We’re working our way through the gospel of Luke on Sunday mornings. September 17th, we saw four accounts of Jesus breaking the rules of Israel’s religious leaders. In the first account, Jesus called a tax collector named Levi (also called Matthew) to come and follow Him. Levi was so thrilled that he threw a party and invited his fellow tax collectors (despised by Jewish people) and others who weren’t following the religious code of the day. The religious leaders grumbled that Jesus and His followers would eat with such people, for to eat with someone was to accept them as a friend. Godly people would never eat with such people. Jesus answered them, “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:32, NASB95).
In the next account, which is probably the same setting, the religious leaders grumble that Jesus doesn’t have His followers practicing the regular fasts and prayers they’ve established (Luke 5:33-39). Jesus answers them, “You cannot make the attendants of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you?” (Luke 5:34). He then gives a couple illustrations of things that you don’t mix: old and new cloth, and old and new wineskins. His point was that a new era had arrived and it would be inappropriate to mix it with their old rules.
In the next account Jesus and His disciples are walking through a grainfield. They are gleaning grain as they walk along but the religious leaders condemn them for breaking the Sabbath. The Old Testament Law actually permitted this gleaning, but apparently a religious rule considered rubbing the grain between the hands to shuck the hulls as work, and since the people were not to work on the Sabbath, this was a violation (Luke 6:1-5). Jesus referenced an Old Testament incident with David then asserted His right to define Sabbath law by saying, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” (Luke 6:5).
On another day, Jesus entered a synagogue and knew that the religious leaders were looking for a reason to condemn Him. Jesus’ words to those in the synagogue were, “I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to destroy it?” (Luke 6:9). There was no answer, and He healed a man’s withered hand with a mere, “Stretch out your hand” which infuriated the religious leaders (Luke 6:6-11). Obviously, they considered healing to be work and Jesus broke yet another rule.
What probably began as a well-meaning attempt to help people follow God, evolved into a man-made code of rules for earning God’s favor. We can be guilty of the same thing today. Jesus came to usher in a new era and the new covenant of grace. Forgiveness of sins, God’s favor and transforming work in a person, and a place in God’s eternal heaven would now come through God’s grace. This grace would not be received for any amount of religious works or rule-following. It would be received through faith in Jesus Christ and His substitutionary sacrifice for sin on the cross.
Have you joined yourself to the religious rule-breaking, grace-giving Jesus?
— Reflections appears regularly on the religion page. The column features a variety of local writers, coordinated through the Monroe Area Clergy Group. Dan Krahenbuhl is pastor of Monroe Bible Church.
