Changing the Rules of the Game

Suggested Reading: Matthew 15:1-20

I know it is shocking, but when they were younger my children would occasionally get into fights. One of the things they sometimes fought about was the rules of whichever game that they happened to be playing. They would be playing along, having fun, until one of them decided that the rules didn't work as they were and they would attempt to change the rules of the game right then and there. Most of the time, the rule change was intended to give the one making the change an advantage over the other one, which, in turn, started a fight. "That's not how you play the game!" the other one would yell or cry, and the fight pretty much fueled itself from there.

In the New Testament, Jesus accused the Pharisees of trying to pull the same kind of rule change with the way God wants us to live. Jesus pointed out how they violated God's command to honor one's parents by devoting to the temple the money they would have used to care for their parents in their old age. That gift to the temple, in their minds, freed them from the obligation to care for their parents. Then, speaking for God the Father, Jesus quoted the book of Isaiah and said, "These people honor Me with their lips but their heart is far from me. They worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commands of men" (Matthew 15:8-9, HCSB).

Many times, we do the very same things the Pharisees did, and we make up our own rules that we think nullify God's commands. Jesus gave us the example of the Good Samaritan who stopped for a man on the side of the road, but we tell ourselves that we don't have to care for that person because it is more important to be "wise" and not put ourselves in dangerous positions. Jesus prayed for and encouraged unity among his followers, but we decide that we can only be united with other believers if they hold exactly the same doctrinal beliefs that we do. Through the Holy Spirit, Paul insisted that we not demand our own rights when doing so might cause other believers to falter in their faith, but we declare that anyone who is offended by our innocent actions is simply dumb and not our concern. 

Every day, as believers and as local churches, we "change the rules" for our own advantage, so that we don't have to work as hard or so that we can have the things we want, coming up with our own little traditions that give us the right to ignore God's commands.  If we were honest with ourselves, we normally know exactly when we do this because the Spirit pricks our consciences, and we do our best to pretend that nothing is wrong. Sometimes, we even pray for God to send someone else to do what we know we should be doing.  But there are two problems with making up our own rules like that: 1) many of the lost people we are trying to reach know how we are supposed to live and our contradictory behavior communicates that God isn't real to us so God doesn't need to be real to them; and 2) when we ignore God's commands and follow our own rules, we end up hurting ourselves, just like cheating in a game often helps you in the short-term but then messes you up in the next round.

What are the rules you have come up with to relieve yourself of following God's commands? When you feel the Spirit prick your conscience, what rules do you spout to yourself so you have an excuse to ignore God's voice? There is a lost and dying world that needs to see us living life as God commanded, not to mention that we end up hurting ourselves when we ignore God's commands. Let's not come up with our own rules so that we get exactly what we want. Let's not be those people who honor God with our lips but whose hearts are far from him. 

Choosing to Enjoy Real World Fairy Tales

Suggested Reading: Isaiah 58:10-14

One of my favorite Disney movies from recent years is Enchanted, starring Amy Adams as Gizelle. Gizelle literally lived a fairytale life, cartoon form and all, waiting for her Prince Charming to sweep her off her feet. But when he finally did, the prince's evil step-mother exiled Gizelle to the real world, depositing her on the cruel streets of New York City. One of the reasons I find the movie so enchanting is that Gizelle, even as she learns lessons about the cruelty of life, continues choosing to have a good attitude. She cleans the apartment of the father and daughter who have taken her in, singing and happily directing the real world animals that have answered her call to clean. She adamantly refuses to accept that true love doesn't exist and wills it into existence. Her attitude infects everyone around her and makes the ordinary tasks of life more enjoyable.

One of the problems Jesus faced with the Pharisees, and that we often face in our churches today, is the number of people who go through the motions but lack any real excitement about their walk with the Lord. Things like going to church, attending a Bible study, or making time to serve our neighbors fail to be things we enjoy and become burdensome duties, taking up time we could be using to do other things.  We may go through the motions, but there is no enjoyment, no sense of life.

