From Our Heads to Our Hearts

Luke 4.14-30

 

“When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage.  They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff.”

This is not exactly the response we pastors are taught to strive for in preaching school.  Of all the books I’ve read, all the classes I’ve taken, all the seminars I’ve attended, not one of them recommends driving the entire congregation into a killing frenzy.

Now, occasionally stepping on a few toes is okay; in fact, it’s pretty much expected.  Truth be told, there are some congregations where, no matter what the preacher says, one side of the aisle has steam coming out of their ears, while the other side is sitting there nodding their heads, saying, “Amen!  Preach it, brother!”

So, how did Jesus wind up in this predicament?  “Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country.  He began to preach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.”

After Jesus’ baptism, he was tempted in the wilderness for 40 days, and then he began his ministry in Galilee.  Jesus attracted quite a lot of attention.  People began to talk about him – and all of it was good!  Jesus was a rising star in the preaching business.  Eventually, Jesus wandered into Nazareth – the town where he had been raised.  A lot of people in Nazareth probably knew Jesus personally.  At the very least, most of the people in town were probably acquainted with Jesus’ family.

And so, in Jesus’ success as a preacher, there was a kind of reflected pride, a community pride, the way we feel when someone who grew up in our community goes off and makes good.  We say, “Bobby Joe?  Oh, yes, I know him well.  His mother still comes into the store where I work.”  Or, “Mary Ann was back home last Christmas and I ran into her at Wal-Mart.  She’s still just the sweetest thing; success hasn’t gone to her head at all.”

That’s the way the people of Nazareth felt about Jesus.  And now here he was.  The hometown-boy-makes-good was back and the town was excited!  Naturally, he was invited to preach at the local synagogue.  Fliers were printed up and posted around town.  An advertisement was placed in the Nazareth Daily Gazette.  Word began to spread:  Joseph and Mary’s oldest boy was back in town, and he was going to preach in the synagogue.  “Yes, I remember when he was just a toddler.  I always knew that boy was going to make it big some day.”

So they packed the pews on Sunday morning – okay, I know, they’re Jewish, so it was actually Saturday, not Sunday, plus they had a different calendar anyway.  And yes, I know they didn’t actually have pews back then, but Hey!  This is my story and I’m telling it my way.

So they packed the pews on Sunday morning.  They listened to Jesus read the scripture, from the prophet Isaiah.  They settled back to hear what Jesus had to say.  Jesus sat down to preach, as was the custom back then – a pretty good custom, if you ask me.  I’ve been thinking, maybe we could put a nice La-Z-Boy recliner right about here … never mind.

Jesus started to preach, and at first everything was going smoothly.  “All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.”  Smiles of pride, nodding heads.  Amen, Jesus!  Preach it, brother!

But then, as the saying goes, Jesus stopped preaching and went to meddling.  Don’t you just hate it when that happens?  I know, it’s never happened to any of you, personally, because you’ve never done anything that the preacher could possibly meddle in; but you’ve heard of it happening to other people, right?  Well, it certainly happened here.  Jesus openly challenged the congregation’s notions about God – and, to make matters worse, Jesus used their own scriptures to do it!

You see, the people of Nazareth thought that being God’s chosen people entitled them to special privileges.  And in all fairness, it wasn’t just the people of Nazareth; nearly all of the Israelites felt that way.  Apparently, however, this is the first time that Jesus has spoken so bluntly.  Anyway, the Israelites believed that, as God’s chosen people, they were somehow entitled to reserved seats in the kingdom of God.  After all, they had followed the Law – more or less – they had endured the persecutions and exiles.  They had preserved their sacred traditions.

So they thought that they deserved special treatment from God.  Then Jesus went and pointed out to them that, in the past, according to their own scriptures, God had given special treatment to Gentiles, while Israelites who were equally in need continued to suffer.

“There were many widows in Israel … yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon … There were also many lepers in Israel … and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”

Or, read it this way:  There are many American children suffering from cancer, yet God cured none of them except a little Muslim boy in Iran.

That’s not fair, is it?  Aren’t we God’s new chosen people?  “One nation, under God?”  Wasn’t our nation founded on Christian principles?  How could God ignore our suffering, how could God ignore our children, how could God send his healing Spirit to some nonbeliever in a pagan country where the kid’ll probably grow up to be a terrorist?

