Religious Rules

Luke 6:1 – 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. ² Some of the Pharisees asked, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” ³ Jesus answered them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? ⁴ 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.” ⁵ Then Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

⁶ On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled. ⁷ 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. ⁸ 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. ⁹ 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?”

¹⁰ 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. ¹¹ But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus. (NIV)

In today’s reading, Jesus has once again angered the Pharisee’s, who I like to call the ‘good church people’.  I don’t call them that as a slam on church people – hey, I like to think that I am one!  I call them good church people because they were dedicated to their religion. I have to wonder, however, just how dedicated they were to God. 

Religious rules often get observed for no other reason than, “we’ve always done it that way.”  Let me give an example found in our own Methodist history.  John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, believed in frequent communion.  The first Methodist’s observed communion at least once a week, and often more.  Wesley also believed in having ordained clergy officiate at communion.  During the early years of the American frontier, ordained clergy were few and far between.  As a result, some churches would only observe communion once a month, and most only once a quarter, depending upon when an ordained clergy (called a Circuit Rider) could get to their church.  Today, we have no shortage of ordained clergy, but many United Methodists actually protest when they have frequent communion.  Why? Because that’s not the way they have done it.  They have forgotten what communion is all about, and forgotten why their church observes it so infrequently.

In the reading above, Jesus seems to break the letter of the Sabbath law, but when we consider what the Sabbath is all about – reconnecting with God – we find that he has not broken the spirit of the law.  Religious rules and laws are given to strengthen our relationship with God.  When we forget the spirit of the law, we are only keeping rules, and nothing more.

Let’s remember the spirit of the religious rules our faith communities keep.  Let us observe the spirit of such rules in our ongoing effort to draw closer to God.

Posted by Ramón Torres