Yesterday we explored a story about Jesus and his followers eating grain in the fields on a Saturday, a day of rest, and getting in trouble from the religious authorities. In his response, Jesus referred to one of the great heroes of the Jewish faith, David, who ate holy bread in the temple when he was starving. He mentions the story, and lets the religious authorities do what they do best – argue about God while God is standing right there. He asks them why David got away with eating holy bread, since David was never condemned for eating it.
This story illustrates Jesus’ approach to two kinds of law. There is God’s law given at creation about the Sabbath: rest on the seventh day…period. That stands, and that’s actually what Jesus is about – giving us eternal rest, even today. But there is also the ritual/Sabbath/ceremonial law that is built on top of the basic commandment at creation. Think of it like scaffolding around a structure to help build it – it can be very helpful in following God’s law. But we don’t want to let it obscure God’s original purpose and law. This scaffolding is a reality of our sin or rebellion from God. Our hearts don’t naturally follow God’s law anymore, and so we need these additional structures. But, don’t forget they are provisional…until something comes along and makes them obsolete
Then Jesus comes along and says, “I am Lord of the Sabbath.”
He claims to be God, and gives an invitation to find rest in him, and to stop wrestling with sin and other sinful realities around us, to stop wrestling with ourselves, and just rest in him as he fights those battles.
Claims like this got him in trouble with the Pharisees and Scribes, and eventually their urging that he be killed. But in doing, they made him Lord of the Sabbath…exactly what he’d said.
On the cross, he is restless for us – huge work. He takes on the restlessness of our sin and because of that, we can rest, not on our work overcoming sin and brokenness in our lives, but on his work.
We see him showing that the day of rest, the Sabbath, isn’t the point, just as the temple bread wasn’t the point. God is the point. Resting in God is the point. We’ll see how tomorrow.
Question: Why do you think Jesus’ claims were so offensive to the religious legalists?
Loading Content...
Share a Link to this Message
The link has been copied to your clipboard; paste it anywhere you would like to share it.
Hi. Welcome to Redeem the Commute. I’m Ryan, your host for the daily challenges.
The daily challenges are meant to help us explore what it means to follow Jesus, even in the midst of a busy commuting lifestyle. We have a rhythm that we follow each week to help us explore our topic. We introduce the idea on Monday, then Tuesday’s we study it in the Bible. Wednesday’s we try to let the Bible’s teaching sink in, and change and transform our thinking. Thursday’s we try to act out what we’ve been learning. Friday’s a day for prayer and reflection, and then Saturday’s a day for rest.
Sunday is a day for community, because even when we are scattered and busy, it is important that we come together as one community to explore Jesus and what it means to follow him in one place. That’s why this Fall we’re planning to launch a new worshiping community in Ajax called Redeemer Church. Stay tuned for more information.
We’re in the middle of a series right now called Reset, where we look at how following Jesus resets our thinking about various topics in life. Most have been topics we think about daily, but today we look at how Jesus resets death.
Our culture doesn’t like to talk about death, but it’s what we’ll do today. It’s more important than you might think. George Bernard Shaw once pointed out, 1 out of every 1 people die. This topic is guaranteed to impact your life! CS Lewis pointed out in WWII, war does not increase death rates, death is total in every generation.
Yet, our generation and culture would rather avoid even talking about it, as if that means we can avoid death itself. Add to that our Botox for wrinkles, all our other potions and lotions to stop aging, and you have the picture of a culture that avoids death itself until the last possible moment.
At many funerals, you’ll find people avoid saying anyone died. One Christian minister I know was asked to do a non-Christian service, with the funeral director specifying that the family wants to "write it themselves, without any interference or argument from the priest.") I can only imagine what the family was hoping to avoid.
One of the words in the funeral service I almost say most carefully is that the person (by name) “has died”. Sometimes it feels like I’m the first one to say it, when everyone else is saying “passed on”, “lost”, and even saying “loved one” instead of the person’s name name.
I do that because for those who follow Jesus, death isn’t something to fear so much we pretend it doesn’t happen. It’s not something to keep quiet, but something to acknowledge as having limited power in our lives. I think people need to hear that.
One US study asked Americans if they wanted to read the Bible, and if they did, what they’d like to learn. The largest single topic of interest was that 28% of adults want wisdom from the bible on death and illness, and a surprising 33% of young adults wanted the same. They want to hear how there is hope leading up to, in and after death.
That’s what we’ll do this week. The world keeps saying to fear, avoid, delay, ignore death. Jesus says, it’s okay, you’ll survive if you follow me.
Question: How do you approach death? Is it something to fear, embrace, or somewhere else on the spectrum?