Now maybe you’re beginning to understand how the people of Nazareth felt.  And I think that what really hurt was that the people of Nazareth knew those scriptures.  They knew them in their heads.

Dr. Fred Craddock, one of the truly great preachers of the past 40 years, says that the longest journey you ever take is from your head to your heart.  The people of Nazareth knew the scriptures in their heads, but the scriptures had not yet made the journey to their hearts.  Despite what their own scriptures said, the Israelites firmly believed that, because they were God’s chosen people, God owed it to them to take care of them, first, to the exclusion of all others.

What they had forgotten was that God chose them, not so that they could be spoiled and pampered; God chose them so that through them the whole world could be blessed.  In Genesis 12, “ … the Lord said to Abram, ‘ … I will make of you a great nation … and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’”  God chose the Israelites in order for them to tell the whole world about God, so that the whole world might be blessed.  The Israelites knew this, in their heads, but they didn’t understand it in their hearts.

And, God help us, aren’t we the same way?  We, in the church, think that because we are Christians, God owes it to us to be nice to us, to take care of our every want and desire.  After all, we believe, we have faith.  There’s an entire cottage industry of evangelists and writers, spreading what is called the “Prosperity Gospel,” people preaching from pulpits and on TV, and writing books like “The Prayer of Jabez,” preaching that if we’re good and faithful, God will make us rich.

And so we pray, “Come on, God, take care of us.  Don’t bother with those who don’t believe, those who don’t care.  We love you; they don’t.  You belong to us, God, so take care of us.”

John 13:  “And during supper Jesus … got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself.  Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him … Jesus said to them … ‘You call me Teacher and Lord – and you are right, for that is what I am.  So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.  For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.’”

Matthew 25:  “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me … Lord, when was it that we [did those things] for you? … Just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”

Jesus has set us an example.  We know that in our heads; after all, we can read about it in our own scriptures.  But has the example of Jesus made the journey to our hearts?  Our calling, as disciples of Jesus Christ, is not to sit back and let God take care of us.  Our calling is to reach out to others, to take care of the poor, the oppressed, the downtrodden; because they, too, are children of God, created in God’s own image.

We know this in our heads.  And yet, despite this knowledge, the Church still harbors prejudice – racial prejudice, social prejudice, gender prejudice, religious prejudice – all are still harbored within the walls of Christ’s Church.  We know, in our heads, but our hearts haven’t quite caught on.

We think that God can’t possibly love the people that we don’t love, whether they be the Muslims or the Catholics, the blacks or the Hispanics, the poor, the homeless, the gays.  We don’t love them, and God is on our side, so God must not love them, either.

But God does love them.  And God takes care of them, just as much, if not more, than God takes care of us.  Because God knows about our prejudices, and God wants us to overcome them.  God takes care of those whom we don’t care about, in order to set an example for us.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the [Muslims].  God has sent me to proclaim release to the [Hispanics], and recovery of sight to the [blacks], to let the [gays] go free.”

That’s a radical gospel – as radical to us today as the original was to the people of Nazareth some 2,000 years ago.  And yet, we know in our heads that it’s true.  Now, in order to be true disciples of Jesus Christ, this radical gospel has to make the journey from our heads to our hearts.  We need to rid our hearts of this sense of entitlement.  We need to cleanse our hearts of hatred and prejudice.

1^st John 4:  “Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers and sisters are liars.”  Let me rephrase that slightly:  Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their black, or their gay, or their Muslim brothers and sisters are liars.”  Continuing on with 1^st John 4:  “The commandment we have from Jesus is this:  those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.”  Notice that there is no qualifier here.  Those who love God MUST love ALL of our brothers and sisters, not just the brothers and sisters that we like.

We need to open up our hearts to the words of our own scriptures.  We need to listen to the words of our own Lord and Savior.  We need to love as Jesus loves.  We need to treat others the way Jesus treats others.  We need to move the Gospel of Jesus Christ from our heads into our hearts.

Jesus Matters

Acts 10.34-48

“I truly understand that God shows no partiality.”

