How do
you feel about rules?
It seems to me that, a lot of times,
we human beings have kind of a love/hate relationship with them. On the
one hand, we don’t like it when someone thinks they have the right to tell us
what to do. We don’t like rules that keep us from doing the things we
want to do. We don’t like rules that seem unfair to us.
And we really don’t like it when we
have to live by rules that are imposed on us by someone else. We feel
like, well, if there have to be rules, and if I have to live by them, I should
at least get some say in what they are. I should not have to live by
someone else’s rules, without having any input on what those rules are going to
be.
But on the other hand, there are
times when we like rules. After all, if we were going to play a game,
what’s the first thing you’d want to know? What are the rules, right?
What am I supposed to do? What can I not do? Rules are
necessary if we’re going to play a game, no matter what the game is.
That’s true of all society, too.
Rules are necessary. And we need to know what they are. And
we also need to know that there’s a penalty for breaking the rules. We
especially want to know that when someone hurts us by breaking the rules.
We want that person punished somehow, because it’s not fair. We all
need know what the rules are, and we all need to play by the same rules.
Now, at this point you may be
wondering what all this has to do with our Bible reading for today. Our
Bible reading did not say anything about rules. Our reading was about the
disciples asking Jesus why he always talked in parables, and Jesus’ response to
that question.
Well, it seems to me that when the
disciples asked Jesus why he always talked in parables, what they were asking
him, in effect, is, why do you beat around the bush so much? Why don’t
you just come out and say what you have to say? Just give us the rules.
Stop telling all these stories that nobody’s really sure what they mean
anyway. Keep it simple. Just tell us what we’re supposed to do.
Tell us how we’re supposed to live. Tell us what the rules are, so
we can follow them and keep right with you.
And I think there are times when you
and I can relate to that. There are a lot of times when we read what
Jesus said and we’re kind of left scratching our heads about it. And it’s
not just with the parables, either. There are a lot of times when we’d like
Jesus to just come out and say what he has to say. Just tell us what to
do. Just give us the rules. That way we can follow them and know
that we’re doing what we’re supposed to do.
Jesus does not do that, of course.
And listen to what he says it the reason why. Jesus quotes the
prophet Isaiah and says this:
You will be ever hearing
but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their
ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with
their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I
would heal them.
You see, one of the things that
happens when everything revolves around rules is that we never look beyond what
the rules say. We may hear the rules, but we don’t try to understand the
reasons behind the rules. We may see what the rules say, but we don’t
perceive what it is the rules are supposed to accomplish.
And that can lead to our hearts
becoming calloused. We get so worried about knowing the rules, about
doing exactly what the rules say, about following them strictly and to the
letter, that we don’t even think about why the rules exist and what they’re
for. We don’t even think about how our strict application of the rules
could end up hurting people rather than helping them.
Some of you may already be thinking
of a few weeks ago, when we talked about Jesus breaking the Sabbath law by
healing someone on the Sabbath. The rules said you were not supposed to
do any work on the Sabbath, and healing someone was work. So, if Jesus
had followed the letter of the rules, he would not have healed this person on
the Sabbath day. But Jesus knew that the loving thing to do was heal him.
Jesus knew that the Sabbath law was not intended to keep people from
helping others or loving others. As he said, the Sabbath was made for
people, not people for the Sabbath. So Jesus heard and saw the rules, but
he also understood and perceived the reasons behind the rules. And so he
acted, not out of a desire to blindly follow rules, but out of a desire to
fulfill the purpose behind the rules.
That’s why Jesus often spoke in
parables rather than just giving rules. The parables he gave--the Good
Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, numerous others--were examples to us. They
were examples of how to live in ways that help others and that show love to
others. Jesus did not want us to live our lives in slavish obedience to a
set of rules. He wanted us to live our lives out of love--love for God
and love for other people.
And think about this. Once we
have a set of rules, what’s one of the first things people do? They try
to figure out ways to get around them, right? They look for loopholes.
They try to figure out ways they can use the rules to their advantage,
and often to use them to the disadvantage of someone else.
That happened in Jesus’ time.
They started out with the Ten Commandments. Simple. Ten easy
rules for everyone to remember. And then people started to look for ways
around them. And pretty soon there had to be interpretations, and
definitions, and judgments, and before long there were so many rules nobody
could even remember them all, much less obey them.
It’s the same thing with the
government. We started out with the Constitution. Simple. Fit
on one page. Now, there are so many laws and rules and regulations and
interpretations you would not be able to fit them all into this sanctuary, at
least not if you put them on shelves and left enough room for people to walk
between them. It is literally impossible for anyone to know all the law
that there is in this country. There’s just too much of it.
And it’s the same in the United
Methodist church. Our governing document is called the Book of
Discipline. This is the 1892 version. Small. Simple.
Compact. This is the 2012 version. Three times as many pages.
Bigger pages. And this does not even include the Book of
Resolutions, which is two or three times bigger than the Book of Discipline.
In fact, remember what prompted
Jesus to tell the parable of the Good Samaritan? A guy comes up to Jesus
wanting to know what he had to do to inherit eternal life. In other
words, he wanted to know the rules. Jesus says to him, basically, you
know the rules as well as I do. What do they say? And the guy
recites them. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and
strength and love your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus says, see, you
already know the rules. And the guy then asks, “And who is my neighbor?”
Looking for loopholes. We’re
all looking for loopholes. This guy was hoping Jesus would give him a
list of rules. That way, he could figure out how he could get around
them, doing what he wanted to do while still technically obeying those rules.
But Jesus did not give him a list of rules. Jesus gave him one
rule--the rule of love.
There are no loopholes in the rule
of love. Jesus does not allow them. Jesus tells us to love even our
enemies. Jesus tells us love people who curse us. Jesus tells us to
love people who persecute us. There are never any exceptions to Jesus’
rule of love. There is never a time when Jesus tells us that it’s okay
for us not to love someone. Every time someone asks Jesus a question
about what they should do, how they should act, how they should live, Jesus’
answer is always love.
And notice something else. Jesus’ rule of love is personal.
It’s something that each of us is supposed to do personally. Jesus
never gives us an example where we can shift the responsibility to love someone
over to someone else. Jesus never gives us an example where we can pay
someone else to show love in our place. Jesus never gives us an example
where we can encourage someone else to show love for us. Jesus law of
love applies to each of us directly. Each of us needs to show love
ourselves. No exceptions.
Jesus did not want us to be
rule-keepers. And he certainly did not want us to be loophole-seekers.
So, Jesus did not give us a list of rules. Jesus gave us examples
to live up to. Jesus gave us stories to show us how to live in the rule
of love.
So let’s not be hearing but not
understanding. Let’s not be seeing but not perceiving. Let’s not
let our hearts become calloused. Instead, let’s follow Jesus’ rule of
love. Let’s see with our eyes, hear with our ears, and understand with
our hearts. Then, we can truly call ourselves followers of Jesus Christ.
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