How is it that someone can grow up in a Christian church and, as soon as they are able, can leave it entirely and live without it? That question hits home for many of us today:
· Some of you have watched your children abandon God and church, and you still pray for them with an ache in your heart.
· Others of you with younger children are concerned that they too, when they grow up, will leave God behind. You desperately want church to be a place that makes your kids want to love and serve God.
· Others of you here grew up in a church, only to bolt at the first opportunity. After ignoring God for some years, you are back. You have rediscovered God, and are now tasting something that, for whatever reason, you did not taste in church before.
I grew up attending church, and went to a Christian school. I always believed, but it was not till I was nineteen, in a church two-thousand miles from where I grew up, that I first experienced God in a real way. How is that? How could I spend nineteen years in church, in Sunday School, in Kids Bible School, youth group, choir, boys’ club, with Christian friends and school teachers and not get it? Why did I not see God in the middle of it all? And today, how can we live our lives and ‘do church’ so that people are drawn to God instead of inoculated against him?
A large part of the answer is found in Mark chapter 2:13 through chapter 3:6. Here Mark records a series of episodes in which Jesus finds himself at odds with the religious leaders of his day.
In Mark chapter 2:1, Jesus heals a paralyzed man. There Jesus earns the criticism of the religious leaders by claiming for himself authority that is God’s alone: the authority to forgive sin. It is blasphemy, unless Jesus is more closely identified with God than they suspect. Jesus is dropping a hint about his own divine identity, but even though he demonstrates his divine authority with an act of divine power – healing the paralyzed man – they instead assume that Jesus is a spiritual fraud, either deluded or evil. From this point on, they are suspicious of Jesus, and actively seek opportunities to discredit him.
In our passage today Mark records four episodes that demonstrate the increasing antagonism of the religious leaders toward Jesus, with their rule-centered religion clashing with Jesus’ God-centered mission.
At our church camp two years ago, our speaker used the illustration of two trees. The fruit of one is life, and the other, death. He said that in every decision, every action, every word, we are making a choice to pick from one of those two trees. When I am very busy but I stop to sit down with my son for five minutes to look at his Noah’s Ark book, I make a ‘life choice’. When I speak a harsh word or criticize without love I am making a ‘death choice’.
Here in these four episodes in Mark, we see the religious leaders making death choices, and Jesus making life choices.
In the first episode, Jesus is criticized for his inappropriate association with the wrong people.
In the lake district of Capernaum, Jesus and the crowd who follow him come to the place where Levi (we know him as Matthew), the tax-collector, has set up his booth. Matthew may be the most hated man in Capernaum. Tax-collectors were notoriously crooked, over-taxing the people and lining their own pockets with the excess. They grew rich by swindling their country-men and they were despised for it. Collecting taxes from their own people to pay to the Roman Empire, they were also hated as traitors.. Matthew had all the stigma of a leper, with a good dose of contempt added to it.
So as Jesus and the crowd are approaching the booth, there is a whole interplay of tensions. Matthew sees a crowd of people who think of him as, frankly, the scum of the earth. He is nervous, his senses on hyper-alert. He knows that a handful of Roman guards are all that keep him from being lynched at any time. The crowd, on the other hand, feel like they’re approaching some horrible insect. They have all had to give tax money to Matthew and they know that he has stolen from them.
The only one who feels no anxiety is Jesus. He is calm and purposeful. Striding directly up to Matthew, he looks him in the eye and says two words, ‘Follow me.’ Matthew immediately steps out of the booth and falls in step beside Jesus.
Do not underestimate the shock value of this. The crowd gapes open-mouthed. They cannot believe a) that Jesus, the prophet of God, wants to associate with Matthew, and b) that Matthew, who has sacrificed everything honorable for the sake of getting rich, would leave his business to follow this rabbi.
Matthew is so taken by Jesus that he throws a dinner party for Jesus and invites all his own friends to come, and Jesus shares dinner and conversation with Matthew’s circle. Now, think about it: who are Matthew’s friends? Who does the social ‘leper’ who all the religious people detest hang out with? Answer: The other social lepers who the religious people detest. The religious leaders are absolutely scandalized. Here, surely, is proof that Jesus is not a man of God. After all, can’t you tell a man by the kind of company he keeps? So they pull aside the disciples and ask them a loaded question: ‘Why does he eat with tax-collectors and sinners? See what kind of man your master is? If he is so spiritual, what is he doing fraternizing with tax-collectors and “sinners”?’ They spit the last word out contemptuously.
See, these religious people have on one hand an attitude of spiritual superiority, and on the other a fear of spiritual contamination. So they keep their distance from ‘sinners’ and look down their noses at them. Jesus (they think), if he has any sense of what God thinks is appropriate, would do the same.
When Jesus hears the discussion, though, he responds with a simple proverb: ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I am not here to call righteous people to repentance, but sinners.’
He does not rebuke the religious for calling the people sinners. They were sinners. But he says, ‘These are the very people I should be spending time with if I’m to live God’s values.’ He sacrifices someone’s idea of ‘appropriate-ness’ in order to bring the love of God to those who need it.