Have you ever seen the world change, right before your eyes? I was 10 years old on July 20, 1969 – “The Eagle has landed.” Neil Armstrong took one small step onto the surface of the moon, and the world has never been the same. When Peter spoke these words, “I truly understand that God shows no partiality,” the world changed, and it hasn’t been the same, since.

Now, to you and me, here today, January 9, 2011, in Camden [McNeil], Arkansas, those words don’t seem like such a big deal. We’ve grown up with those words, they’ve been a part of our Bible all our lives. We understand – or say we do – that God plays no favorites.

But to the people gathered there in that house – the people who actually heard Peter’s voice as he proclaimed God’s word – to those people this was new, this was amazing, this was incredible! From the moment those words left Peter’s mouth, the world would never be the same.

My Dad would be 93 if he were alive today – he was born in 1917. I can remember my Dad talking about how exciting it was when electricity came to Hackett, Arkansas. Today, we take electricity for granted. I have never lived in a house without electricity. But when my Dad was young, electricity was a big deal. It was new, amazing, incredible.

About five years ago Melissa and I, along with Holly and Casey, visited Fort Smith’s Museum of History. The girls would have been probably 9 and 11 years old at the time. There was an exhibit of old telephones at the museum, and several of them were hooked up to where you could use a phone in the exhibit, dial a 4-digit number and talk to a person on one of the other phones.

Holly and Casey, having already developed a fascination with telephones, decided to call one another. Each went to a phone across the room from each other. Holly picked up a handset, and then just stood there, looking at the phone itself. I told her to just dial that number there on the wall, and Casey’s phone would ring, but she just stood there. I then turned to Casey, and told her to dial the number of Holly’s phone, but she didn’t move, either.

Then it suddenly hit both Melissa and me – neither one of the girls had ever even seen a rotary dial phone; they didn’t know how to dial the number. Neither Holly nor Casey has ever lived in a house without a touchtone phone. Aside from making me feel old, it made me realize just how much the world has changed, just in my lifetime. I can remember when getting a touchtone phone in the house was a really big deal. Now I carry a phone in my pocket! To Holly and Casey, cell phones are no big deal; everybody’s got one. To me, cell phones are new, amazing, incredible!

And so it was with these words of Peter’s. To you and me, it’s not a big deal. We have grown complacent. In the words of B. B. King, “The thrill is gone.” And that’s not a good thing. We need to find within ourselves the amazement of hearing something totally revolutionary. We need to be impressed by a God who plays no favorites.

“While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all wh heard the word.”

The key word there is “all.” Some of those listening were Jews, but most were Gentiles. And the Jewish people in the crowd were shocked when the Holy Spirit fell upon the Gentiles. You see, the Jews believed that their God was the one true God, the creator and ruler of all people, but they didn’t necessarily believe that God treated all people the same.

The fact is that the Jewish people interpreted their scriptures – our Old Testament – in a way that indicated that God does play favorites. And there is some basis for this interpretation. God clearly favored Abel over Cain, Jacob over Esau. God favored Noah and his family, Abraham and his family. God favored Joseph over all his brothers.

And so it was only natural that the Israelites believed that God favored Israel over all the other nations. God ruled over all the world, but the attitude of all right-thinking Jews was that they were God’s favorites. Oh, sure, every now and then someone like Jonah or Ezekiel would come along, suggesting that God loved other people just as much as the Jews, but overall the attitude remained: God favored Israel.

This attitude remained in place in the earliest days of the Christian church. Peter and all the rest of the disciples were Jewish. All of the early converts were Jewish, as well. Despite the visit of the wise men, which we talked about last week, despite some of Jesus’ words and actions with folks like the Samaritan woman at the well, in the early days of Christianity Jesus was seen strictly as the Messiah of the Jewish people, God’s redeemer only for the oppressed people of Israel.

At this point we need to look back to the beginning of chapter 10, the events leading up to Peter’s sermon. We find that chapter 10 takes place in the city of Caesarea, an overwhelmingly Gentile city that was the headquarters for the Roman occupation forces.

We’re introduced to Cornelius, a Roman Centurion who was also “a devout man who feared God.” Just a reminder, I think we’ve talked about this before: to “fear” God doesn’t mean to be afraid of God, it means to have reverence for God. So Cornelius is a devout and reverent man. This is an important point: Cornelius was already a Godly man before Peter came along.

