JP22: THE JESUS CODE: ONE PRINCIPLE THAT RULES THEM ALL

In Jesus’ day, what was allowed and not allowed on the Sabbath day was a considerable controversy.  For instance, Jesus defied religious leaders by healing a paralyzed man on the Sabbath.  

Instead of finding joy, they found fault.  They wanted to know who told the man he could break their rule by carrying his mat on the Sabbath.  Their mandate was more important than the dignity and healing of a man paralyzed for 34 years.  

So, how do we follow Jesus without becoming legalistic?  We find out when Jesus explains his code in a clarifying, grain-field encounter.

Here's how Matthew recorded this conversation in his Gospel.

At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.” He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means, I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.” Matthew 12:1-8

While Jesus and his disciples are satisfying their genuine need for food, the Pharisees judged their life-giving actions to violate religious regulations.  Instead of unconditional love, the legalists offered self-righteous judgment, elevating their established practices over people.  

Jesus responds by providing three counterarguments that expose their wall-building hypocrisy and help us overcome obstacles to life-giving intimacy with Jesus.

Jesus Reminds Them Of Their History

Jesus directs their attention to how King David and his warriors did something similar to what Jesus and his disciples were doing by eating the raw grain.  

Exhausted due to his constant fleeing from King Saul, David asked Ahimelech, the priest, for food.

He responded by offering David consecrated bread to satisfy their bodily hunger.  David accepted, believing that saving his life and his friends was more important to God than observing a legal technicality that prohibited the use of consecrated bread for human consumption. (1 Samuel 21:1-6)

Jesus Points Out Their Hypocrisy

Jesus exposes how the priests work in the temple every Sabbath but receive no charges for laboring on the Sabbath.  Jesus wants us to know that the heart behind how we keep the Sabbath is what matters to God.  

God provides the Sabbath to rest from our labors and to renew our minds in holistic worship.  Observing the Sabbath day doesn’t mean that we avoid the opportunity to bless others under the pretense of avoiding work.

Jesus Says He Is Lord Of The Sabbath

Jesus has authority from God to establish ways of observing the Sabbath based on an attitude of mercy and love for others, not legalistic tradition. In other words, "The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath." Mark 2:27

Living together in unity under the authority of Christ finds life-giving expression through people who pattern their lives after the Jesus code instead of artificial religious traditions, personal preferences, or legalistic requirements.  

When we approach everyone with an attitude of love and mercy, inviting them into our family of faith with complete acceptance, we'll find ourselves removing obstacles for people who are far away from God.  People who the Holy Spirit leads to cross over from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of Light.  Then, we will tangibly experience the true meaning and joy of Jesus' code, "I desire mercy, not sacrifice."

PRAYER:

Dear Lord, thank you for removing the obstacles that prevented me from finding you.  Please forgive me for ways that I make worship a part of my task list instead of a moment-by-moment posture of surrender. Teach me how to abide in you so that your presence is more tangible in my life, keeping me from drifting into selfishness and becoming a legalistic obstacle to my friends.  Instead, make me an instrument of mercy to all people so that they can see your life in me.  Amen.

The Jesus Code: How To Avoid Legalistic Loserness

1. Remember Your History, Lay Down The Pride:  We were all messed up beyond recognition because of our sin before encountering Jesus.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,  not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. Philippians 2:3-6

2. Inventory Your Hypocrisy: Do you have standards for others that you don’t keep for yourself?

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. (Jesus, Mt 23:27–28)

3. Recognize Jesus As Lord, Not You: Are you mercy-oriented or focused on self-governing attitudes that create barriers to outsiders?

If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.  Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come! (Jesus, Matthew 18:6-7)