New Thoughts (10/06/09-10/08/09)
How anybody can come away from this passage still thinking of a Jesus that is ever and always meek and mild, I don’t know. This is a serious display of anger on the part of our Lord, and yet it is assuredly no sin on His part. The anger is wholly justified by the sick and twisted view of God that is demonstrated by this official. It is not, let us be clear, religion that is rejected here, nor even religiosity. It is the gross hypocrisy of this man who values his livestock more than the people he is supposedly serving.
How fitting to contemplate this rebuke of the shepherd on the heals of hearing Jesus describing Himself, the Good Shepherd! The real shepherd cares for his sheep. This imposter cares only for his title. Yet, he does nothing to show himself worthy of the title. Is it any wonder, then, that the Good Shepherd, coming across such a complete failure of duty, should be angry?
This is one of the rare occasions when I really appreciate the rendering that is given in The Message. It truly helps to bring out the absurdity of this official’s complaint, and of his apparent understanding of what it means to keep the Sabbath holy. “You frauds! Each Sabbath every one of you regularly unties your cow or donkey from its stall, leads it out for water, and thinks nothing of it. So why isn't it all right for me to untie this daughter of Abraham and lead her from the stall where Satan has had her tied these eighteen years?”
If I might, let me put it even more bluntly: “You would water your ass, but you’d refuse this woman her release because of the Sabbath?” Wow. Put it that way, and who wouldn’t be ashamed of himself for having suggested that what Jesus did was wrong somehow?
Can we make this more applicable to ourselves, though? It is a battle we must always fight, to keep from letting these messages just be about those Pharisees, or those officials. It’s not about them. It’s about the human condition. It’s about the disease that we each one of us suffer from. Maybe it doesn’t take quite the same form. Maybe we don’t even think about healing as being connected with the ministry of the church any more. But, there are any number of other ways in which we demonstrate a total failure to look at things from a godly perspective even as we seek to serve God.
Believe me, I can set myself at the forefront of this crowd, not that I can take any pride in that position! But, consider: when we are more concerned for how things appear on camera than for what is happening in the hearts and minds of the congregation, have we not stepped into the exact same error? When our concern is more for the condition of the house than for the condition of the soul, have we not fallen into the same sin?
Let me draw it even closer to home for myself. If I am more concerned with doctrinal accuracy than with spiritual efficacy, am I truly honoring God? In other words, if I am ever so careful to ensure (to the best of my ability) that what I say and teach about God’s Word is completely accurate, and yet have no patience to hear about the issues a brother is facing, and yet never once move in compassion to address the need and the pain of another; can I really expect that God will be pleased with my service to Him? I think not!
This is actually the great, marvelous message of the events described here. Compassion triumphs! Mercy triumphs! That doesn’t mean that the Law is rendered null and void. What it means is that Justice is not without Mercy. What it means is that God cares more about your ability to love than about His own pride. Can you imagine that! Can you imagine a God who is that concerned about you? This is the antithesis of what this official presents as God’s image.
I have a brother who loves to speak of how God has been given a bum rap, as He is love, and nobody really teaches that. Well, that may be over the top. But, the image of God as one so easily offended and just waiting to slap down any creature that might fail to give Him His due doesn’t really do Him justice either. If the Angry God waiting to destroy sinners was all we knew of Him, we should be left to cringe in abject fear, hoping only to appease Him lest He strike us down. There’s a place for that, perhaps, but that’s not the Good News. That’s the sort of idolatry that every civilization has managed, however benighted their understanding. But, the Good News is that this God, while He truly does abhor sin most vehemently, is not inclined to destroy the sinner, but rather to rescue.
Seeing the effects of sin on my life, He did not decide I was a project best abandoned. He didn’t decide that in my case, best to simply destroy the work thus far and start over. How often do I show myself willing to do just that in the things I do? You know: you start writing a paragraph and find that it’s just not worded as you would like, so boom! Delete the thing and start over. Or, you have written some code that is proving so painful to get working that it’s just more efficient to scrap it and try again. God could so easily deal with us in like fashion, as He did in the Flood. But, He has found a better way, the way of Compassion. For, if God is Wrath, and God is Love, He is also Compassion. He is Just, but He is Mercy. All that He is, He is in perfect harmony. So, He has provided a way to be reconciled. He has not simply destroyed the sin from before His face by destroying the sinner. He has destroyed the sin by redeeming the sinner, by reshaping the sinner, by removing the effects of sin and the guilt of sin, and replacing it with His own purity and righteousness! That is the Good News! God is not interested in naked Justice. He is interested in you! In His sheep! In seeing His sheep healthy and secure in Him.
