One word that I frequently find myself using in Bible Classes is the word “context.” We tend to learn Scripture in little bits and pieces, especially if we start learning the Bible as a child. We learn about God doing this and Abraham doing that and Moses doing such and such and Jesus doing all kinds of things. The same is true of our Scripture lessons that we hear every Sunday at Church – last week Jesus talked about the narrow door to heaven, and two weeks from now we’ll hear about finding lost sheep and lost coins.
But when you start to seriously study God’s word, you realize that no single account or story really stands entirely alone, because you always need to study the context of that account or story. When you’re reading a set of Bible verses, you most often need to understand what took place immediately before those verses as well as what took place in the following verses. You have to look at the people – all of the people – who are involved or mentioned. You have to look at who was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write those words. Even when it’s difficult to understand why God does things the way He does them, every name – every person – every place – every event – is critical to our understanding that the Bible is God’s revelation of His eternal plan for the salvation of His people. So whenever you set out to study God’s Word – for example, today’s Gospel lesson – your understanding will be much deeper when you take the time to look at and understand the context.
In the Gospel of Luke as well as Matthew, Mark and John we frequently see Jesus having heated discussions with the Jewish religious leaders, men like the Scribes, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, who didn’t like Jesus and who looked for every possible way to trip Him up. They didn’t believe that He was the Messiah and they certainly didn’t believe that He was the Son of God, and they were always looking for ways to find Him guilty of breaking the law. Not the Law of God as we know it – the 10 Commandments – and not civil laws of the government, but religious rules and regulations that had been created by human beings but over time became to be treated as if they were laws given by God Himself.
For example, when Moses was on Mt. Sinai, God gave us the third commandment, which simply reads: “Remember the Sabbath day, to 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. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”
Now those words sound pretty simple and straightforward, but as time went on they weren’t good enough to satisfy the religious leaders, who felt that they had to explain what God really meant – and specifically what the word “work” really means. Those rules eventually included a total of 39 different categories, and even though the rules had been made by men rather than God, by the time of Jesus’ birth they had become every bit as important – and as binding – as the real Law of God given to Moses. For example, God told the Children of Israel that they should not collect manna on the Sabbath, but the religious leaders decided that it was also a violation of the Third Commandment to light a fire on the Sabbath, because lighting that fire was considered to be “work.” So in other words, it’s OK to reheat something cooked the day the before the Sabbath as long as you use a fire that’s already burning. Those rules eventually filled many scrolls, and faithful Jews were expected to both remember and follow every one of them. Even when those rules didn’t make sense – or even violated the true Laws of God.
That is the context of today’s Gospel lesson, which begins with these words: “One Sabbath, when [Jesus] went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. And behold, there was a man who had dropsy. And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, ‘Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?’ But they remained silent.” Remember that the Pharisees were often trying to set traps for Jesus, but here He had actually set a trap for them. Dropsy is a medical condition where marked by swelling that is caused by water pockets that collect in body tissue. Today doctors understand that dropsy is often caused by conditions such as heart or liver failure, but 2,000 years ago dropsy was thought to be a direct punishment by God for a specific sin committed by the sick man or woman. If this man has an illness that was caused directly by God, is it OK for a man to heal that person of that illness? Now remember that the Pharisees didn’t believe that Jesus was the Son of God – so no matter what answer they might give to Jesus, they’re going to come off looking like fools. So Luke tells us that “they remained silent.”
Then Jesus ups the ante on them. After healing the man, Jesus asks: “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on the Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” The rabbinic traditions actually allowed for the saving of a human life on the Sabbath but only some – not all – said that it was OK to save the life on an animal on the Sabbath. Luke tells us that “they could not reply to these things,” and the reason why they could not reply was that these rules were clearly not God’s rules. No matter how they might reply, it’s going to be apparent that these man-made rules and laws are inconsistent. They sometimes are downright cruel. They show neither a true fear and love of God nor a love for God’s people and God’s creation.