Now, here’s the Cliff Notes version of chapter 10: An angel visits Cornelius and tells him to invite a man named Peter to his home. Meanwhile, some 40 miles away in the town of Joppa, Peter is having visions which tell him that, contrary to Jewish law, nothing made by God is to be considered unclean. As Peter is puzzling over his visions, the invitation to visit Cornelius – a Gentile, someone whom Jews consider unclean – arrives. Peter and some other Christians – Jewish Christians, of course, since at that time all Christians were Jews – Peter and some other Christians from Joppa travel to Caesarea, to Cornelius’ house.

When they arrive, they discover that Cornelius has gathered together a number of his relatives and friends. So, we have a decidedly mixed group: the Jews from Joppa and the Gentiles from Caesarea, all gathered together in Cornelius’ house.

Peter begins to speak, and the meaning of his visions becomes clear to him. All humankind is created in God’s own image, and therefore no one can be considered unclean. Peter speaks, and the Holy Spirit falls upon everyone, Jew and Gentile alike. The good news of Jesus Christ has been unleashed upon a Gentile audience, and the world changes. Nothing will ever be the same. God shows no partiality.

Peter spoke, and everything changed. From that moment on, Christians realized that everyone could come to Jesus, right? That’s what we believe, isn’t it? God shows no partiality. God doesn’t play favorites. Or does he?

We live in a culture that is religiously diverse. In my hometown of Fort Smith – which is not really a very large city – I can walk through the mall and encounter Christians of every stripe – Baptists, Pentecostals, Roman Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Mennonites, you name it. During that same walk through the mall I might run into Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and who knows how many others.

And we celebrate this diversity. It’s one of the things that makes our nation strong. America, the great melting pot. We need only look at the Taliban in Afghanistan, or the situation in Iran – or, back in history, to the Christian Spanish Inquisition, to see what can happen in a nation where one religion presumes to be superior to all others.

Peter tells us that “in every nation anyone who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to God.” If Peter had stopped right there, certainly we would have to say that God does not favor any one religion over the others. But Peter doesn’t stop there. Peter goes on to tell us the story of Jesus, the “Lord of all,” the “judge of the living and the dead.”

At the end of Peter’s sermon we are told that “everyone who believes in Jesus receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” Peter is clearly saying that anyone who wants to be acceptable to God has some business to do with Jesus.

Now, this seems to create a problem. As Christians we don’t want to think that we are somehow better than everybody else. We don’t like to be thought of as “holier than thou.” We want to focus on that “God shows no partiality” portion of Peter’s sermon. We don’t want to be the Taliban, imposing our religious beliefs on others.

How do we deal with this? First and foremost, we need to remember who we are and whose we are. We are God’s people. We have been called by God to be God’s light, shining in the darkness of the world. “You are the light of the world,” Jesus said. “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”

It is our job, our calling, as disciples of Jesus Christ, to point to Jesus as the way to God. “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Peter speaks of God anointing Jesus with the Spirit and the power, raising him from the dead, and ordaining him judge of us all. In Matthew’s gospel we read of Jesus’ baptism, and how God declared, “This is my Son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” When Peter says that God shows no partiality, he is, in essence, saying that Jesus shows no partiality. People of every nation who fear God and do what is right are acceptable to Jesus.

Remember Cornelius. Cornelius was a devout and reverent man. But it was not until Cornelius met Jesus – through the words of Peter – that the Holy Spirit fell upon Cornelius. And the same can be said of all the Gentiles gathered in Cornelius’ house.

What I’m saying is: Jesus matters. God shows no partiality, that is true. But what that means is that anyone and everyone is invited to believe in Jesus, and to receive forgiveness of sins through Jesus’ name. Race doesn’t matter. Gender doesn’t matter. Where you were born doesn’t matter. How much money you have doesn’t matter. Nothing matters except Jesus. Nothing. God shows no partiality in that all people, everywhere, are invited to come to Jesus.

I don’t think that this means that Jesus cannot reach people in ways other than the Christian faith. With God all things are possible. As we talked about last week, the wise men used astrology to find Jesus. But the wise men also needed the scriptures. All I can say with absolute authority is that Jesus matters, and while other paths, other religions, might lead one to Jesus, we know that we have access to Jesus through the Christian faith.

