Standing, not Hiding

Ever hide behind the scriptures when you knew that you should be standing on them? It seems that Jesus encountered a situation like this:
It happened that when He went into the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, they were watching Him closely. And there in front of Him was a man suffering from dropsy. And Jesus answered and spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?" But they kept silent. And He took hold of him and healed him, and sent him away. And He said to them, "Which one of you will have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?" And they could make no reply to this. (Luke 14:1-6)
How easy is it for us, like the Pharisees, to hide behind our own personal "Sabbath" scriptures. It reminds me of something that Jesus told the religious folks of His day:
While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?" On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." (Matthew 9:10-13)
I love how Jesus always goes back to mercy. I wonder why the Pharisees were seemingly more concerned about the rules than people? Maybe folks like them (and too often like us) are just uncomfortable dealing with messy people ... people in pain ... people who have made bad decisions ... people with addictions .. people who have broke the law. It seems that sometimes we are like the Pharisees ... hiding behind the scriptures and seemingly more concerned with "the rules" than with hurting people.

I think that when we stand on the scriptures we follow Jesus' call to ministry:

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." (Luke 4:18-19)
It is good news when we stand on the scripture. The poor are helped ... prisoners are freed ... the sick are healed ... and justice is released. I guess that is the problem with hiding behind the scriptures - mercy and compassion are not released because there is no anointing.

4 comments:

  1. You say we're "uncomfortable dealing with messy people ... people in pain ... people who have made bad decisions ... people with addictions .. people who have broke the law. It seems that sometimes we are like the Pharisees ... hiding behind the scriptures and seemingly more concerned with "the rules" than with hurting people.

    You are exctly right. Institutionalism has ruined how we see Christ. We can hardly see Him for the trappings of Christianity.

    Great post.

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  2. Both the post and Danny's comment are sharp. Institutionalism has ruined how we see Christ.
    Community such as this reveal Christ again to me.

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  3. there is no anointing ? I'm not sure that's ever true. We are called to step out in faith. That takes courage. And too often we are full of fear ..

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  4. Agree with you Lorna that when we stand on the scriptures and step out in courage the anointing is there. What I was trying to say is that we are not anointed ones when we cower in fear, hiding behind the scriptures, like the Pharisees did.

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