Mark 2:23-27 “One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grain-fields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. 24 The Pharisees said to him, "Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?" 25 He answered, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? 26 In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions." 27 Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."
Have you ever experienced the view from outside of the box? Religion without the Spirit of God giving life to it is like a box that contains and restrains the work of God in ways that it was never intended to be limited. The Apostle Paul addresses this principle in contrasting the difference between living by the law and living by the direction of the Spirit while writing to the church in 2 Cor 3:6 “He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant-not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills , but the Spirit gives life.” Paul identifies very powerfully the death that comes when we relate to the Word of God without applying it in the spiritually responsive way that it was intended.
During the time of Christ the Pharisees and other leaders were constantly enforcing the letter of the law, holding the people hostage to the particulars of individual passages while neglecting the spirit in which they were written. The commands of God and the teachings of scripture were intended to provide for us a context for our conscience to operate through, not to become a bondage that limited the operation of our conscience. As a result Jesus’ responsiveness to the Spirit of God directing His conscience was constantly creating tension between Him and the religious leaders who were still inside their limiting box.
Within the laws of nature there are routinely opposing laws that are in tension with one another. The law of gravity may be opposed by the law of lift in aerodynamics and it may be opposed by the law of buoyancy in regard to the floatation of objects in water. In each case the proper application of the laws of lift or buoyancy allow them to operate momentarily as a higher law than the law of gravity. They are applied to each situation as circumstances dictate their appropriateness. This same principle is true in the right application of spiritual law and this is the point of the letter killing and the Spirit giving life. In essence the Pharisees forbid any application of a responsive relationship to the law of gravity and as a result the people were not given freedom to fly! The Pharisees were threatened by the freedom that a responsive relationship to the commands of God would create. If the people are given freedom to respond to circumstances with the possibility that a higher law may be in application within a circumstance then they cannot be so easily controlled by the manipulations of the leaders and so the leaders teach conformity to rule rather than responsiveness to God.
One of the primary goals of Jesus’ earthly ministry was to teach the people how to apply the Spirit in which that the laws of God were given. Laws were intended to create safe boundaries, not to restrict us from responding to need. Jesus emphasized this in verse 27 by saying; "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath." The religious leaders had reversed this principle, making it man’s duty to serve the law rather the law being given for the sake of man. When an ambulance breaks the speed limit for the sake of saving a life it is because there is a higher law in operation. When Jesus healed on the Sabbath it was the same principle, but the Pharisees could not grasp this concept. Their offense at His freedom to choose to respond to the higher law threatened their control and so they persecuted Him. Jesus confronted the hardness of heart amongst the Pharisees in Matt 9:13 by exhorting them “go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy , not sacrifice.'” Remember the higher law of mercy and you will respond more consistently out of your Spirit and have less offense over the freedom that others enjoy in their walk with the Lord.
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