Jesus matters. And it’s our job, as Christians, to spread the good news of Jesus Christ. It’s our job, and we accepted this job when we put our faith in Jesus. But it’s more than just a job, it’s our responsibility, it’s our ministry, it’s how we show our love for others.

We owe it to our friends, our families, and even to strangers, to introduce them to Jesus. Do you want to stand before God and explain that you knew how to bring salvation to other people, but you kept the knowledge to yourself?

I’m not saying that we need to hammer people over the head with Jesus. In the movie “Saved” there’s a great scene where one girl actually throws a Bible and hits another girl, but that’s not what we’re supposed to be about. We don’t need to act “holier than thou,” because the truth is, we’re not. We just happen to have met Jesus earlier than some other people have.

We cannot force people to believe in Jesus. Our government can’t force people to become Christians. After all, belief that is forced isn’t really belief. We do people no favors when we try to ram Jesus down their throats.

A woman took her dog to the vet, because the dog was feeling poorly. The vet told the woman to give the dog a dose of cod liver oil every four hours. So the woman took the dog home, and tried to give him the cod liver oil. Now, I didn’t mention that the dog was a Great Dane, and when the woman tried to give him the cod liver oil, the battle was on.

The woman was trying to stick the bottle in the dog’s mouth, and the dog was having none of it. Finally she got a dose of medicine inside the dog. Four hours later the same thing happened. The dog wanted no part of the cod liver oil. Finally, after another titanic struggle, the second dose was administered.

Four hours later the battle was renewed. This time, in the midst of the struggle, the bottle of cod liver oil was knocked to the ground, and cod liver oil began to pour out onto the floor. The woman ran to grab a mop to clean up the mess. When she returned, there was her dog, happily lapping up all the spilled cod liver oil.

It turned out, the dog actually liked cod liver oil; he just didn’t want it rammed down his throat. We can’t ram Jesus down people’s throats, because even if they like Jesus, they’re going to fight us tooth and nail.

We can’t ram Jesus down their throats, but we do need to let people know about Jesus, because Jesus matters. Through our words and most especially through our actions, we have a duty, a calling, a ministry to spread the good news.

And do you know the simplest and most effective way to do that? Invite people to come and worship with us. Invite people to Sunday School. Here, in the church, they will be introduced to Jesus. Remember last week, we talked about how the star didn’t lead the wise men straight to Jesus, it led them to the place where the scriptures were read and interpreted.

Today that place is the church. Invite others to come with you on Sunday mornings. I cannot stress enough how important a personal invitation to worship is. Studies show that nearly 90% of all first-time church goers say that they were there because someone they knew invited them. Think about it: inviting someone to worship tells that person that you care.

Peter’s words changed the world. You can change someone’s world by inviting that person to come and meet Jesus. Because Jesus is Lord of all. Jesus matters.

The People v. The Sabbath

Luke 13.10-17

“But the leader of the synagogue … kept saying to the crowd, ‘There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the Sabbath day.’”

You know what? I think the leader of the synagogue was right! You think so too, don’t you? Admit it! You’re sitting there thinking to yourselves: Jesus, Lord, I love you with all my heart, but for goodness’ sake don’t you know that we’re not supposed to work on the Sabbath?

I know we’re not supposed to work on the Sabbath, because the Bible tells me so. Genesis 2.2-3: “And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it.”

Exodus 20.8-10 – this is one of the 10 Commandments: “Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work.”

You see, I’m right! The synagogue leader was right! We’re not supposed to work on the Sabbath. And I know that a lot of people agree with me. Just a week ago today, last Sunday afternoon, I was in Wal-Mart shopping for a new DVD that I just had to have that day, and I fell into conversation with another shopper, who was looking for a new TV – not that there was anything wrong with his old TV, he just wanted a newer one.

Anyway, this other shopper also happened to be a good Christian, and we both agreed, standing there in Wal-Mart last Sunday, shopping for things that we just had to have that day, we agreed that is was truly sad that so many people work on the Sabbath.

