Jesus vs. Religion

I was reminded again tonight of how Jesus is the ultimate God fearing man, and how his example is what I should be looking and praying for in a future mate. John 6 is called, "Lord of the Sabbath". I have to say, I love how Jesus constantly challenged and mocked to constraints of religion throughout his ministry.

Religion can be so confusing. As believers we know the law is good and a measuring rod to show us how far we fall from God. However, the truth is religion without Christ is harsh, judgmental, exclusive and unforgiving. It's sin actually it's called, legalism. I live in a land ruled by legalism and it's so deceiving because most religions do many many good works. When you put enough good works on display questioning the people and authority behind the religion becomes almost impossible, but I think that's Satan's most cunning deception.

Anyway, it only makes sense that Jesus would challenge religion in his day. As a Christian it leads me to believe I should constantly question and measure the religion of my culture and church against God's word and Christ's example.

In John 6, Jesus goes up against the pharisees twice. I believe when God declared the sabbath as a day of rest he meant it as a blessing to man. A break from the struggle of work. The pharisees in the Bible turned that blessing into a stumbling block for the Jewish people. What's beautiful about Jesus is he wasn't about to be taken by their schemes.

In vs. 3 he defends his disciples for picking grain on the Sabbath. He ends it by saying, "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." In vs. 10 he heals a man's crippled hand also on the sabbath. So often Christianity in America is viewed as weak, impish, yes man people, do as your told without question people, don't rock the boat people, don't do or say anything unpleasant people. I don't know where we got that from because Jesus wasn't anything like that. He always put the needs of his flock above religion.

It's sad to me that so many church going people don't have a clue that Jesus Christ and religion are actually two very different things.