“How Can You Believe?” – VI. “When Jesus Asks”
Wednesday, February 18 –
Ash Wednesday
A Sermon by The
Rev. Dr. John A. Dalles
Psalm 51:1-17;
John 5:44-47
44 How
can you believe when you accept glory from one another and do not seek the
glory that comes from the one who alone is God? 45 Do
not think that I will accuse you before the Father; your accuser is Moses, on
whom you have set your hope. 46 If you believed Moses, you
would believe me, for he wrote about me. 47 But if you do not
believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?”
What Authority figure do
you think of as your highest authority?
An authority figure…has…the
power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience.
If
you are driving down the road, perhaps you think of the police officer with the
radar gun as the highest authority figure.
If
you are taking a class, it is the teacher who will give you the grade that may
be serving as the highest authority for you.
If
you are living at home and are under the age of 18, perhaps you think of your
parents as the highest authority figure.
What Authority figure
do you think of as your highest authority?
Picture
if you will the HURDLERS – the athletes who jump over hurdles on the track
team.
As
they run, most of those hurdlers knock down at least several of the hurdles.
Now,
if their highest authority is “Mom” then Mom would say:
“You
go back there and straighten that up…!”
But
if they have an authority higher than Mom, for instance, their coach, then they
will keep on running.
“Hurdlers
who wind gold medals don’t look back.
They ignore the fallen hurdles.
They keep on running toward the finish line.”
That
is what Jesus is trying to get across in John Chapter Five.
The
people he is addressing have important authority figures in their lives. Among them:
The
tradition of their people.
The
public opinion of those they value.
The
course of action that seems prudent.
The
law of Moses.
But
as important as they are, they are not the highest authority.
44 How
can you believe when you accept glory from one another and do not seek the
glory that comes from the one who alone is God? 45
I this particular instance, Jesus had
healed someone on the Sabbath. A day
that was set apart for rest and worship, and not for doing any kind of
work. Those who criticized Jesus did so
because he seemed to be flaunting their highest authority. On any given Sabbath
day, they were careful not to do many things that we would not consider work,
because down the ages the list of “Thou shalt nots” for the Sabbath became
longer and longer and more and more detailed.
Pharisees
in the days of Jesus had changed the Sabbath into something it was never meant
to be. In their desire to protect and to uphold the law, they built a hedge
around the keeping of the Sabbath. They had written up chapter upon chapter
concerning what it meant to keep the Sabbath.
- They taught that you should not
look in a mirror on the Sabbath because you might be tempted to pluck out
a grey hair and that would be reaping—a form of work.
- They said that you could only eat
an egg which had been laid on the Sabbath; but if you killed the chicken
for your dinner, that was a form of Sabbath-breaking.
- A donkey could be led out of the
stable on the Sabbath, but the harness and saddle had to be placed on him
the day before.
- An egg could not be boiled on the
Sabbath, either by normal means or by putting it near a hot kettle or by
wrapping it in a hot cloth or by putting it in the hot sand outside.
- If the lights were on when the
Sabbath came (Sabbath began at sundown), you could not blow them out. If
they had not been lit in time, then you could not light them.
- It was unlawful to move furniture
on the Sabbath. There was an exception to this in that you were allowed
to move a ladder on the Sabbath, but you could only move it four steps.
- It was unlawful to wear any
jewelry or ornaments on the Sabbath, since this might be construed as
carrying a burden.
- It was not permitted to wear false
teeth on the Sabbath (that must have been a hit in the synagogue
services).
- You were allowed to eat radishes
on the Sabbath, but you were warned against dipping them into salt
because you might leave them in the salt too long and pickle them and
this was considered to be work and therefore, Sabbath-breaking. The
Pharisees actually had discussions as to how long it took to pickle a
radish.
- It was fine to spit on a rock on
the Sabbath, but you could not spit on the ground, because that made mud
and mud was mortar, and that was work.
- If a woman got mud on her dress,
she was to wait until it had dried and then she was permitted to crumple
the dress in her hands one time and crush it and then shake it out once.
If that did not do the trick, then she had to wear it.
We
probably think of all of these as extreme.
But
the Pharisees did not think any of this was extreme. They though all of this was being
faithful. Honoring God, and God’s
commandment to keep the Sabbath day holy.
If
pickling a radish was considered work, then of course the healing of someone on
the Sabbath was considered – well it was extreme work.
Jesus
took a different view. His view was from
the vantage point of an authority higher than the Pharisees.
The
question is, do we?
Do
we understand that the Authority of God ranks higher than any other authority
figure we could name?
Do
we put God first in all we do?
Is
God at the center of all our efforts?
Or
do we settle for something less? Someone
less?
Jesus
is pointing the people to put God first.
-
Enjoy being with God more than anyone else
-
Seek to please God more than anyone else
-
Rejoice in God’s praise more than from anyone else
-
Trust God more than any other power, or resources, or our own intelligence
-
Talk about GOD FIRST
-
Do for God – First
You
are running a race of faith.
You
know that the race is worth running.
you
are like those hurdlers…
“Hurdlers
who wind gold medals don’t look back.
They
ignore the fallen hurdles.
They
keep on running toward the finish line.”
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