After all, the Bible tells us we shouldn’t work on Sundays. Then again, the Bible tells us lots of things. How about this, just one chapter after the Ten Commandments, Exodus 21.7: “When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do.”

Or this, skipping along a few verses, Exodus 21.20-21: “When a slaveowner strikes a male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies immediately, the owner shall be punished. But if the slave survives a day or two, there is no punishment; for the slave is the owner’s property.”

Or this one, getting back to the main point, Leviticus 16.29-31: “This shall be a statute to you forever: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall deny yourselves and do no work … it is a Sabbath of complete rest to you, and you shall deny yourselves; it is a statute forever.”

A statute forever! Tenth day of the seventh month, a Sabbath of complete rest – forever! How many of you observe July 10 as a Sabbath day each year? If you don’t, you’re not following the commandments of the Holy Bible!

How many of you have sold your daughters into slavery? Okay, how many of you have wanted to? I thought so. The Bible says it’s okay to do so, as long as she doesn’t leave the house the way the male slaves do.

How would you feel about someone who owned slaves? And especially, how would you feel if a slaveowner struck one of his slaves with a rod, but because the slave suffered in agony for two or 3 days before dying, the slaveowner says he shouldn’t be punished? According to the Bible, the slaveowner would be correct!

My point is that we don’t always follow the laws of the Bible, or at least the laws of the Old Testament. The reason we don’t follow them is very simple: the laws of the Old Testament were written for a specific group of people who lived in a specific place at a specific time in history. It’s quite obvious, when you really take the time to read them, that most of the Old Testament laws couldn’t possibly apply to us today.

And if some of them don’t apply to us today, why should any of them apply to us? Whoa, now we’re getting into some dangerous territory. Does this mean that none of the Old Testament laws are valid, today? What about the Ten Commandments? They’re laws of the Old Testament; are we supposed to disregard them?

Well, as Christians, disciples of Jesus Christ, we know that we’re supposed to follow Jesus’ commandments, right? So what does Jesus have to say about all of this?

When the man often identified as the rich, young ruler asked Jesus how to enter the kingdom of heaven, Jesus told him to keep the commandments – specifically mentioning murder, adultery, theft, lying, and honoring your parents, all part of the Ten Commandments.

When Jesus was asked to name the greatest commandment, Jesus didn’t hesitate. Jesus chose Deuteronomy 6.5: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” Jesus then went on to say that another commandment was just as important – Leviticus 19.18: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Jesus quotes from the law. Jesus teaches the law. And yet, at times, Jesus blatantly disregards the law. What’s up with that?

We have to look at the parts of the law that Jesus taught. Love God. Love your neighbor. In the episode with the rich, young ruler, the young man informed Jesus that he had, in fact, always followed all the commandments. So Jesus said, “One thing more you need to do: sell all you have and give it to the poor.”

The commandments that Jesus taught all had to do with love and compassion. They all had to do with caring for others. That’s what Jesus had to say about all this. Oh, and Jesus had one other thing to say. In Mark 2.27, Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made for the people, not people for the Sabbath.”

So, where does this get us, in the argument between Jesus and the leader of the synagogue? I think it tells us that they’re both right. Technically, the leader of the synagogue is right: the law does in fact say that we’re not supposed to work on the Sabbath. But Jesus is right, too, because Jesus says that people are more important than the Sabbath. People are more important than the law. And that is the lesson we need to remember.

Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues. Interestingly enough, this is the last time, in Luke’s gospel, that Jesus enters a synagogue. Maybe the word got around: Don’t let this guy teach in your synagogue! Anyway, Jesus is teaching in the synagogue, and in walks this woman who has been crippled for 18 years. When Jesus saw her, he called her over.

Now, you see, here I am identifying with the synagogue leader, again. I mean, come on, we’re in the middle of a worship service. Being a good Methodist, I know that you don’t just stop in the middle of worship and call someone up to the front.

If it was me, I’d check my bulletin. Nope, no mention of a healing service, today. “Sorry, lady, the healing services are on Thursdays; ‘Come on those days, and be cured, and not on the Sabbath day.’ Now let’s stand and sing our hymn of invitation.” That’s what I would do.