Looking at the outcome of this exchange, I am struck by the way Messiah has actually fulfilled the expectations of His people. They were looking for the Liberator who would come and free them from their oppressors. In a very real and very physical sense He has done just that for this woman. But, in an equally real sense, He has done just that for the people in general. Their oppressors were not Roman, as they supposed. Yet, they were being oppressed just the same, and this by the very ones who should most have been their aid and succor! The leaders of synagogue and temple, the authorities of religion; these had become the oppressors of the people. It was not that religion was bad. It was that authority had been abused.
This is evidenced by the reaction of the official in this passage. Rather than rejoicing that one of his charges has been freed from demonic afflictions, he is offended that any would dare go chasing demons on the Sabbath. We have rules about this! We have taught you people over and over, in minute detail, what is acceptable and what is not. Yet, here comes this young upstart and he ignores our rules. This is intolerable!
Now, that’s oppression! The Romans were by and large just doing their jobs. Oh, sure, there were a goodly number of unsavory sorts in their ranks, but for the most part they kept their own order and left the Jews to pursue their faith and their livelihood unmolested. Could the same be said of these leaders? Not really. The rules that they taught, the rules they insisted their people follow: these had no basis in the authority given them by God. They were efforts at appearance, and nothing more. However well-intended they had been at the start, they had become evil by use and practice. The whole energy of those who promoted the rules now was no longer to avoid any least chance of coming close to sinning, it was to have the appearance of successfully avoiding sin – at least while in public.
But, look at the reaction, when Jesus points out the absurdity of their misplaced concerns. They are humiliated, put to shame by the obvious nature of their error. But, the people rejoiced. They rejoiced ‘over all the glorious things being done by Him.’ But, they rejoiced as well because He way speaking out on things they had doubtless had their own suspicions about. The common folk, it seems, are so often likely to see common sense. They knew there was something off with what they were being taught, but they didn’t have the credentials to confront their teachers. Here, however, was this One who spoke up, who pointed out with clear teaching just how absurd their whole system had become. He was freeing them from the oppression of that system. He was being the Messiah they had expected, but in ways they never did expect.
Adding to the absurdity of this official’s complaint is a comparison of what Jesus had been doing before, of which no complaint was made, and what He did then. We are introduced to this passage with the statement, “He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath.” How does this not constitute work? There is the scroll of the Torah to be carried forth and unrolled, rolled up and returned. Is that not work? There is the effort involved in relating the lesson to the people which, even with good preparation, I assure you is work. Even as a member of the worship team at our church, I can tell you that the effort of Sunday service is as draining as it is uplifting! To teach, to make the effort required to relay your message clearly and convincingly, to keep your tongue from tangling itself, to resist all those physical ticks that will distract from presenting your message: all of these things take effort. They are work!
Contrast that to what Jesus did in healing this woman: He spoke to her. Seven words, no more. Surely, far less speaking and with far less effort than had just been expended on teaching! He laid His hands upon her. Again, far less effort than He had just expended in reading the Scripture, in proclaiming His message. Yet, it is this far lesser effort of which the official complains, denouncing it as illicit work done on the Sabbath. What of his own office? His work is focused on the Sabbath. Surely he can see this?
This reality of the situation might give us a better understanding of the true cause of this man’s offense, and it’s not really anything to do with God’s honor. It’s his own pride that he is trying to defend. You see, he could still hold forth that he was as much a teacher as this Jesus. Oh, Jesus may have better stories to tell, might have a more engaging delivery, but he could hold his own. After all, he would be found teaching in this synagogue long after Jesus had left town, just as he had been there teaching long before Jesus came. He had no sense of being challenged on that ground. But, this healing business: That was something with which he could not compete. He couldn’t even pretend to match it, so he must denounce it. That is the reasoning of the flesh. It’s all a competition, and I must win, whatever the cost.
That is the reasoning of the flesh. Common belief would suppose it is a matter particularly to be found in the male of the species, but I’m not so sure about that. Women are just as competitive in their own way, and just as quick to cut down their competition by whatever means presents itself. The point, though, is that this competitiveness, if left unbridled, will tend to lead us into critical failures in judgment. When we compete in this fashion, the likelihood that we will end up as ashamed as this synagogue official are great. It even happens to us in the midst of discussing matters of faith. We come upon a point of particular importance to us upon which another disagrees, and tin the ensuing discussion, the likelihood that one or both of us will say things we will later regret increases exponentially. We become more concerned with winning the argument than with demonstrating the truth of our own convictions.
