By Christopher Dryden
Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.
Now that day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?”
John 5:8-12 ESV
The ministry of Jesus was marked by frequent verbal spats with the religious rulers of the day. These figures would give us a very good idea of some key attitudes and approaches that oppose grace. Self-righteousness, blocking the path for others, self-proclaimed arbiters of truth without any expression of the merciful and gracious character of the one who is truth. It’s typified in their response to Jesus doing marvellous works on the Sabbath. Rather than rejoicing in the expression of God’s rule, they impose their own rules in an effort to nullify what God’s up to.
The episode of the man who was told to take up his mat and walk, also highlights, the heart of the matter when it comes to grace. The issue of authority. What Jesus did, expressed His authority. The religious rulers could not countenance that as they would further go to prove by their growing agitation at the way Jesus was consistently acting in line with the things He was saying which were subverting and thwarting what they had stressed and emphasised for so long. Jesus was a living threat to their authority in the following ways:
- A threat to self-righteousness.
- A threat to our belief that we are the measure of what’s right and wrong even when we’re hypocrites about it.
- Jesus is a threat to all the moralising educated and sophisticated experts.
- Jesus is particularly a threat because He exposes the emptiness of those approaches.
Jesus presents us with an alternative that requires us to live up to our absolute inadequacy and the total sufficiency of His grace.
The legalistic approach is fraught with the expression of the self-righteous, it does not reflect the heart of God for true righteousness based on a humble acknowledgement of Him. We can test to see where we’re at where this is concerned not by ticking off a list of rules, but genuinely checking if our heart is aligned with the character of Christ. Do we reflect His call to humility and meekness? Do we consider if our temperament invites loving correction and realignment? Do we check if the wisdom, mercy and grace of God inform our attitudes and actions? If we’re taking the log out of our own eye, ever aware of how it affects our vision, that won’t allow us the time to be harsh, judgemental and condemning of the motes that might be in the eye of one in front of us.
The message of the gospel is received when we understand what grace is. To understand that and appreciate it means we must face up to areas in our lives where we impose rules and behave in ways similar to the religious rulers of Jesus’ day. Rather than embracing the good works of God in seemingly unorthodox fashions, we can make our stuffy attitudes obvious. It’s abundant in the world of religion around us. It doesn’t have to be as prevalent as our own hearts when we see it for the opposition it is to the wonderful grace of God.
Ask: Why were the religious leaders upset at Jesus “breaking the Sabbath”?
Seek: Where do you see areas in your life where you’ve entertained a legalist approach?
Knock: Remind yourself of who God is and what He has done by His grace and ask Him to give you a heart that appreciates this and wards off against the self-righteous spirit.
(Upper Photo by USGS on Unsplash)
(Inner Photo by Ashley Jurius on Unsplash)
