Thursday, March 8, 2012

Breaking The Rules

There are lots of quips about rules.  Here's a couple.
Rules were made to be broken.
Women often fall for the bad boys - rule breakers.
Rule followers are called, "teacher's pet."

Rules are necessary.  But rules without common sense and purpose lead to legalism in every area of life.  Find rules without a moral or ethical guide and you'll find orderly chaos.  Rules are about order.  Without rules things would be pretty difficult.  And yet even Jesus- the Son of the Great Rule Maker - knew there had to be balance (He learned this from His Father of course).

See the pharisees and religious teachers were all about the rules.  Obey the Sabbath.  You can't rub wheat in your hand on the Sabbath because that would be "threshing" the grain and that is work.   You can't heal someone of a disease on the Sabbath because that is work (how they came to that conclusion I have no idea).  They had rules for everything!  You had to wash your hands, no not that way, not that way either... there was a certain way you had to wash your hands in order to be ritually clean - or a rule follower.  They had rules about where they could walk and what they were allowed to touch.

Here's a bit of truth that might hurt a little.  You can obey EVERY rule in the Bible and still miss connecting with Jesus in a way that leads to salvation.

The religious teachers obeyed every rule.  But they were, as Jesus indicated, the farthest from the Kingdom of God.  In contrast, Jesus said that the prostitutes and tax collectors were close to the Kingdom of God.  Why?  Let's let Jesus explain.  In Luke 18 Jesus has an encounter with a young man who wants to know what he still needs to do to get to heaven.  Jesus tells him, "obey the commands."  Which he promptly says he has done since he was a child.  STOP HERE.  If Christianity or religion was about rules wouldn't Jesus have put aside whatever He was doing and patted that young man on the back and said, "well done good and faithful servant!"  Wouldn't He?!  But instead He points out that obedience to rules is NOT what Christianity is all about.  It's more about relationship the rules.  The relationship with God through His Son Jesus Christ and the relationship with other people whom God loves.  That's why instead of a commendation Jesus tells him, "there is something you still lack.  Go and sell your possessions and give them to the poor."

Wait a minute.  Selling everything you have and giving the proceeds to the poor is not a rule.  I have not seen that rule in the Bible anywhere.  So why did Jesus say it?  Because the young man was so focused on obeying the rules that he missed the fact that the rules were created to help maintain a proper relationship with others and with God.  If you obey the rules but miss the purpose for the rules you've gained nothing!  Just a miserable life of trying to earn something that can't be earned.

You cannot get to God by following rules.  You can only get there by following the Risen Lord.  The rules you find in the Bible will help you follow Him.  They will foster your relationship with Him and make it better but they will not earn you any special favor or place with God.  I want to be a Christ follower.  I want to obey the rules because they help me follow Christ more closely but it's not about the rules, it's about the relationship with Him.

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