Jewish Traditions

Posted on by korgrocker

“Jesus’ trial before Caiaphas ended in the early hours of the morning. Then he was taken to the headquarters of the Roman governor. His accusers didn’t go inside because it would defile them, and they wouldn’t be allowed to celebrate the Passover. So Pilate, the governor, went out to them and asked, “What is your charge against this man?” “We wouldn’t have handed him over to you if he weren’t a criminal!” they retorted.”
John 18:28-30 NLT

Again, as part of God’s plan, a series of events were unfolding. Having found Jesus “guilty” of what the Jewish leaders considered blasphemy, their next step was to get the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, to rubber stamp their verdict. But his weakness became apparent immediately, by him pandering to the Jews and their Passover rules and regulations. The Jews considered that entering the house of a Gentile, or having any contact with them before the Passover would render them unclean and unable to celebrate thew festival. But such a rule cannot be found in the Old testament writings and was probably a rabbinical tradition such as alluded to in the conversation between Jesus and the Pharisees in Matthew 15:2-3, “Why do your disciples disobey our age-old tradition? For they ignore our tradition of ceremonial hand washing before they eat.” Jesus replied, “And why do you, by your traditions, violate the direct commandments of God?” Jesus obviously had no time for such traditions, and we even find Him willing to enter a Gentile’s house in Luke 7:2, 6, “At that time the highly valued slave of a Roman officer was sick and near death. … So Jesus went with them. But just before they arrived at the house, the officer sent some friends to say, “Lord, don’t trouble yourself by coming to my home, for I am not worthy of such an honour”. We can read about Peter and Cornelius in Acts 10, where we read, “But the voice spoke again: “Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.”” (Acts 10:15). So, the fact that the Jews refused to enter the house of the Roman governor was not Scriptural and was a symptom of the way they had interpreted the Law for their own purposes.

Do we have any rules and regulations in our churches that we cannot find in the Bible? There are many I’m sure. For a start, the Bible doesn’t specifically call for buildings, called churches, to be built, although these can be convenient meeting place. And what about the custom of some who have introduced bells and incense at certain times in a formal time of worship. Where in the New Testament does that come from? The go-to verse for me is from Acts 2:46, “They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity—”. There is that sense of community not liturgy. Sharing with one another, not sitting in pews watching the minister. I have always favoured simplicity in my Christian life, without the added complications of forms of service or complicated liturgies. The Jewish faith became so complicated that Jesus gave the Pharisees a hard time when He said, “What sorrow awaits you Pharisees! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore justice and the love of God. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things” (Luke 11:42). When rules replace the love and worship of God then the worship is replaced by legalism. The sad thing is that the Pharisees thought that if they can follow all the rules then their salvation was assured. But there is a human tendency for favouring routine and neglecting the spontaneity of the Holy Spirit.

Traditions are not necessarily bad or to be avoided but, as Jesus said, we must not “ignore justice and the love of God”. It is a sometimes a scary life, to rely on the Holy Spirit. He will lead us into all sorts of situations, as we are obedient to His leading. But we must always remain close to God, because only He has the words of eternal life.

Dear Father God. We love you Lord. We praise and worship You every day and all day. Amen.

Is It legal?

Posted on by korgrocker

““Is there a single one of us rulers or Pharisees who believes in him? This foolish crowd follows him, but they are ignorant of the law. God’s curse is on them!” Then Nicodemus, the leader who had met with Jesus earlier, spoke up. “Is it legal to convict a man before he is given a hearing?” he asked. They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Search the Scriptures and see for yourself—no prophet ever comes from Galilee!” Then the meeting broke up, and everybody went home.”
John 7:48-53 NLT

There appeared to be a meeting of the Pharisees and the other religious leaders, possibly convened to follow the attempt to arrest Jesus and bring Him before them to face charges of blasphemy. The dynamic of the meeting is interesting, in that there appears to be one person speaking for all those present. But there was dissent from a man called Nicodemus. We remember him as the man who went to Jesus by night for a meeting. We read in John 3:1-2, “There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee. After dark one evening, he came to speak with Jesus. “Rabbi,” he said, “we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you””. But from what Nicodemus said, it appears that the Jewish leaders were going to kill Jesus without a trial. John 5:18, “So the Jewish leaders tried all the harder to find a way to kill him. For he not only broke the Sabbath, he called God his Father, thereby making himself equal with God”. How they were going to kill Him in the Roman-governed province was unclear.

To the religious leaders, the Law of Moses, as they interpreted it, was of paramount importance. It must have been a nightmare for the Romans, because there was effectively two legal systems in operation. But the Jews walked a tightrope between the demands of the Law and restrictions placed upon them by the Roman occupiers. They knew that if they stepped too far out of line then the Romans would brutally deal with them. But as we can see from Jesus’ trial, the Romans were quite happy to allow the Jews to judge religious matters, though with restrictions when it came to capital issues. John 18:31, ““Then take him away and judge him by your own law,” Pilate told them. “Only the Romans are permitted to execute someone,” the Jewish leaders replied”. 

