Title: God Thinks of People
Contents
♡♥♡ God cares about people / Mark 2:21-28
*** Introduction
People get frustrated when others don't know them. Still, our people have considered it a virtue not to reveal themselves well since ancient times. But now the times have changed and if others don't recognize it, they try to make themselves known by introducing themselves and promoting them. The fact that the word ‘personal skill’ is used a lot in the world of young people these days reflects this era. In other words, you need to have your own unique talent to know. Even in this way, I have become a generation who wants to know myself and want others to recognize me.
Even in faith, there will be no saints who do not want God to know them. The Israelites sometimes complained, “God does not understand their circumstances.” In Isaiah 40:27, God said, “Jacob, why do you say, Israel, why do you say, 'My case is hidden from the Lord, and my grievance is not accepted by my God.'” He does.
Do you ever have these thoughts too? This is a misunderstanding that occurs because we do not know God well. Some say, “There are many restrictions in the Bible that say, ‘Don’t do it. Not only that, but also keeping Sundays, making devotions, praying, reading the Bible, serving, giving, etc. They demand too much and make it difficult. So complain that it's hard to believe. Is this true?
If God had intended to torment us, He would not have given us this path of faith in the first place. Moreover, it would be far less necessary for Jesus Christ to be sent into the world as a man, to die for the forgiveness of their sins. Rather, people made it difficult for themselves and took their own pain. God's thought for people is to make them feel peace and happiness. It says in Jeremiah 29:11. “I, the LORD, saith. My thoughts toward you, I know, are not calamity, but peace. This is to give you hope for your future.”
Then, let's go into the text and see how the Lord speaks.
One day, while Jesus was passing through wheat fields, his disciples gleaned as they went. Perhaps the disciples were hungry, so they cut the ears of wheat and rubbed them together and ate them. When the Pharisees in the crowd accompanying him saw the scene, they objected to Jesus as if they were waiting. “Look. Why do they do things that are forbidden on the Sabbath?” In other words, the disciples were breaking the law about the Sabbath.
Let's look at the rationale for the Pharisees' argument. Exodus 20:10. “The seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord your God, and on that day you shall not do any work, neither you nor your son or your daughter, nor your male servant or your female servant, nor your livestock, nor the stranger who dwells in your gates.” This is the basis for the Pharisees condemning the disciples.
At that time, Jesus brought up the story of David from a very long time ago. In verses 25-26, Jesus gave an example, David was being pursued by King Saul. David went into the temple to avoid the hunger of the crowds with him and ate the bread that was set on the table in the sanctuary, which only the priests could eat (1 Samuel 21:1-6). This was clearly a violation of God's law and deserved death. But they didn't die. The Lord said, “The Sabbath is made for man. Man did not exist for the sabbath, therefore the Son of Man is also lord of the sabbath.”
What did Jesus mean? Is it okay to break the law from time to time? Just as it was said, ‘arms bend inward’, did Jesus also take the side of the disciples while ignoring the law? Never. He was not saying that it was okay to break the law, nor was he taking the side of the disciples. The Lord is speaking of the essence of the law.
The law is God's law ordained for men. God gave the law so that those who had lost their relationship with God after Adam could restore their relationship with God. That is, it was a way to save people. Therefore, the essence and purpose of the law is not to condemn and kill people, but to save and save people.
Nevertheless, the religious leaders and many Jews at the time did not even think about the purpose of giving the Law, but focused only on keeping it. So, with a flash of eyes, they found those who broke the law, and they condemned and punished them. To be condemned and excommunicated was as much as saying to the Jews at the time, 'Die.' So people couldn't keep all the laws, so they kept an eye on them and pretended to keep them. The Lord rebuked them as hypocrites. Matthew 23:27-28. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. In the same way you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.”
On the other hand, there were ‘pietists’ who tried to keep the law strictly, and they isolated their life from the world. They led a celibate life, forbidding marriage and avoiding pleasures. Even going to the bathroom on the Sabbath was forbidden. On the Sabbath, you can't go to the toilet, so naturally you don't eat. So would you like to taste it? Serving God was not joy, but suffering itself.
God took pity on this suffering in life. It was because the law that was enacted to save life was actually driving people to death. So he chose God's sacrifice in the end. Jesus came to give freedom to those who are suffering from such suffering. In Luke 4:18-19, quoting the words of Isaiah 61:1-2, which prophesied the Messiah's work, in Luke 4:18-19, "The Spirit of the Lord has come upon me, because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor To proclaim liberty to the old and restoration of sight to the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." Also, John 8:32 declares, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
This is the 'gospel'. The gospel is a pardon given to those whose death has been confirmed because of their break with God. In other words, the death of Jesus Christ became a bridge between man and God, thereby restoring our relationship with God. It has passed from death to life. We are so grateful for this that we follow and serve the Lord.
This gospel is ‘new wine’. And following the Lord with joy and thanksgiving and imitating the love of the Lord is a 'newly woven cloth and a new bag'.
It's not like we're forced to serve the Lord like a 'borrowed barley sack' with a burden on our hearts. These are old ways of doing things in a world dominated by the Law, and they are 'old skins and old cloths'. And the law of conduct that had to be saved through one's own righteousness is the law.
In today's world, trying to be righteous by one's own works is an old cloth and an old sack. We can never be justified by our works. Let's remember Ephesians 2:8-9. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. It is not of works, so that no one can boast.” Therefore, worship, prayer, reading the Word, offering, serving, and all the acts of faith in service must be manifested by gladly following the Lord who loves and considers Him even to the point of giving Himself for me. This is the new wineskins worthy to contain the gospel, the new wine.
Just like the Lord who gladly sacrificed for me, let us also gladly follow Him with all our heart. I pray that you will become true disciples of Christ who are the joy of the Lord.