In Isaiah chapter 58, God was speaking through the prophet, warning His people about the reasons for their current problems. They had been going through the motions of religious life very dutifully, but it affected their day to day walk very little and they were not experiencing God's blessings. So God advised them, "Keep the Sabbath day holy. Don't pursue your own interests on that day, but enjoy the Sabbath and speak of it with delight as the LORD's holy day. Honor the Sabbath in everything you do on that day, and don't follow your own desires or talk idly. Then the LORD will be your delight. I will give you great honor and satisfy you with the inheritance I promised to your ancestor Jacob. I, the LORD, have spoken!" (Isaiah 58:13-14, NLT). The phrase that jumps out at me? Enjoy the Sabbath and speak of it with delight as the LORD's holy day.

God commanded his people, not just to keep the Sabbath, but to enjoy the Sabbath and speak of it with delight. Instead of grumbling about the work they were missing out on or the recreational activity they could enjoy instead, God ordered his people to enjoy it and speak of it with delight. Essentially, he was commanding his people to choose to have a good attitude about the Lord's day and God promised that if they would choose a good attitude, if they would choose to speak of it with delight then the Lord would become their delight. Just as we sometimes rekindle "that old fire" with our spouses by choosing to act as if it is already kindled, we can rekindle our love for God and experience delight in God by speaking and acting as if it is already the case.

Is there an area of your walk with God that has become burdensome or dreary? Do you avoid going to church or engaging in "religious activity" because you would just rather spend your time doing other things? Try choosing a good attitude about those activities. Try speaking of the Lord's Day with delight and, like the passage suggests, throwing yourself into it whole-heartedly, setting everything else aside. Choose to act like the Lord is your delight and, soon, you will feel like the Lord is your delight.

Giving Aliens a Yeast Infection

Suggested Reading: Matthew 16:5-12

In the Will Smith movie, Independence Day, aliens invaded the planet, intent on wiping out the human race so that they could have the planet and its resources all to themselves. Armed with superior technology and massive city-killing ships, these aliens seemed unstoppable. Until a computer genius who worked as a cable repairman came up with the idea to create a virus that would infect the alien ships. Somehow, they flew a downed alien craft onto the mother ship and downloaded the virus. The virus moved out from the point of infection and eventually infiltrated the entire alien fleet, making their ships vulnerable to attack. 

In Matthew 16:6 Jesus warned his disciples, "Watch out and beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees" (HCSB). The disciples were confused and thought Jesus was talking about bread, which they had forgotten to bring with them on this particular trip. Only after Jesus scolded them did the disciples realize that Jesus was concerned about the teachings of the Pharisees and Sadducees. But why did Jesus use the term "yeast" to describe their teachings?

Well, the Pharisees and Sadducees had a lot of things right in their teachings. They both taught that God's commands should be taken seriously and obeyed. They took the scriptures very seriously and taught that honoring God was important. But they both had some problems with their teachings, little things that had a habit of ruining and infecting everything else. Little things like the idea that following the letter of the law was more important than mercy and justice or that God is under an obligation to prove himself (both groups had just demanded a sign from Jesus in order to prove himself). Both groups had a lot of things right, but they had a couple little things wrong and those little things spread throughout the rest of their teachings and infected the whole, just like that computer virus and just like yeast.

We have to be very careful as we live day to day not to get "infected" with little things that can spread and grow and turn into massive problems, like the idea that God is obligated to us or that we have a clear understanding of the big picture; these are small attitude problems that affect the way we treat people or the effort with which we attempt our daily tasks. Every day we must keep ourselves centered in both the Word of God and prayer in order to guard ourselves against the little things that lead us astray, against those misconceptions and little conceits that have a way of poisoning the good in our lives.

When was the last time you examined your beliefs and attitudes? Are there some major problems in your life that seem to have come out of nowhere? Those "sudden" problems often spring from very little ideas and attitudes whose effects have been amplified by the passage of time. We can never take for granted that we've gotten everything right along the way. And if we never take the time to examine ourselves against scripture or the time to be still and listen to the Spirit speak to us, we might very well have some little ideas that could threaten our growth.

Little problems become big problems if we don't deal with them. Are you dealing with yours?