In the second episode, in verses 18-22, Jesus is questioned about fasting.
God had called his people to fast on certain special religious observances. It was also common to fast as part of the process of mourning or repenting. Over time, however, it became a sign of religious piety, a legislated practice. By the New Testament era, the Pharisees, the most respected religious group of Jesus day, fasted twice a week, and were proud of their humility. One of Jesus’ parables sees a Pharisee thanking God that he’s not like that sinner over there and bragging to God, ‘I fast twice a week.’
Fasting became a hall-mark of spirituality and it was assumed that any spiritual teacher and his disciples would fast. John the Baptist’s disciples fasted. So people noticed that Jesus’ disciples did not fast, and they asked him about it: ‘The Pharisees are fasting. John’s disciples fast. Why don’t your disciples fast?’ Jesus answered, essentially, ‘Fasting now, while I’m with them, is like mourning at a wedding. The time will come when they will fast. But not now.’
Then he illustrates: ‘You don’t patch an old garment with new cloth, and you don’t use old wineskins for new wine. Those things only make matters worse.’ In other words, he says, ‘You’ve got to know what is appropriate, and when. Do not just fast for the sake of fasting, because it seems spiritual. There’s a time for it, and that time is not now.’
In the third episode, verses 23-27, Jesus is accused of letting his disciples dishonor the Sabbath day. Walking through a grainfield, Jesus’ and they are hungry, so they pick some of the heads of grain and eat the kernels. The Pharisees say, ‘Aha! Why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?’
In the Old Testament, in Deuteronomy 23:25, God had instructed his people not to take advantage of each other. He said, ‘If you enter your neighbor’s grainfield, you may pick kernels with your hands, but you must not put a sickle to his standing grain. If you are hungry, have a snack, but don’t clean out his pantry.’
To the Pharisees, picking heads of grain was harvesting. Harvesting was work, and work was not permitted on the Sabbath. Imagine visiting your cousin’s orchard on a Sunday and walking among the trees. You are hungry so you reach up and pick an apple, and suddenly a church elder jumps out from behind the tree and says, ‘Hey, it is offensive to God to have you work on a Sunday!’ That is what happened to Jesus’ disciples.
Jesus responds by appealing to the Biblical record of David who, technically, broke a religious law when he ate consecrated bread reserved for priests. Yet he was not condemned for it. Then Jesus says, ‘Look, the Sabbath was made for man, not the other way around. It is for your benefit, not something for you to be a slave to.’
The fourth episode, chapter 3:1-6, is the climax of this passage. At the end of it the religious leaders decide that the way to deal with this irreligious Jesus is to have him killed.
This episode, too, has to do with what is appropriate on the Sabbath day.
Jesus is in the synagogue, the place of worship, on the Sabbath. Other people are in the synagogue, too: A man with a shriveled hand and Jesus’ enemies, watching Jesus closely, looking for something to accuse him of. They are hoping Jesus will heal the man today so that they can jump up and say, ‘Aha! See! He heals on the Sabbath! He cannot be from God!’
I think of the man with a shriveled hand. This week I sliced the tip of my thumb. Not a big cut, but deep, and for several days I tried not to bang it on anything, or use it. I became very quickly aware of how often I use my thumb, how much we use our hands and how much of a handicap a hand injury is. Here is a man whose hand is shriveled entirely, who cannot use it at all, living in a society where people supported themselves almost exclusively by some form of manual labor. (Even our word ‘manual’ comes from the word for ‘hand’.) This man was severely handicapped for life in such a culture.
On this day, Jesus takes the initiative. He singles the man out and makes him the center of attention: ‘Stand up in front of everyone.’
Then Jesus shows how ridiculous the religious leaders’ perspective truly is, by asking: ‘What is lawful, what do you think God wants on the Sabbath: to do good, or evil? To give life, or to kill?’
They do not respond and Jesus’ heart is filled with anger and distress at these people, who profess to know God but who really have no clue. He is frustrated. They just do not get it.
Jesus turns his attention to the man and says, ‘Stretch out your hand’. He does, and his hand is fully restored. How do the religious people respond? They go out and start plotting how they can have Jesus killed!
Do you see what has been happening in these episodes? Do you see how a rule-centered religion brings death, and a God-centered mission brings life? The religious leaders consistently made death choices. On one hand, we cannot fault these men. They really did want to do what they thought God wanted. In their eagerness not to cross the boundaries into sin, they set guidelines to keep people well back from those boundaries.
Admirable. Problem was, they then made those guidelines the new absolute boundaries. Religion became all about the rules themselves, not about the life God wants to give to his people.
See how this plays out in these stories:
They make a death choice of keeping people out because they do not measure up. Tax collectors and ‘sinners’ aren’t good enough to be associated with. Their own religious superiority and fear of spiritual contamination marginalized people. That is death. . . . . . Jesus, though, chooses life. He values the people. He gives himself to them. He is willing to spend time with them, knowing that God loves them and wants them to know him, too. God is about people.
The religious leaders, in the fasting issue, make a death choice, sacrificing joy for the sake of the rules. Fasting and self-abasement are the sign of true spirituality. Jesus chooses life. In God there is ‘fullness of joy’. There is a place for fasting, but it is nonsense to think that a posture of mourning defines our experience of God. Do not fast just for the sake of fasting!