It is interesting that so much of our legal system here in the UK is based upon the Law of Moses, and it is only in the recent past that more radical changes have been made. For example, the mandatory death sentence for crimes such as murder was only repealed in living memory. But sadly, the UK is becoming increasingly secular with the Christian witness and influence slowly dwindling away. The gap between the state and the church is ever widening, with our politicians introducing laws that would have been unheard of in the mid twentieth century, and with negative consequences resulting. Abandoning God’s laws and replacing them with modern Godless ideologies is a dangerous strategy that will increase the devil’s influence on our societies bringing chaos and strife.

Nicodemus asked, “Is it legal to convict a man before he is given a hearing?” Having to ask that question is a long way from the intent of the Law. Jesus was later asked about what was the greatest commandment, and His reply was to love God with all your heart, and to love your neighbours as yourself. Such a message seemed a long way from the venom and anger of the Pharisees, intent on upholding their interpretation of the Law regardless of God’s plan for human decency. But before we pilgrims make any comment we have to ask ourselves the question about our own responses to others, particularly when we start using Bible verses in judgement of another. God has a higher law based on love, and when that becomes the starting point, a journey can be commenced that will eventually bring resolution in times of conflict. Jesus is recorded as saying in John 3:17, ”God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him“. Instead of bringing judgement and punishment Jesus said, ”For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost“.

Jesus’ teaching and message was a long way from that dispensed by the Jewish leaders, which was probably why they hated Him so much. God has a law much higher than that followed by the Pharisees and it is based on love and grace. He is not a stern figure with a policeman’s hat and a truncheon leaning over the banisters of Heaven reaching down to beat us at every sinful opportunity. He is a loving Father, who corrects us when we stray and who affirms us when we do well. The question “Is it legal” doesn’t apply in the courts of Heaven.

Dear Heavenly Father. We thank You for Your love, grace and mercy. Where would we be without You? We worship You today. Amen.

The Law of Moses

Posted on by korgrocker

““Moses gave you the law, but none of you obeys it! In fact, you are trying to kill me.” The crowd replied, “You’re demon possessed! Who’s trying to kill you?” Jesus replied, “I did one miracle on the Sabbath, and you were amazed. But you work on the Sabbath, too, when you obey Moses’ law of circumcision. (Actually, this tradition of circumcision began with the patriarchs, long before the law of Moses.) For if the correct time for circumcising your son falls on the Sabbath, you go ahead and do it so as not to break the law of Moses. So why should you be angry with me for healing a man on the Sabbath? Look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly.””
John 7:19-24 NLT

In Exodus 20:8-11 is recorded the words God said to Moses about working on the Sabbath. We read, “Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy”. But the Rabbis developed from this Law a raft of rules, regulations and exclusions watering down the intent of God, which was to supply His creation with a holy day of rest. The Jewish leaders had harassed Jesus for doing what they defined as work on the Sabbath day – He healed a man of an ailment that had kept him paralysed for thirty eight years. Worse, He had then told that man to lift up his bed and carry it away. But Jesus easily exposed their hypocrisy by pointing out the Rabbi’s rules on circumcision, an act that they carried out on the eighth day after the birth of a male child, even if it had to take place on the Sabbath. Jesus wasn’t saying that this was wrong. He said, “Look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly”. In Mark 2:27-28 we read what Jesus said about another apparent contravention of the Sabbath rules, “Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!””

Human beings love to put in place laws, rules and regulations to govern behaviour. So we have recently seen in Scotland the introduction of a hate crime law, which tries to define what people should and shouldn’t do when it comes to their attitudes and actions towards their fellow members of society. In the church there is a similar approach with the introduction and application of liturgies, which define what members of that particular denomination should believe and how they apply it. But Jesus said in response to a question from a Jewish lawyer something that is the key to Godly human behaviour. Jesus was asked what the most important commandment was and He replied, “ … ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:37-40). 

Jesus on many occasions pointed out the hypocrisy and flaws in a religious system that replaced a relationship with God and each other with a set of rules that then became the responsibility of the Jewish leaders to police. In the process the leaders replaced freedom with legalism.

I love what the psalmist David wrote about the law in Psalm 19:7-11, “The instructions of the Lord are perfect, reviving the soul. The decrees of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The commandments of the Lord are right, bringing joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are clear, giving insight for living. Reverence for the Lord is pure, lasting forever. The laws of the Lord are true; each one is fair. They are more desirable than gold, even the finest gold. They are sweeter than honey, even honey dripping from the comb. They are a warning to your servant, a great reward for those who obey them“. Unfortunately, by the time the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day got involved, the “joy to the heart” was replaced by a legalistic drudgery with little in the way of a relationship with God. The people followed the Law because the religious leaders said so, and because to do anything else was to invite punishment of one sort or another.

