I am in the middle of a 90 day study about Jesus. It started with His birth and now I am looking at His life, and some of the miracles He did. I have been reading things in the gospels about how the Pharisee's would come watch Jesus to see if he would break the law, and He did. He continued to heal people whether or not the Pharisee's thought it was right. So i have been wondering, Is Jesus a Rebel?
So here comes question number one; Is Jesus a Rebel because he blatantly breaks the law of the Sabbath? I believe so. He knows the things the law forbids you to do, but He does them any way. The difference i think is that Jesus wasn't Rebelling just to Rebel, He was Rebelling because He knew He needed to heal people. He needed to show people that He was God and that he did care about them. So is being a rebel WITH a cause ok?
Along with my 90 day study I am meeting with a group of other believers every two weeks to discuss what they have been realizing or thinking. This topic came up the last two times we met. Someone brought up a good point, when you hear the word Jesus, the first thing you think of is not usually the word Rebel. Yet, the young adult movement that is happeining in Chruch's is saying that He is. Are people saying that so they can relate themselves to Jesus, because in fact they are Rebels? Or because they really believe it?
My second question is this... Is Jesus even rebeling if He is the one to wrote the Laws? God gave the Jews specific laws to follow, observing the Sabbath is one of them. So if Jesus decides to break one of his own rules does that make Him a Rebel? Or does that just mean the rules have changed? Now, i am not in any way calling Jesus a hypocrite for making a rule and then breaking it. I am simply looking at the situation for what it's worth. Rules and laws need to change, it's inevitable, it's the natural progression of society. Women voting, abolishing slavery, and giving people the freedom of religion (that's a topic for another day), are all good examples of how Laws have changed for the good. We need that. So was Jesus rebeling to change the laws and minds of people?
Ultimately i don't know the answer to my own questions, but i am glad that I am in Love with a God who is exciting and is a risk taker. So i guess i could say that Rebeling for Jesus is a good thing. Rebel against popular belief that Christians hate Homosexuals, because I know that i don't. Rebel against the idea that if you are a Christian you are not able to have fun and live a fulfilling life, because i do. And rebel against the notion that God is outdated and un relateable, because the God i serve is radical and life changing.
Peace.
1 comment:
You bring up a good point. It would be interesting to look into what was allowed and what wasn't on the sabbath. Maybe the Pharisees had constricted the meaning of resting on the Sabbath to terms that were more narrow than Jesus had meant when He gave the ten commandments to Moses - and so his rebellion wasn't against his own laws to change them, it was against the Pharisee's twisted concept of the law that they were binding the people with...
Post a Comment