Christmas Hams and Farcical Worship

Suggested Reading: Mark 7:1-13

The story goes of a mom who was cooking a Christmas ham with her daughter. The daughter watched patiently as the mom prepared the ham and as she chopped off the front of the ham before putting it in the baking pan and placing it in the oven. The little girl asked her mom why she chopped off the front of the ham and mom admitted she wasn't sure but that grandma had always done that when she was a little girl. So mom called grandma to ask why you were supposed to chop off the front of the ham. Upon hearing the question grandma cracked up laughing and explained, "I chopped off the front of the ham because my baking pan was too small for the whole ham!" Mom had mistaken the way her mother did things for the way things had to be done.

In Mark chapter 7, we find another group of people who had gotten things a little mixed up. A group of scribes and Pharisees came down to see Jesus to examine him and determine whether or not they should support him. Their initial criticism of Jesus, however, had nothing to do with his teachings being wrong or with accusations that he was mistreating the poor or neglecting the widow or fatherless child. Their initial criticism was a question of why Jesus' disciples didn't follow the traditions of the elders and wash their hands before eating!

Now, I think we can all agree that washing your hands is a good thing to do but Jesus replied, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God' (Mark 7:6-7, NLT). While washing one's hands is certainly a good thing to do, there is no command in scripture to wash your hands before you eat. That was a human idea - a good one to be sure, but still human - and these people were judging Jesus' disciples on it as if it were a command of God.

As followers of Jesus, we must make an effort to distinguish between our own ideas and those that come from scripture. Ideas like "drinking is a sin," or "God helps those who help themselves" are ideas that may have logical human reasons behind them but they can't be found anywhere in scripture and may in fact be contrary to scripture. We must have enough respect for God's Word to actually know God's Word -- to understand the difference between what it does say and what it doesn't say. When we start confusing the two and teaching or practicing our own ideas as God's word, our worship becomes a farce.

Dying Tigers, Red Skies and Miraculous Signs

Suggested Reading: Matthew 15:29-16:4

When it first came out, my family and I went to see We Bought a Zoo at the theater. The movie is inspired by the true story of a journalist whose wife had died, leaving him to struggle to grieve and connect with his kids. Trying to start somewhere fresh, they buy a house that happens to come with a zoo attached. Through the course of the movie, Dad deals with an aging, dying tiger who, by all accounts, needs to be put down but Dad doesn't want to accept it. So he keeps looking for other things, other explanations, anything to prevent him from putting the tiger to sleep. All along he knows what has to happen but simply chooses not to believe it. He doesn't want it to be true so he refuses to accept it, regardless of the evidence, at least for a time.

That dad would have found a kindred spirit in some of the Pharisees and scribes during Jesus's ministry. In Matthew 15, Jesus casts out demons, heals the sick and feeds four thousand people with seven loaves of bread and a few fish. But in Matthew 16, immediately after the feeding, the Pharisees and scribes come to Jesus and demand that he give them a sign. If I were Jesus, I would have said something like, "What do you think I've been doing? Do people heal the sick and feed thousands with next to nothing every day?" But Jesus answered them: “When evening comes you say, ‘It will be good weather because the sky is red. ’ And in the morning, ‘Today will be stormy because the sky is red and threatening. ’ You know how to read the appearance of the sky, but you can’t read the signs of the times. An evil and adulterous generation demands a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” Then He left them and went away (Matthew 16:2-4, HCSB).

Now, God doesn't seem to have a problem with people asking for confirmation. He allowed Gideon to put out fleeces as a test to confirm God's instructions. In some places in scripture, God demands that people ask for a sign because he wants to confirm His word. So what is Jesus upset about? Well, any person who wanted to look honestly could have seen all the miracles Jesus was doing as the very signs they were looking for. But the Pharisees weren't interested in confirming the truth about Jesus. They asked for more evidence because they refused to believe the evidence in front of them.

