One of the major contentions the Pharisees had with Jesus is that Jesus broke long-established Jewish customs and rules.
For instance, when Jesus and his disciples walked through some grain fields on the Sabbath and picked some wheat to eat, the Pharisees jumped on him for breaking the Jewish law of no harvest on the Sabbath. Jesus rebuked their narrow-mindedness on the subject, but went even further and redefined the whole purpose of the Sabbath.
He said, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath.”
Whoa! I love that viewpoint. It arrested my attention.
The purpose of the Sabbath was not to outline in man-made terms how people were supposed to live their lives in every little detail, but to meet the needs of the people.
I thought about church in the same context. Just like the Pharisees had outlined over the centuries rules upon rules that people were supposed to observe per the Sabbath, rules upon rules have been heaped upon humanity about how people are supposed to serve church over the centuries too.
I replaced the word Sabbath with church…
“The church was made to meet the needs of the people, and not people to meet the requirements of the church.”
If you’re a church member, or have dealt with church administration, think about the implications of that statement for a few moments!
I can think of times in church work when decisions were made because of “the rules,” instead of what best met the needs of the congregation. “We have to follow the rules!” someone would protest, and totally miss the spirit of the rules to begin with.
Jesus rebuked such material mindedness. The purpose of church is to meet the needs of the people, and human policy must change, adapt, reshape and reform according to the spiritual demand of the moment.
God’s rules of “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” and “Have one God,” are permanent forever. Anything of the human mind is in flux.
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| Jesus telling his disciples they can pick corn on the Sabbath. Engraving by Gustave Dore |
A perfect “Church Alive” blog.
Based on this story alone, no wonder I love and admire and respect Jesus so much. I want to be just like him when I grow up!
Wonderful perspective here… but I struggle still with both rigidity and what in some places feels like a lack of foundation, where anything is okay.