Recognizing God

Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in religious law, "Is it permitted in the law to heal people on the Sabbath day, or not?"  When they refused to answer, Jesus touched the sick man and healed him and sent him away.  Then he turned to them and said, "Which of you doesn't work on the Sabbath?  If your son or your cow falls into a pit, don't you rush to get him out?"  Again they could not answer.

Luke 14:3-6

Change comes hard for most of us, particularly if the change addresses things we thought we knew for sure.  Christopher Columbus had a hard time selling people on the concept of a voyage to reach the East by traveling West, because they were absolutely confident the earth was flat.  Christian missionaries have often lost their lives because of their bold assertion that there is one gracious and loving God who rules over all creation, rather than a multitude of "gods" who hold people captive to sad, and frequently bizarre, superstitions.  When the truth challenges our way of seeing ourselves and the world in which we and our people live, we will often cling ever more tenaciously to our beliefs, even when they are false and harmful.

The Pharisees of Jesus' day struggled enormously with Jesus' Sabbath practices.  They were willing to receive His instruction only so long as His example conformed to their own practices, and those practices did not include healing the sick on the Sabbath.  They were so rigid in their interpretation of the law of Moses that their hearts were hardened even to the suffering of those whose care was entrusted to them.  Yet - think of it! - the person challenging their thinking was Jesus, the Son of God, the One through whom all things came into being.  Here was God in the flesh, giving them instruction and showing by His example a better, more compassionate way of seeing, and they rejected His lessons.

The issue really boils down to one of authority.  The Pharisees refused to recognize the authority Jesus had both to do what He did, and to teach what He taught.  They rejected His authority over their world view, which included His authority to amend their incorrect beliefs and practices. 

Today, there is in our culture a huge problem with the idea of authority.  No one, it seems, should have the right to assert what anyone else ought to do or not do.  Since truth has been relativized within our culture, the notion of authority - which is intrinsically linked with truth - has gone by the way.  Any concept of truth, we are told, can only be reached by consensus, that is, by mutual consent among those who hold no objection to what is being proposed.  What a dangerous position to hold!  How vulnerable this makes people to the fallacies of human judgment!