Jesus told the Jewish leaders that their hypocrisy and legalistic contradictions need to be sorted before they pointed a finger at Him.

Father God. You provided the Law so that Your people would know the right and true way. Please help us to listen carefully to all Your gracious and loving words so that we too can follow You faithfully and enjoy a relationship with You that lasts for all eternity. Amen.

Equal With God

Posted on by korgrocker

“But Jesus replied, “My Father is always working, and so am I.” So the Jewish leaders tried all the harder to find a way to kill him. For he not only broke the Sabbath, he called God his Father, thereby making himself equal with God.”
John 5:17-18 NLT

Jesus posed a threat to the Jewish leaders because He challenged their position as religious authorities. But Jesus Himself acknowledged the role of the Jewish leaders, as we read in Matthew 23:1-3, “Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses. So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but don’t follow their example. For they don’t practice what they teach””. There was a sting in the tail of Jesus’ acknowledgement, because He once again exposed the hypocrisy of the Jewish religious authorities. But it is so sad to read that their reaction was not to embrace their Messiah, but to plot to kill Him. What Jesus said was factually correct. As God Himself, of course He was an equal of His Father in Heaven. John made that clear when he wrote the opening verses of his Gospel. We read, “In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it” (John 1:1-5). 

It is a feature of humanity, that we have a tendency to reject anyone who doesn’t agree with our beliefs or world view. Because of their strict interpretation of the Law of Moses, the religious leaders would not accept anything that was at variance with their understanding of the Law. To them there was no wriggle room. When it came to carrying a sleeping mat on the Sabbath, to them it was a black and white, open and shut case, violating the Law. Tin their eyes, they were right and Jesus was wrong. And in those days, anyone who dared to break the Law was in danger of being stoned. We remember the account of the woman caught in adultery – John 8:4-5, ““Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”” So, Jesus had committed two “crimes” in their eyes – instructing someone to work on the Sabbath, and declaring that He was an equal with God.

But of course we pilgrims would never follow in the religious footsteps of the Jewish leaders. After all, when we meet someone we extend to them the grace and love of God, not a religious interpretation of what we find in the Bible. But I have met some Christians who are so dogmatic about the Scriptures they read, that they come across as being harsh and unforgiving, rejecting anyone who dares to contradict them. For example, they point out their black and white interpretation of what is to happen at the last judgement, and dangle their listeners over the fires of hell to try to frighten them into the Kingdom. They may not be plotting to kill their listeners, but their attitude is no different to the religious leaders in Jesus’ day. Legalism takes precedence over the love of God.

God loves all sinners. He does not love the sin, but He has a remedy for that. Jesus came two thousand years ago to save mankind from the consequences of their sin. And we pilgrims extend that love of God to others as He leads us. The message we deliver may be black and white – there is no grey area where the Gospel is concerned –  but the love of God overrules any hint of harshness or judgemental attitudes. We deliver the message. The Holy Spirit is then able to gently and lovingly lead that person to the Throne of Grace.

Dear Father God. Please forgive us when we fail to extend Your love to those around us. We pray for our families, our friends and neighbours, and everyone we meet. After all they are all Your children and You love them dearly. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The Great Rock

Posted on by korgrocker

“Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law instead of by trusting in him. They stumbled over the great rock in their path. God warned them of this in the Scriptures when he said, “I am placing a stone in Jerusalem that makes people stumble, a rock that makes them fall. But anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.””
Romans 9:32-33 NLT

Once again, Paul displays his remarkable grasp and memory of Scripture by quoting the prophet Isaiah. He points out that those attempting to follow the Law will stumble over a “great rock in their path”, because they failed to trust God. An alternative translation to “keeping the Law” in Romans 9:32 is “doing good works”. 

The background to the “great rock” is the sad story of a people, the nation of Judah, who have rejected God and trusted in other things instead. Isaiah warned them about a time of annihilation coming their way through the Assyrians, but he encouraged his countrymen to trust in the Lord. Sadly, as they found out later, the “descendants of Jacob” (Isaiah 8:17) failed to trust in God at all, and continued to try to keep the Law, in parallel with devising human solutions to their impending problem. In Paul’s context in Romans 9 the stumbling would take place because of the complacency that comes from trusting in good works and legalism. But he ends this chapter in his letter by reminding his readers that trusting in God will lead to a good outcome. 

What can we pilgrims glean from these verses? Christians can also become legalistic and complacent, thinking that if they do good to others, who perhaps are not so fortunate as they are, this will stand them in good stead when they come face to face with God. But we must remember that we are not saved by doing good, but rather saved for doing good. Ephesians 2:8-10, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no-one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” The “great rock” of legalism is something to beware of. 

