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?

Ryan Sim - December 4, 2013

Wednesday - Change It - The Night That Changed The Religious

The Night that Changed Everything

We saw yesterday how the religious experts who read prophecy day in day out, still got it wrong when it came to Jesus. They missed that one of the ancient prophecies about the Messiah was happening before their eyes. So what did they miss? They missed grace and hope. Religion at its worst can be about building a ladder to heaven, trying to make ourselves acceptable to God under our own power. But what Christmas means is that God has come to us. No ladder required. Two weeks ago, we contrasted grace and law as part of our Becoming Like Family series. Grace means we have hope. It’s not primarily about what we do for God, it’s about what God has done for us, and everything we do is a way to say thanks. The problem is if you’ve invested a great deal in self-help, you may not recognize or accept true help when it comes. You can be so sure of your hard work that you brush off help saying “I’ve got this!” when you really don’t. Who would have expected God to come as a baby, much less a homeless baby born in questionable circumstances, with the most common name at that time, Jesus? But people didn’t just call him Jesus, he called himself God, and others came to do this as well. Yes, Jesus claimed to be god. That is a claim that no other leader of a major world religion has made. Jesus didn’t go around standing on street corners shouting “I am God” in language that plain and simple, but when you look at what he taught and claimed, he was conscious of, and claiming to be God in some more subtle ways. And he was subtle for good reasons. In the culture of his day, saying he was God would have been considered blasphemy – a crime punishable by death. So he showed it in all sorts of interesting ways: He spoke of himself using “I AM” sayings – a deliberate hint to the Jewish name of God – Yahweh, which means “I am”. He also said, he was one with the Father he was the Son of God. he had the power to forgive sins he was greater than the temple – the most important place of worship for the Jews and God’s presence on earth In the gospel of Mark, Jesus is asked directly by some religious leaders “Are you the Christ (anointed one), the Son of the Blessed One ?” Jesus said “I am …” Jesus was making an incredible and dangerous claim to be God incarnate—which means God in the flesh One of the central truths of Jesus’ religious context was that there is only one God. When Jesus started to talk in this way, it was dangerous, but it was also life changing. He wasn’t claiming to be a new God, a second God, even a demigod. He was claiming to be the God, their God – the God who created, and then stayed with the Israelites through their history, there with them in an entirely new way. Question: Do you know people who change when their boss, or parents, or another authority figure enters the room? How would the world change when God entered the room?

Related Topics: Christmas, Emmanuel, Incarnation, Prophecy, Virgin Birth | More Messages from Ryan Sim | Download Audio

From Series: "The Night that Changed Everything"

In preparation for Christmas, our Daily Challenges are going to explore the lifechanging significance of Jesus' birth so long ago. It's more than a sentimental story, or a time for generosity, Christmas celebrates The Night that Changed Everything. We'll explore the original Christmas story from the Bible, and its impact on five kinds of people.

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