August 11, 2012
One Sabbath day as Jesus was walking through some grainfields, his disciples began breaking off heads of grain to eat. But the Pharisees said to Jesus, "Look, why are they breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath?" -- Mark 2: 23-24 (NLT)
Critical eyes. Religiously critical eyes. We see them every day in the modern church. People who seemingly are more concerned about the sins of others than they are about monitoring their own walk. People who use the Bible as more of a blunt instrument to hit people over the head with than the two edged sword it was meant to be. Now those who know me and my writing know that I do not ascribe to the "judge not" theology that is permeating the church and is based upon looking the other way when we see sin in our midst. The Bible cannot be clearer on these subjects that we absolutely are to judge our brothers and sisters when it comes to sin. We are our brother's keeper. I think that most people have trouble with this for two reasons. The first is the usage of the word judgment, which in this instance is not being used to discuss eternal condemnation. I can watch a basketball game and "judge" that Kobe Bryant doesn't like to pass the ball. That is making a judgment but it is not suggesting that anyone is going to hell. The second reason this is such a problem is that people simply are not skilled in delivering messages with love within the church. We should be able to talk to our brother or sister in love to gently restore them and put them back on the right track. Restoring in love is the opposite of the religiously critical eyes we see roaming our churches too frequently.
The key verses today come from an exchange between Jesus and the resident critical eyes of His day -- the Pharisees. The teachers of law embodied the religious spirit that infects our churches. This haughty and prideful spirit is not seeking to gently restore but to judge harshly. These are important distinctions because if we abdicate our responsibility to help each other than we leave the door open to sin in our lives and churches. If we go too much in the other direction then we run the risk of tearing each other down instead of edifying. We need to strive to have the heart and mind of Christ. This was His reaction to the woman caught in the act of adultery:
Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" "No one, sir," she said. "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin." -- John 8: 10-11 (NLT)
Jesus did not approach this woman with a critical and religious spirit. That was what the Pharisees who brought her before Him did! They caught her so they wanted to stone her according to the letter of the law. Jesus turned their religiosity back on them by saying that he who was without sin himself could cast the first stone upon her. They all slinked away in their shame. But Jesus did not allow her to walk away without addressing the sin issue. It still was important that she realize that while He was not condemning her, He also was not approving of what she had done. Go and sin no more!
The key verses for us show some symptoms of the critical religious spirit we want to avoid as we try and restore our brothers and sisters in love. The first aspect of the critical and religious spirit is that it looks for something to be self-righteous about. These teachers of law were looking at Jesus and His disciples very intently with the desire to see if they would do something they could then complain about from a religious standpoint. We see this all the time in the church where people use the Bible as a club to whack people over the head with. The area focused on is usually something they themselves do not have an issue with. I am sure for these Pharisees; they never had an issue with picking grain on the Sabbath. Thus they can feel more righteous when they level their charges against the disciples. This is why Jesus said what He did to those who wanted to stone the woman caught in adultery. They wanted to make the issue just about adultery and Jesus said no -- let's have a look at all sin. The critical spirit is seeking to complain. They want to complain. The issue is not about restoring it is about tearing down.
Secondly, the religious and critical spirit exaggerates the situation they are standing in judgment of. The verses above show that they are accusing the disciples of "harvesting grain" when all they were doing was taking some heads of grain to eat because they were hungry. The critical and religious spirit seeks to make a show of the situation -- to make a spectacle of it. We see it all the time in church as well. People using prayer as an excuse to gossip about someone else and expose their problems to other people. People stretching Scripture beyond the context will truly allow in order to make their accusatory points. Which brings us to the third aspect -- the religious and critical spirit is accusatory by nature. In the key verses we see that the accusation has been made and as far as the Pharisees were concerned they were guilty as charged. In the church, when we seek to restore a brother, we do not approach him in an accusatory manner. That is ultimately the real difference -- the underlying motive. Those who are seeking to operate as Christ would are interested in restoring the person but those with the critical and religious spirit are seeking to tear the person down. Lastly, from the key verses we see that those operating under the critical and religious spirit simply miss the mark when it comes to the spirit:
Then Jesus said to them, "The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!" -- Mark 2: 27-28 (NLT)
Far too often we see people operating within the law of God but devoid of His love and compassion. The church is supposed to be a place where the love of God flows freely and where everyone realizes that but for the grace of God go I. Too often we can forget however where God found us. We can develop a religious spirit that becomes critical of everyone. We need to guard against that because a critical spirit can tear a church down. But we need to be careful on the other side as well because singing kumbya in the middle of egregious sin is not going to lead to the will or blessings of God. As with everything there needs to be a balance. Our motives need to be pure. We need to seek and follow the heart and mind of Christ.
Rev. Anthony