We pilgrims can also become legalistic because we can get caught up in the process of judging others. Like the Pharisees of old, we can have a tendency to look down on those who perhaps don’t believe in the way that we do, or who don’t share our faith and beliefs, or who fail to regularly attend church meetings. But we need to remember that Jesus said, “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged” (Matthew 7:1-2). Psalm 50:6 makes it clear that there is only One qualified to be the Judge – God Himself. “Then let the heavens proclaim his justice, for God himself will be the judge”. James 4:12, “God alone, who gave the law, is the Judge. He alone has the power to save or to destroy. So what right do you have to judge your neighbour?”

We can avoid being trapped by the “great rock” of legalism through reconciling what we do and what we think. By that I mean that our good works must come out of our inner spiritual life. We avoid the “great rock” not by keeping rules, but by the power of the living God. Amen?

Dear Father God. We confess we so easily fall into the trap of legalistic behaviour. Please forgive us we pray. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Special Relationship

Posted on by korgrocker

“You who call yourselves Jews are relying on God’s law, and you boast about your special relationship with him. You know what he wants; you know what is right because you have been taught his law. You are convinced that you are a guide for the blind and a light for people who are lost in darkness. You think you can instruct the ignorant and teach children the ways of God. For you are certain that God’s law gives you complete knowledge and truth.”
Romans‬ ‭2‬:‭17‬-‭20‬ ‭NLT

Paul starts the verse we are reading today by making reference, with a hint of sarcasm, to the fact that at least some of the people in the Roman church still call themselves Jews. Superficially at least, there is nothing wrong with that. Most people call ourselves after their origins. So I might call myself British. Others might call themselves American. We call ourselves after the country in which we were born. But it appears that the Roman Christians of Jewish ancestry had two problems. Instead of relying on the saving grace of Jesus and His sacrifice at Calvary for their salvation, they instead had returned to obeying the rules and regulations of God’s Law. Their second problem was that they claimed to have a special relationship with God and they were boasting about it. Now it should be said, that neither being obedient to God’s Law or claiming to be part of His chosen people are in themselves wrong. Both claims made by the Jews in the Roman church were factually correct.

God’s original intention was that through a system of laws and precepts, He established everything the Israelites needed to do, to have the relationship with Him that He wanted. Jeremiah 7:23 says (God speaking through Jeremiah), “This is what I told them: ‘Obey me, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. Do everything as I say, and all will be well!’” Deuteronomy 30:10, “The Lord your God will delight in you if you obey his voice and keep the commands and decrees written in this Book of Instruction, and if you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and soul“. Jesus Himself said that the greatest commandment in the Law was “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.” (Matthew 22:37-38). And in Matthew 5:19, Jesus taught, “So if you ignore the least commandment and teach others to do the same, you will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But anyone who obeys God’s laws and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven“.

Jesus taught about the spirit of obeying the law in the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 5:27-28, “You have heard the commandment that says, ‘You must not commit adultery.’ But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart“. Obeying the letter of the Law is achieved if a man is totally faithful to his wife, and he doesn’t enter into any adulterous relationships. However, the spirit of the Law would say that even if a man looks at another woman lustfully, then he is breaking the Law. The problem for the Roman Jewish Christians was that they were trying to obey the letter of the Law rather than the spirit of the Law, (which was what God wanted).

The people in the Roman church would have claimed that through their birth they were Jews. Paul himself made that claim because he wrote down his origins in Philippians 3:5, “I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one!...”. So Paul himself was obviously very proud of his roots.  In Deuteronomy 7:6 we read, “For you are a holy people, who belong to the Lord your God. Of all the people on earth, the Lord your God has chosen you to be his own special treasure.” Of course this is a wonderful place to be, to know that, as a member of a race of people, you are in a special relationship or privileged position with God. But Paul rose above these thoughts. We read what he said in Philippians 3:7-9, “I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith”.

So we pilgrims have a challenge from a verse that at first sight doesn’t seem to apply to us. Well, perhaps that is what we think. But it couldn’t be further from the truth. We too can fall into the Jewish Christian traps that Paul was writing about. By introducing a legalism into our faith, so that we go through the motions of worship and prayer but our hearts, our thoughts, are elsewhere. Or we try and take the moral high ground when the world around us seems to sink lower and lower into sinful depravity. Instead, we must remain close to God in our relationship with Him. Keeping short accounts with Him if we lapse into sinful ways. Choosing to live a life of devotion focused on our loving Heavenly Father. One thing we cannot do is try and live a life with one foot in the secular society around us, and the other in God’s Kingdom. 

Dear Father. We repent today of our feelings of pride and legalistic tendencies. We reach out to You, knowing that Your love and kindness is always there for us. We love You Lord. Amen.