“Jesus the Scofflaw”
May 24th, 2009
There are 613 laws in the Old Testament, laws that deal with everything from what foods can be eaten to how families should interact with one another. One law, however, stood out among others as one of the particularly important ones. “Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.” This is a very good law, especially in a culture where we forget to rest, where we forget to take time to be thankful. And yet, Jesus’ disciples were picking grains of wheat on the Sabbath. It was a scandal. But, Jesus said, sometimes the law is not sufficient for one to experience the love of God. Jesus was such a scofflaw.
Mark 2:23-3:6
1. When was in seminary, I had a wonderful professor who once told me that I might benefit from spending some time in jail.
A. Pastoral care class, and we were talking about mandatory reporting. He was trying to have a serious discussion about a serious topic.
B. I was trying to get some laughs.
C. He joked right back to me (at least, I think he was joking), “well, Jon, you can stand to do some jail time.”
D. The class cracked up. He won that round. But, more important, he made me think. He made me think seriously about the difference between what is legal and what it right, or moral.
E. Did you know that they were not necessarily the same thing?
2. There are roughly 613 laws in the Torah (first five books of the OT), and the Pharisees in Jesus’ day knew them all. It was their job.
A. Pharisees – keepers of the law, and commentators on the law. The law represented the heart of God’s covenant with the people of Israel.
B. God gave the law so that the people might understand how to be a light to the nations.
C. Remember, it was Israel’s righteousness that was supposed to lead others to covenant with God.
D. But, somewhere along the line, the law became something unto itself. It did not matter why the law was given, or what the law was meant to create in the hearts of the people.
E. In fact, it did not matter what was in the hearts of people.
F. Driving around this week, listening to the radio. An advertisement with the legal disclaimers at the end that they say so fast that you cannot understand a word.
G. But, somehow, this is the information that they are supposed to be legal responsible for sharing.
H. I don’t think the speed talker at the end of the commercial is the spirit of the law – but it is the letter.
I. That is kind of how the Pharisees approached things. It was simply to people to shut up and obey. (An early version of the hymn “Trust and Obey”).
3. And what the law said about the Sabbath was crystal clear. “Observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you.”
A. No wishy-washy. No unless you have something better to do. No try and fit me into to your schedule.
B. Plain and simple – observe the Sabbath.
C. And, in case people did not know what that meant, the Pharisees explained everything in the Talmud and the Midrash.
D. These were rabbinical writings that included commentaries, explanations, stories, even other additions to the law. They were teachings that surrounded the law like a cocoon.
E. In the law, and in the rabbinical writings, the Sabbath was to be strictly observed. There were details about what was acceptable and what was not.
F. Aid can only be given on the Sabbath day of a person’s life was in danger.
4. When I read this passage from Mark’s gospel, I do not get the idea that the disciple’s lives were in danger.
A. They are strolling along, running their hands along the heads of wheat stalks, plucking them…plucking the heads of wheat!!!
B. Now, we read this and think, “what’s the big deal?”
C. The big deal was that this was against the law. And the law was everything. Absolutely everything.
D. So, the Pharisees are ready to challenge this Jesus the Scofflaw on the behavior of his very own disciples.
E. Because, to them, the law was the thing.
5. Have you ever known anyone like the Pharisees – who were so concerned with the letter of the law that they completely missed the real point of it all together?
A. Someone so uptight that you feel the tension just standing in their presence.
B. Most people find this quality as mildly (or not so mildly) annoying. But, the truth – sometimes the stress caused by such rigid legalism can be devastating.
C. Jimmy Pearsall – 1954 film “Fear Strikes Out” starring Anthony Perkins.
D. 17 year professional baseball career that began with the Boston Red Sox in 1950 and ended with the Los Angeles/California Angels.
E. The story is famous among baseball fans. Pearsall’s father was demanding and unforgiving (kind of like the Pharisees).
F. After two years in the big leagues, numerous fights, suspensions, talking-tos, etc., Pearsall was institutionalized for what was then called “nervous exhaustion.”
G. The burden of living up to an impossible standard had taken its toll.
H. Ultimately, Pearsall would look back on that time in his life as the best thing that could have happened to him. But, while he was going through it, the pressure of a life without grace – a life without love – was overwhelming.
6. In big ways and small, this is what happens when we approach our faith like the Pharisees. We do not liberate people with the love of Christ; we burden them with a legalism that is impossible to live up to.
A. But, Jesus – Jesus the Scofflaw – he had another idea.
B. He knew – the law was made for the good of humanity; humanity was not made for the good of the law.
C. He knew – sometimes, the law falls short in meeting people’s needs.
D. He knew, sometimes, we have to do wrong…in order to do the right thing.
E. Jesus knew that freedom came not from blind obedience to 613 statutes – but from knowing in a real and personal way the love and grace of God.
F. Jesus knew – and that is why he was such a scofflaw.
7. His invitation to us is clear. He invites us – not to be Pharisaic in our faith – but to understand, to know and to share God’s love.
A. You have heard me share a hundred times the stated purpose – our reason for being – as people of the people of Light of the Canyon UMC.
B. “To be a welcoming community of faith where spiritual seekers become loving, serving followers of Jesus Christ.”
C. What does a welcoming community of faith look like? Does it look like the Pharisees, who are so intense about the law that they wrote more laws to insure obedience to God’s law?
D. Does it look overly critical, judgmental – both of ourselves and others?
E. Or does it possess a degree of grace, a degree of understanding? Does it acknowledge the reality – the flesh and blood reality – of Jesus the scofflaw?
F. Does it recognize that sometimes, in the interest of doing the right thing, we have to look beyond the limitations of strict legalism?
G. What does being a welcoming community really mean?
8. In 1963, at the peak of the civil rights movement, MLK, Jr. was leading a campaign in Birmingham, Alabama. For practicing civil disobedience, he was placed in jail.
A. Eight Birmingham clergymen wrote a letter expressing why King’s campaign was a bad idea. But, they did not truly understand the lesson that Jesus taught the disciples and the Pharisees.
B. King understood. His response, “You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern. Since we so diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court’s decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools, at first glance it may seem rather paradoxical for us consciously to break laws. One may well ask: “How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?” The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that “an unjust law is no law at all.”
9. My friends, Jesus is calling us this morning to a faith – not of the conventional, not of the comfortable. He calls us to a faith of scofflaws.
A. He calls us to be different – to be a shining light, not an inflexible rule.
B. He calls us to be messengers of hope, not arbiters of judgment.
C. He calls us to liberate people with grace, not to imprison them with conformity.
D. He calls us to build his kingdom on the foundation of love, not limit it with dogma.
E. Jesus was a scofflaw. How will we follow his example?
Sermon delivered at Light of the Canyon United Methodist Church Anaheim Hills – May 24, 2009.
