23 One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. 24 The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”
25 He answered, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? 26 In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.”
27 Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
-Mark 2:23-27
Are you trying to earn your way into heaven? Do you believe that by doing good things, you could convince God to love you more?
Back during the day in Jewish culture, people believed that you can earn God’s favor by following the rules. This is why the Pharisees, who were the religious leaders of the day, questioned Jesus and his followers when they were looking for food on the designated day of rest called the Sabbath. “Looking for food” was considered to be work and a violation of the Sabbath day.
You see, the Pharisees believed that people had to follow the rules to earn God’s favor. They saw God as a taskmaster who enjoys creating impossible rules to try to get people to follow them.
Nothing can be farther from the truth.
God is not a taskmaster and He didn’t create the rules to troll us. He created the rules to help us to live life to the full—to live life the way it was meant to be (shameless AYL motto plug). Having a day of rest is not God’s way of messing with us, but to bless us with a day where we can recuperate from our everyday life. That’s why Jesus said that the Sabbath day was made for us—to help us.
But the Pharisees have turned this helpful rule from God into a little mini-god. What determines your spirituality is no longer whether or not you’re in a relationship with God, but whether or not you follow this rule. Following the rule is now “god.”
In this passage, Jesus is reminding us that we don’t follow the rules to earn our spot in heaven or to gain favor with God. We ALREADY have God’s favor. He ALREADY loves us. There is nothing you can do to make God love you more and there is nothing you can do to make God love you less. Yes, there are consequences to your sin, but diminishing God’s love for you is not one of them.
So if you obey the Sabbath day, don’t do it because you think it’s going to earn you brownie points with God. Instead, do it because you know God already loves you to the utmost and He simply wants what is best for you. God is not a taskmaster. God is a lover.
Do see God as a taskmaster or do you see God as a lover?
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