When the disciples pick some grain, the religious ones make another death choice: hunger over nourishment. A rule-centered religion says, ‘It is better to be hungry than to “harvest” a head of grain.’ ‘But wait,’ says Jesus. ‘The Sabbath is given by God for the sake of refreshment, for the nourishment of spirit and body. It is designed to bring life. Your rules about the Sabbath are undermining the very purposes for which God gave us the Sabbath!’
This becomes clear to the point of silliness in the fourth episode, where they again make a death choice: They would rather see a man continue to suffer than break one of their rules. Jesus, with anger and heartache says, ‘Stop and think for a second: what do you think God values here: good or evil, life or death?’
But their hearts are hard. They are blind. They cannot see beyond their own rules to the heart of God. ‘Religion’ is rules at the expense of love, acceptance, joy, nourishment and wholeness. Their rule-centered religion clashes with Jesus’ God-centered mission and, ultimately, they arrange to have Jesus taken out.
I really do think, and some of you can testify to this from your own church experience, that part of the reason so many people abandon God and the church when they become adults is because they have not really experienced Christianity as God intends. They have tasted religion, not mission. They have tasted rules, not God. They have tasted death, not life.
Do we want to be a church that brings life? Do we want to be a church where people are drawn to God, instead of looking for the first opportunity to get away from him? Do we want our kids to stay? Then we will be two things:
We will be God-centered. And we will be mission-driven.
To be God-centered is to remember that at the core of this thing we call ‘religion’ or ‘faith’ is a person. Our foundation is not a moral code or a set of do’s and don’ts. Christianity is not about what practices are allowed and what practices are not allowed. Christianity and church are not so much about what we do and how we do it, than about why we do it and who we do it for.
Jesus was God-centered so he knew God’s heart. He never thumbed his nose at the ‘rules’, but he recognized God’s heart behind the Law, and knew when the traditions and rules were man’s rules, not God’s.
He knew that it was right to build relationships and show love to those who were despised. Because he knew God’s heart behind the Sabbath he did not forbid his disciples to eat for their refreshment. Because he knew God’s love for people, he did not hesitate to bring wholeness to someone, even though some in the congregation would have liked him to wait till the next day.
When we pray for us, as a church, can we pray continually that we would be God-centered, that everything we do – in our relationships with each other, in our ministries and programs, in our attitudes on Sunday mornings, as we pray, sing, give, make decisions – everything, that we would do these things out of an increased awareness of God: his majesty, supremacy, beauty, love and grace.
Because as soon as we are distracted from him, the life gets sucked out of church so fast it makes your head spin. When you focus on the rules, on how we do things here, and no longer see God, we move from a living faith to a cold religion.
It’s the difference between my weekly sermon-writing being an assignment to complete, or a calling and desire to bring God’s life-giving Word.
It’s the difference between serving in the church to fill a position, or serving to help the church be more effective at making Christ known to more people.
It’s the difference between tithing to meet the budget, one more bill to pay, or giving generously and cheerfully because you want to use your resources to see God’s kingdom flourishing.
You see the difference? How God-centered are we at our church? To what extent does our awareness of and knowledge of the heart-beat of God determine what we are and do?
To give life, we must be God-centered.
And we are also mission-driven. To be mission-driven is to realize that underneath all the programs and activities, all our financial decisions and building-related issues, all that we do as a church and as Christians, is our one great mission to lead people to God through Jesus Christ. To be mission-driven is to recognize that God’s heart beats for people.
Because Jesus was God-centered, he couldn’t help but be mission-driven. So at dinner with the tax-collectors and sinners, it was not just a social engagement, but he linked it directly to his mission: ‘The sick need a doctor. I’ve come here precisely to call sinners to repentance.’
Regarding fasting, he was not going to let a man-imposed fasting rule rob his people of the joy of knowing God through Christ.
In the grain field, he understood that the Sabbath was for people, that it wasn’t merely a burden to be carried.
In the synagogue he chose wholeness for the sick man.
Jesus constantly gave himself to people. He consistently set protocol aside in order to minister God’s loving grace to people. Not just in this passage, either: he also touched the leper, he received the honor paid him by a prostitute, and he invited himself over to Zachaeus’ house.
If we are going to be a life-giving church, we will value people over programs, over our building, and over protocol.
In all that we do, all traditions we preserve, all changes we make, it is imperative that we see God in the middle of it all, knowing his heart and being guided by it in all things. It is imperative that we never lose sight of God’s desire that people be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. When we lose sight of God and his love for people, we become a place of death, a place our kids will want nothing to do with.
If something bothers you about church, does this issue revolve around something human (a tradition, a preference, a style, be it old or new)? Or are you more concerned to see people growing in their experience of God?
We can do no better than to worship God and respond to his love, to receive his merciful forgiveness and to devote ourselves to bringing others to the cross where they too can know God’s love and receive his life.
Let us be a place of life! Let us be God-centered, and mission-driven! Let us always have a heart for God, and share God’s heart for people!
Amen.