Right Relationship Over Religious Practices

Most of us really don’t like insincere people. Fake care and concern is never as satisfying as the real thing and it makes us wary of the true motives of people who act that way around us. In Mark 2:18–28, Jesus addresses questions raised around His disciples failure to adhere to certain religious practices. Jesus sought to reorient that kind of ritualistic thinking to help us understand what God really desires from us. Righteousness is right relationship with God, not the hypocritical performative religious practices that the Pharisees did in public to appear holy. While those public displays might have impressed the people watching them, God was not fooled by their lack of genuine relationship with Him. I pray that we are able to establish a relationship with God, and not just the practice of religion. Amen‍ ‍

Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?”

Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast. (Mark 2:18-19)

While Jesus (the bridegroom) was in the world, his disciples had no need of fasting. The spiritual purpose of fasting is to move obstacles out of our lives so that we may draw closer to God to receive what He has for us. But Jesus was literally Emanuel, God with us! His disciples didn’t need to fast, because they were already drawing closer to Him every day and receiving the teaching and truth that they would need in order to fulfill their mission of spreading the gospel throughout the world.

“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.” (Mark 2:21-22)

Jesus was introducing something new into the world with regard to our worship of God and our relationship to Him. He announced that the kingdom of God was near. The values in God’s kingdom and the practices of kingdom people were going to be different than the values and practices of the world, or even those of John’s disciples and the Pharisees. Therefore what Jesus was introducing into the world was new and would not conform to their existing practices.

One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”

He answered, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.”

Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:23-28)

Jesus proclaimed His sovereign authority over the Sabbath. The Sabbath is time designated by God for our rest and restoration. Jesus proclaimed that God’s grace prioritized people’s needs above a narrow interpretation of the law. Jesus used David’s act (1 Sam 21:1-6) as an example of attending to the needs of he and his men when they were hungry and on the run from Saul. They ate the consecrated bread, which was unlawful. But because of their need for survival, God did not condemn them. Similarly, Jesus’ disciples taking some heads of grain to eat on the Sabbath addressed their need. As sovereign Lord over the Sabbath Jesus made it clear that God’s intent was that the Sabbath was made for man’s benefit, not for man to be enslaved by it.

Conclusion

Jesus continually reframed the understanding of God’s purpose and intent regarding what He desires from us. The Law was a guide to help us understand and discern what was Holy. As Jesus ushered in God’s kingdom and brought it near, He helped us understand how we should live in relationship to God and to each other. God is looking for a relationship with us, not religious practices that are performances for other people . He wants us to value what He values, not what the world values. He isn’t as interested in the letter of the law as much as He is interested in hearts that desire what He desires. At the root of it all are His commands to love Him with all our heart, mind and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Doing those things puts us in right relationship with God and demonstrates that we truly are followers of Christ. So the question is, do you truly have a heart for God and want to be in relationship with Him? Or is your worship performative for anyone watching you to think of you as religious?

Blessings, Rev. Glenn