What about you? What has God been trying to say to you that you are still "praying" about? Is there something you know God has called you to, but you are still seeking confirmation when you already know, deep down, exactly what God wants you to do? When we do that, when we know exactly what God is saying and refuse to listen, when we keep asking for confirmation or continued prayers for guidance about something God has already made clear to us, Jesus calls us a wicked and adulterous generation. Don't pretend a lack of understanding in order to avoid what God is saying to you. Stop stalling and obey God now. It will be a lot easier on you in the long run.

The Stinky Trash Juice Principle

Suggested Reading: Matthew 15:10-20

I had a car once that I would use to take trash to the dump. Behind the second row of seats was a carpeted storage area like you might find in an SUV or a station wagon. On one particular trip to the dump, one of the trash bags leaked some nasty smelling juice that soaked into the carpet and made the car stink to high heaven. I tried air fresheners and Febreeze but the stench always returned until the day I actually cleaned the carpet and got the last vestiges of that nasty trash juice removed. Only once the source of the smell was dealt with did the stench disappear.

In Matthew 15, Jesus responded to a group of Pharisees who were concerned about the washing habits of his disciples by calling a crowd together and telling the people that they were defiled by the things that came out of their mouths and not by what went into them. The concept was a foreign concept, even to Jesus's disciples, who were so confused by the statement they asked Jesus to explain the "parable." Jesus answered, “Anything you eat passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer. But the words you speak come from the heart—that’s what defiles you. For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander. These are what defile you. Eating with unwashed hands will never defile you" (NLT, Matthew 15:17-20).

What Jesus was communicating was the Stinky Trash Juice Principle. When your life has a stench that comes out in the form of sinful behaviors and words, you can't eliminate the stench by trying to cover it up with rules and regulations that will make you more acceptable. Rather, those words and behaviors indicate that you have a heart problem and that stench - those behaviors and words - will keep returning until the heart is cleaned out. If you have sinful habits, you can't change them with superficial behaviors; you have to eliminate the source of the habit: the stain on your heart. Whether you love the wrong things, fear the wrong things, trust the wrong things, or have unforgiveness toward someone who hurt you, those heart conditions must be dealt with.

If you find yourself repeating the same sins over and over again, creating a new set of rules for yourself isn't going to help the problem. Creating rules is like hanging up an air freshener but never cleaning the carpet. Rather, search your heart. Determine where the behavior is coming from and seek God's guidance in fixing your heart problem. Don't cover up the stench in your life. Remove its source.

Pharisees Shoot the Messenger

Suggested Reading: Mark 12:1-12

We don't always like the messages that we get from people. When a doctor tells us that we need to change our diet or risk serious health problems, or we get a progress report from school that warns us we are on the verge of failing a class, there are traditionally three ways of responding. 1) We can heed the warning and act on the message, 2) we can choose to ignore the message or 3) we can get angry with the person who delivered the message. I don't know how many students I have heard say something like, "My teacher is just mean, she won't even give me a lousy five points on my report card." Anticipating the third reaction, a pastor I used to serve with would deliver the disclaimer, "If I'm stepping on your toes, say, 'ouch,' or get out of the way."

In Mark 12 (and in various other places throughout the Gospels), Jesus delivered a message that was unpopular with the religious establishment. Jesus told a parable that essentially warned the Pharisees and chief priests that their lack of response to God's messengers throughout the years would lead to God replacing them with people who would obey God's call. How did the chief priests and Pharisees respond? Did they decide that they had better start obeying God's call? Did they commit themselves to leaving behind their apathy in the hopes of retaining their position? Mark 12:12 records their response: "Because they knew He had said this parable against them, they were looking for a way to arrest Him, but they were afraid of the crowd" (HCSB).

Rather than acting on the message Jesus delivered, the religious establishment decided to "shoot the messenger." They could easily have listened to what Jesus had to say and acted on it. They could have said, "Whoa, we're in trouble here and we had better change our ways." They could have said, "He's right. We've been acting sinfully. We had better beg God for forgiveness." They could even have said, "Jesus just doesn't know what he's talking about." Instead, they chose to eliminate the one delivering the message by looking for ways to arrest him.