I can easily suppose that this is what has happened to this official. He may not have been so terribly evil in reality. Maybe, were it not for that sense of competition, he would have been as pleased to see this lady healed as the others. Surely if it had come about while he was officiating and teaching, if he could have taken some small credit for the event, he would not have complained so. Surely, if he had witnessed that healing in somebody else’s synagogue, maybe while on vacation or some such, he might have viewed it differently.
Alternatively, perhaps his zeal for respecting the holiness of God is very real. Perhaps it really is a deep and abiding concern of his that the people of God maintain a due reverence for the things of God. But, he has allowed that zeal to cloud his vision. He has become so deeply committed to this one doctrine that he fails to see how it meshes with other matters of faith. So, his judgment has become clouded. How many denominations have begun on just such grounds of over-emphasized points of doctrine? The disagreements they now maintain against other denominations are not so much on great divides of life-critical matters. They are maintained on the basis of this one point that they have elevated so. Sadly, that excessive attention to one point is likely to lead them far astray, to make what may have been a good and true doctrine a tool for evil by their use.
What this particular official has failed to see is the absurdity of claiming that this work of saying so few words and making so slight a gesture in order to achieve such a great benefit to one of God’s own is somehow a violation of Sabbath when the greater effort of teaching and serving in the synagogue is not. If the work of the priest and the teacher of Scripture is not a violation of the Sabbath because it promotes God’s purposes, how much more in line with God is this lesser labor done on behalf of His child? I don’t mean that it is a lesser labor as in being less important, but in the amount of effort apparently expended to complete the task.
If it is good to teach of God on the Sabbath, surely it is even better to do the things God promotes on the Sabbath? Can it really be constituted as Sabbath-violating work to feed the hungry, to serve the homeless, to minister to the sick? Of course it isn’t! Indeed, we can and should make exceptions for such things, particularly for those who do such things for a living. What would become of us, for instance, if hospitals were not allowed to operate on the Sabbath, or if public services like the fire department or police department were required to observe the day? Shall we insist that fires not happen on the Sabbath? That no accidents shall befall any individual on that day? What of the farmers? Shall they refrain from feeding their livestock? Shall they refuse to deliver a cow of her calf because it is Sunday? Of course not!
This is exactly the sort of overly zealous application of the Law that Jesus is pointing out to this man. You would feed your donkey, but you wouldn’t heal this woman? What is your problem? You would gladly rescue your sheep, but you’re willing to leave this fellow citizen in peril? And you think this reflects God’s glory how? Just open your eyes! Just think about what you’re saying for a moment. The absurdity of your argument must appear to you if you will just set passion aside for a minute and think. And that’s exactly what did happen. “His opponents were being humiliated.” This cannot happen unless those opponents understand the validity of what He is saying. Unless they have looked at what they just said in light of what He has just said and found Him quite right in His assessment, they have no cause for embarrassment. If they are still convinced He is in the wrong and they in the right then this argument has no power over them. But, the do see their error. They can’t help but see it. The comparison makes the absurdity of their outburst obvious even to themselves.
That is not so say, though, that they will take that humiliation kindly. It is a rare individual indeed who ever would. As such, it is at least understandable why Jesus found Himself so firmly opposed by these officials. Whether they were truly at odds with real faith, or whether they were simply pursuing their faith in misguided ways, the correctives are delivered in a fashion that is far more likely to produce resentment than repentance.
This is actually an interesting point. From this same Jesus we receive instruction on the way of discipline in God’s house. It begins with the personal touch; the one on one between that one who has observed the sin and the one who has committed the sin. It is to be done in a private and compassionate way. Why is that? Because such an approach increases the potential for repentance rather than resentment. If that fails, though, a stronger medicine is to be applied: bring two or three others to confirm your interpretation of what must transpire. But, again, the confrontation is to be in private, allowing the greater chance that repentance shall follow. Only when all else fails is the matter made public. At this point, the issue is less that of bringing the offender to repentance, for he has already demonstrated that repentance is not going to be forthcoming. The issue is protecting the rest of the body from this one’s poisonous effect.
It would be strange indeed were Jesus to act in a fashion that was in conflict with His own teaching on this matter of discipline and confrontation of sin. As such, what we witness here must be seen as the ‘stage three intervention.’ The ones so humiliated by His teaching have already demonstrated that they are not going to repent. They are not going to change. They are not going to accept the testimony of the godly such that they might turn and return and live. So, His proper mission is now to inoculate the rest of the body against the poison of this opposition, and that is what He is undertaking to do with this rebuke.