But that’s not what Jesus did. Jesus called this woman up to the front. Jesus laid his hands on her. Jesus healed her. Jesus didn’t stop to check the bulletin. Jesus just did what needed to be done, because people are more important than the Sabbath – people are even more important than the order of worship in our bulletins.

Jesus says, “You hypocrites” – and, dear Lord, I’m afraid Jesus is talking to me! – “You hypocrites! You go out to eat on Sunday afternoon. You go to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things, things that you don’t really need all that badly, things you could do without until Monday. Then you stop and buy gas, and maybe an RC Cola. You come home and discover a leaky faucet and complain that you can’t get a plumber on Sunday.

“You hypocrites! You do all these things, and then you complain because the healing of this poor woman wasn’t in the bulletin, it disrupted our order of worship, and we didn’t get out the door until 5 after 12, and the Baptists got to the Cardinal Café before we did. You hypocrites! This poor woman was unable to stand up straight for 18 years, but in the name of Order and Method you would have had her wait to be healed.”

Yes, I very much fear that Jesus is talking to me. I fear that I am, in fact, the leader of the synagogue. It’s me Jesus is talking to, it’s me to whom Jesus is saying: People are more important than the Sabbath, people are more important than laws, and order, and method. Is Jesus talking to you, too?

Jesus is not saying that you and I are wrong when we go out to eat on Sunday afternoons, or when we do a little shopping. I doubt that Jesus minds a bit when we do that. Jesus is saying that we’re wrong when we put laws ahead of people.

We – you and me, as the church – we are called to minister to people, not laws. We are called to bring healing to people. We are called to heal people’s brokenness: their broken hearts, their broken souls.

Jesus refers to this woman as a “daughter of Abraham.” Jesus could just as easily have said, “This woman is created in the image of God.” Singer-songwriter Nichole Nordeman’s song, “Wide-Eyed,” offers some wonderful imagery on this subject:

“When I met him on a sidewalk, he was preaching to a mailbox, down on 16th Avenue. And he told me he was Jesus, sent from Jupiter to free us, with a bottle of tequila and one shoe. He raged about repentance, he finished every sentence with a promise that the end was close at hand. I didn’t even try to understand.

“He left me wide-eyed, in disbelief and disillusion. I was tongue-tied, drawn by my conclusions. So I turned and walked away, and laughed at what he had to say, then casually dismissed him as a fraud. I forgot he was created in the image of my God.

“Not so long ago, a man from Galilee fed thousands with his bread and his theology. And the truth he spoke quickly became the joke of educated, self-inflated Pharisees – like me.

“And they were wide-eyed, in disbelief and disillusion. They were tongue-tied, drawn by their conclusions. Would I have turned and walked away, and laughed at what he had to say, and casually dismissed him as a fraud? Unaware that I was staring at the image of my God?”

If we had been there, how would we have responded to Jesus? Would we have followed him? Or would we have casually dismissed him as a fraud? Would we have complained that he was upsetting the status quo, that he wasn’t following the law? Hard questions.

But you know what’s so wonderful? Not only was this woman who was healed created in the image of God, but so am I. So are you. And Jesus says that we are all important! Jesus says that all of us here today are more important than the law, we are all more important than the Sabbath.

There’s no doubt that Jesus is talking to me, this morning. Is he talking to you, too? Are you the leader of the synagogue? We – all of us – we are called to bring healing to the people who need it. We’re not called to spout a bunch of laws at them.

We don’t bring healing to people by pointing out what they’re doing wrong. We bring healing to people by bringing people to Jesus. We can heal people’s brokenness by bringing people to worship with us on Sunday mornings – bringing them to this place, consecrated to the worship of our Lord, the place where they will hear Jesus spoken and prayed and sung.

I’m not backing down: the synagogue leader was right. The Sabbath is important. The law is important. Worship is important. But the importance of the Sabbath, the law, and worship, their importance comes from what they have to offer to the people.

The church, this congregation, is important only as long as this church is here for the people. If we begin putting the law ahead of the people, we will cease to be a vital part of the body of Christ.

People are more important than the law. We are called to bring healing to the people. We can’t let the law get in our way. The law exists for the people, not the people for the law.

Our mission, at Timothy [McNeil] United Methodist Church, is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. We are not called to bring people to the law. We are called to bring people to Jesus.