How often do we respond in the same way? A friend warns us about a dangerous behavior and we get angry, unable to believe how judgmental our friend is. A parent or mentor warns us that we are headed down the wrong path and we silently berate them, exclaiming, "You just don't get it. You don't know what I am going through." A doctor gives us bad news and we suddenly decide that we don't like that doctor anymore and we need a second opinion.  A preacher delivers a message about sin, warning us that certain activities are harmful, and we get angry with the preacher for "stepping on our toes" and decide not to come back or, worse, to stay and battle the preacher's "self-righteousness" behind the scenes.

"Shooting the messenger" is a time-honored human method of reacting to news we don't like in a way that lets us off the hook for the contents of the message. But, at the end of the day, we have still heard the message and we are still responsible for what we do with it. If you have recently gotten a message you don't like, don't get angry with the messenger, evaluate the message and act accordingly.

When someone steps on your toes, you can get mad, you can say, "ouch," or you can fix the situation by moving your feet. How will you choose to respond?

Playing the Gospel Gotcha Game

If you've ever watched political debates, you may have noticed a pattern. Rather than dealing with the issues at hand, each of the candidates chose to find ways to turn the questions into an opportunity to bash the opponent. Oh? you're asking about how what I said was wrong? Think about this thing the other guy actually did. Oh? You want to know why I constantly lie? Let's take this opportunity to talk about the other guy's less than winning personality. The entire debate, and the entire campaign really, has boiled down to attacking the other person for their sins and downplaying one's own sins. There is little attempt to discuss policies. It's all about delegitimizing anything the other one says be destroying the opponent's character.

Jesus had a couple of opportunities to fall into the same trap in Mark chapter 2. In the first instance, the scribes of the Pharisees criticized Jesus through his disciples by asking why Jesus was eating with "Tax collectors and sinners" as if they were perfectly righteous and upright themselves. Jesus didn't respond as I would have been tempted to do by saying, "Well, you're really not as righteous as you think" and then proceeding to list all of their sins (like he was capable of doing). Instead, Jesus responded by addressing the core issue in the discussion: his purpose on earth. "Those who are well don't need a doctor, but the sick do need one. I didn't come to call the righteous but sinners" (Mark 2:17, HCSB). Rather than destroying his "opponents" as he was capable of doing, Jesus addressed the core issue that swept away the heart of their criticism, essentially saying, "Sinners are the ones who actually need me."

The second opportunity was just a few verses later. Jesus and his disciples were walking through a grain-field and his disciples plucked a few heads of grain to eat. The disciples of the Pharisees then accused Jesus' disciples of breaking the Sabbath (presumably by reaping). Now, I had always assumed the disciples did break the Sabbath until I did some research recently only to discover that plucking a head of grain as you are walking through the field in order to eat it right then was not considered "work"  which violated the Sabbath by many Jewish authorities. When the Pharisees accused Jesus' disciples of breaking the Sabbath, Jesus could have stopped and declared, "Technically, according to Rabbi so and so, what they did is ok so leave them alone." Jesus could have pointed out the incorrect portion of their argument and addressed the Pharisees' gotcha moment. But Jesus didn't. Instead, Jesus addressed the real issue: the nature of the Sabbath. Jesus quoted an example of someone breaking temple regulations in a time of need and summarized by declaring, "The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27-28, HCSB).

In both cases, Jesus' critics tried to get Jesus bogged down in a "gotcha moment," where a technicality  or an incident that could be made to look bad might be used to derail Jesus. But instead of giving in and addressing these little things, Jesus chose to address the core issue which would sweep away these smaller arguments. Jesus chose to address the heart of the problem rather than get caught up in playing the game.

As we try to share our faith with people, or even just as people criticize us, we cannot allow ourselves to get distracted by a game of "gotcha." Rather than giving in to an initial gut reaction and addressing each little nit-picky point, we have to look for the bigger issue behind  their objections and criticisms. We can't allow ourselves to get distracted with the minor arguments that never really move the discussion forward. People's minds never get changed in the gotcha game; people only play it to reinforce their own beliefs. Instead, we must allow the Holy Spirit to point us to a person's larger concern that, maybe, they haven't even fully articulated to themselves yet.

Don't get distracted by the gotcha game. Look for the big picture and address the heart of the issue.