Insightful Musings on the Scriptures
by
Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67
Good morning, dear people.
It’s not raining at present, but it kind of looks like it should be. Not entirely sure how this day will take shape. We have two little boys here for the weekend—through Memorial Day Monday. We’d like to consider doing a hike with boys on Monday. We’ll see. I just called Andy to see if he and his family might like to join in such an excursion. He answered in a hushed voice. I thought he may still be in bed. But then he disclosed that he was out hunting wild turkeys with his bow. His buddy said, “What kind of a hunter answers his cell phone while he is hunting?” Apparently they were quite close to the sound of “gobbling.”
I intend to get a load of garden soil today and try to follow through with some planter pot gardening—then also make a small garden spot. I hope I can get the tiller to run—as it hasn’t for about two years.
Blessings on your day.
Love, Dad/Ray.
In the course of my meeting and talking with a broad range of people, there is a statement I make often: “You need religion about like you need another hole in your head—but you do need relationship with your Manufacturer.” I don’t know if that resonates with you like it does with me. I think it becomes particularly meaningful when we offer the definitions I intend for the key words.
- Religion: Man-made. The attempt of a sinful man to reach a Holy God.
- Relationship: God-made. The gracious demonstration of a Holy and Loving God to reach out to a sinful man, allowing access and fellowship—relationship.
In the passage before us, we have a couple more examples of the ugly and destitute nature of religion without relationship. Jesus is caught red-handed by the religious legalists—so they thought. They were as mad as hornets and jumped all over Jesus for allowing (by His not being as mad as hornets) His disciples to eat some kernels of grain while walking through a field on the Sabbath—a serious violation of their religious laws. I guess they judged that to be work by harvesting. Good grief! Here they are hassling the Maker and Lord of the Sabbath (v. 5)!—condemning Him for violating the Sabbath! On another occasion, Jesus had the audacity to release the miracle power of God to heal a man on the Sabbath. Oh, how terrible! Their ugly cold hearts are indicated when it says, “The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath” (v. 7). It wasn’t a matter of “could he?” but “would he?” Sure enough He did. And sure enough, they got as mad as hornets over this wonderful miraculous gift of healing granted to this needy man. That’s religion for you! The text reads, “But they were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus” (v. 11). Nice people. Very religious. Doesn’t their behavior make you want to be just like them?! Hardly.
Let’s back up a moment to the account of Jesus healing the man with a shriveled hand on the Sabbath. Listen to how Mark records that incident: “He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored” (Mark 3:5). In other words, Jesus was mad at their bondage to their religion, while they were mad at Jesus’ refusal to be bound by their religion. Which mad is most important?
In my pursuit to extract personal and practical edification from Scripture, I think it’s appropriate for me to wrap up these thoughts with this personal and practical question: Between the two options, religion or relationship, which do I choose? It is a choice, you know.