves, making them holier than everyone else. But Jesus completely turns the tables on them. My absolute favorite verse in the Bible shares of Jesus speaking to these same religious leaders saying, I have come for mercy, not religion. He didn't come to condemn sin, he came to die for our sins. Jesus so very much wanted these Pharisees to see that God would much rather have this man healed than have them worrying about some stupid rule that said not to work on Sunday. He wanted them to know that they had completely lost their way, that all rules were meant to guide us closer to God, but the way that they were enforcing them was actually hurting people instead of helping them. And that truth rings through maybe even louder today. He's so tired of seeing his children turned off to him because of flawed human beings. So many believers in my generation are turned off to God because of issues within the church and because Christians have done some hateful things to them all in the name of Jesus. But he wants to set the record straight. If the message you're hearing about God is anything other than love for you, then it's false. So whether you haven't missed church in a year or you haven't walked through the door of one in a decade, I encourage you to remember those past hurts that you probably have, those feelings of guilt and shame brought on by religion, they are not brought on by Jesus. He is begging you to let it go and to let him heal you.