Now remember that this was not the first time that Jesus had healed someone on the Sabbath. In Luke chapter 6 we read about the occasion when Jesus was in a synagogue on the Sabbath day and he saw a man whose right hand was withered. Jesus asked the Pharisees a similar question: “I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?” Just as we heard in today’s Gospel reading, on that previous occasion the Pharisees were speechless, for they would have seen a withered hand as a direct punishment handed out by God – and unless God Himself was doing the healing, it was a violation of their laws to do anything. But Jesus did heal the man’s withered hand, and Luke tells us that the religious leaders “were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.”
The context of both of these accounts as well as so many more that we read in the Gospels is that for many people of Jesus’ time – and this was especially true of their religious leaders like the Pharisees – simple faith in God had been replaced with the wrong-headed idea that you had to please God by your actions. Just follow the rules – no matter whether they were God’s rules or man’s rules – and that was the way to make God happy. That was the way to make God forget all about your sins and your misdeeds. Faith in the grace of God was replaced by a faith in the behavior of men and women. What God did for His people didn’t really matter as long as you focused on what you were doing for God.
It’s easy for us to sit here today and think about how foolish the Pharisees were, but this kind of thinking never really goes away. At the time of the reformation, the Church had created all kinds of rules and regulations – observe this feast day, eat this but don’t eat that, follow this tradition or that tradition. People were taught that they earned God’s grace by doing what the Church told them to do, even when the things they were told to do were commanded by men and never commanded by God. It was just like what had happened long ago in Israel – the religious leaders decided that since God didn’t give us all the details we’d like to have, then men – sinful, human men – should decide what God really meant and then enforce those decisions just as if they had been the actual commands of God.
Is it any different today? Sadly, often the answer is still “no.” Some denominations will insist that a person’s baptism is not valid unless that baptism is done by full immersion, but that’s not what the Bible says. Some churches will insist that babies are not to be baptized, but that’s not what the Bible says. Some churches view baptism as just a symbolic act – something we do as an expression of our faith – but that’s not what the Bible says. Some churches will insist that the Lord’s Supper is just symbolic because Christ’s body is in heaven – and if He’s in heaven then His body and blood certainly can’t be present in the bread and the wine – but that’s not what the Bible says. Some churches will insist that it is a sin to drink alcoholic beverages – including the wine that we drink I the Lord’s Supper – but that’s not what the Bible says. Some churches will even insist that the only way to get to heaven is to become a member of that specific denomination and none other – but that’s not what the Bible says.
So what does the Bible actually say? Well, the Bible never insists on full immersion for baptism. Full immersion was actually practiced during the early days of the Church, but no “how to” instructions are included anywhere in Scripture. But it is very clear that even infants are to be baptized and that baptism truly works forgiveness of sins. In Acts chapter two Peter says: “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”
What does the Bible actually say about the Lord’s Supper? Jesus says: “This is my body … this is my blood.” The Greek word that we translate to mean “is” means “is” and nothing else. It doesn’t mean that the bread and wine are just symbolic or representative of Jesus. When Jesus says that the bread is His body and the wine is His blood, His words mean exactly what they say. The cup that Jesus used on Maundy Thursday most certainly was filled with the traditional wine of the Passover meal. It wasn’t just grape juice as some churches will teach, for the Greek word that is used throughout the New Testament specifically refers to the fermented juice of grapes – wine.
What does the Bible say about only being saved by becoming a member of one specific denomination? Well, it doesn’t, because all of the things I’ve mentioned are the ideas of men but not the ideas of God. The ideas that human actions can please God. But Scripture tells us otherwise. In Matthew chapter 15 Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah when He says: “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”
When people start making their own rules and then teaching that their rules are the commands of God, they ultimately put their ideas ahead of God’s ideas – they foolishly make themselves out to be ultimately more important than God. And when that happens, they forget who our God really is. You’ve heard me say this before and I can guarantee that you’ll hear it again: Our God is not a God of tradition. Our God is not a God of empty words or meaningless acts. Our God is a God of love and a God of action, and that ultimately is the context of every verse of the Bible. And this context is so beautifully summed up in these few simple words from John chapter three: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
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