He knows what must result. They will not appreciate their humiliation, will not benefit by it. Indeed, as it was when Moses confronted Pharaoh, the result is already known: They will harden their hearts against Him, will indeed conspire to do Him harm. The weight of their sins will be completed, as they set aside all pretense at righteousness, set aside any last vestiges of concern for truth, in order that they might destroy this One who has so shamed them. Their pride must be preserved and all else be damned.
And that points us to what this story is really about. It’s not about the woman who was sick. It’s not about the false pride of the leaders. Not directly. It’s about this One who saw the need of one as more important than the false pride of the other. It’s about the way in which He demonstrates that the actions of true faith, works commensurate with belief, are of great value. But, the false pride of religiosity, an adherence to rules of purported holiness without a concern for the truly holy life, is of no value. Indeed, it is a great danger to the one who is plagued by it.
This is of a piece with James’ teaching that faith without works is dead. It is not that there is some salvific merit in those works. It’s that the claim to faith that is not backed up by the evidence of those works that are fitting to faith is a false claim. As it is written, demons can claim belief as well as any man can. They believe, and they tremble for fear, because belief has not led them to righteousness, but to a certainty of their own doom.
The appearances are worth nothing without the reality. So it is with the rites of the Church. Baptism is a meaningless dip in the pool except there be a real faith in that one being baptized. Prayers confessing belief are of no more value than the typical political speech except there be a true move of the Spirit upon that one confessing. The so-called prayer of salvation has no power to save. If it does not truly reflect a soul touched by God, but only the emotions of somebody moved by fine words, then it accomplishes nothing. Raised hands in response to this altar call or that do not earn anything for the owner of that hand. It is the truth held dear in heart and mind, it is the life that is so convicted of that truth that it will do all in its power to live in accord with that truth that has any power at all. And, even that power is only by the grace of God.
If we have come to the point of thinking that whatever conformity to Christ we have achieved is truly something we have achieved, then we have not come very far at all, yet. We are merely dancing in the courts of false pride. Look, just this morning, I find myself rebuked on matters of speaking evil of others. “Show perfect courtesy to all people” (Ti 3:2). “Put aside all anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth” (Col 3:8). “Do not speak against one another” (Jas 4:11).
These are not news to me. I know them full well. Yet, I know equally well that I failed miserably on these things only yesterday. And the day before. And the day before that. I know that so long as I look to take care of this in my own strength, I shall continue to say the same thing tomorrow and the day after that. It is a terrible, terrible flaw in my character. It is the same sort of false pride that pushed this official to lash out at a good man for doing good. It is, let’s face it, a reflection of insecurity. But, that is no excuse. There is no excuse. Even to recognize that until and unless God so works upon me that this vile tendency is removed from me is no excuse.
Perhaps I must count it as Paul counted his own personal issue: a thorn in the flesh given me, “lest I exalt myself” (2Co 12:7). And yet, it cannot be. For why do I speak so of others except in hope of exalting myself by contrast. Is this not just what this official has done? He decries the violation of his understanding of the Sabbath by this Jesus in order to make himself look better, because in his eyes, the healing Jesus has just performed makes him look pretty poor. This is ever the way of slander. If there were nothing in me I felt a need to defend, I should have no reason to belittle another. If it were not for the flaws I know so well in myself, I should not find it necessary to speak of the flaws in anybody else. If it were not for that mote in my own eye, I should have little to say about the speck in yours.
It’s an emotional sleight of hand, an attempt to distract. But, it doesn’t work. I know what it is. God knows what it is. Doubtless, everybody else knows what it is, too, and is simply too kind to point out the obvious. Sigh. What is to be done? The answer, as relayed in Scripture is obvious. Repent. Ask forgiveness. Move on in the strength of God.
So, Lord, I do just that. I see what’s happening in me, and I don’t care for it. I feel powerless to change it, to stop it, but I know I am not, for I am with You and more importantly, You are with me. With You, all things are possible, even victory over this sin of the tongue. Lord, forgive me. Help me to truly repent of this thing. Show me, Jesus, the power of Your love in aiding me to overcome the tendency to belittle others, to be intolerant of others, to seek to make myself look better by making them look worse. God, it is not good! I know it isn’t. I know, and yet I do. I should not wish to hear You say to me, as You did to this one: “You hypocrite!” Let it not be, Holy One! Rescue me from this. Come, and do as You must to bring the change. Yes, and let me be found at peace in the work You must do. Oh, how I long to have victory over this! To be more as You intend me to be. Only in You, Lord. Only in Your strength working in me can I have hope of this. And, knowing that You are in me, that You do both will and work in me, and that You are faithful to complete this work You have begun, my hope is certain. Thank You. Let me see the fruit of this great work soon, and rejoice with You in what You have done!
