The Word This Week
Luke 6:1…
The whole world runs on the basis of ‘you get what you deserve,’ and when you violate the rules of culture, you get what you deserve.
In an extremely religious culture – such as the Judaism of Jesus’ day – there was great concern by the leaders of the religious culture to make sure no one violated the rules of Judaism.
The problem is the rules they had established as the cultural norms of Judaism violated the spirit of the Law given by God as the basis of Judaism. The conflict between God’s heart for His people and the way the people chose to regulate themselves under their religious leaders was great.
Jesus chose over and over again to step into that divide between God’s intent and religious man’s over-reach to demonstrate how far they were away from God’s heart.
You cannot demonstrate God’s heart by imposing a stricter standard upon His Law than He did. That is not righteousness, it is self-righteousness. This is especially true when you impose your self-righteousness upon what you suppose to be other people’s unrighteousness.
Can you imagine confronting Jesus over what you consider to be His unrighteousness?
This the scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees did so regularly and without hesitation. Their strict interpretation of the Sabbath Law given by God was not a strict interpretation at all. Instead it was an unmerciful addition to God’s Law in order to extend the boundaries of God’s intent that man may be made even more righteous. To add to God’s Word is as grievous as taking away from God’s Word - and maybe even more so – since making God’s Law stricter than God provided creates the impression is unmerciful.
Jesus would rectify that perception as soon as possible, by His intentional challenges to their mis-interpretations – and by allowing Himself to be accused of unrighteousness according to their law, which was no law at all.
Pastor Bill
The whole world runs on the basis of ‘you get what you deserve,’ and when you violate the rules of culture, you get what you deserve.
In an extremely religious culture – such as the Judaism of Jesus’ day – there was great concern by the leaders of the religious culture to make sure no one violated the rules of Judaism.
The problem is the rules they had established as the cultural norms of Judaism violated the spirit of the Law given by God as the basis of Judaism. The conflict between God’s heart for His people and the way the people chose to regulate themselves under their religious leaders was great.
Jesus chose over and over again to step into that divide between God’s intent and religious man’s over-reach to demonstrate how far they were away from God’s heart.
You cannot demonstrate God’s heart by imposing a stricter standard upon His Law than He did. That is not righteousness, it is self-righteousness. This is especially true when you impose your self-righteousness upon what you suppose to be other people’s unrighteousness.
Can you imagine confronting Jesus over what you consider to be His unrighteousness?
This the scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees did so regularly and without hesitation. Their strict interpretation of the Sabbath Law given by God was not a strict interpretation at all. Instead it was an unmerciful addition to God’s Law in order to extend the boundaries of God’s intent that man may be made even more righteous. To add to God’s Word is as grievous as taking away from God’s Word - and maybe even more so – since making God’s Law stricter than God provided creates the impression is unmerciful.
Jesus would rectify that perception as soon as possible, by His intentional challenges to their mis-interpretations – and by allowing Himself to be accused of unrighteousness according to their law, which was no law at all.
Pastor Bill