A Bridge of Love

A Bridge of Love

Mark chapter 12 describes a confrontation between Jesus the Pharisee’s and Sadducees. The encounter begins as Jesus tells a story of a King some farmers and the Kings Son who is killed by the farmers.  The King is enraged by the farmer’s attitudes and actions towards his son and brings harsh retribution upon them.  He then replaces these tenant farmers with tenants who would respect their King.  Jesus is describing himself as the son, his father as the King and the Pharisees as the farmers.  Needless to say this story made the Pharisee’s furious because they didn’t believe that Jesus was God’s son and they denied, ridiculed, and undermined him at every turn. 

There were two parties that belonged to the ruling religious counsel.  One party was known as the Pharisees and the other were known as the Sadducees.  These parties were at odds with each other over the teaching about the existence of angels and unseen spirits the Pharisees subscribing to the teaching and the Sadducees opposing the teaching.  They were united in their opposition to Jesus as the Christ. 

In this passage both parties take shots at Jesus with the intent to get him to stumble into a legal trap.  The Pharisees try to get him embroiled in a controversy about the relationship of the church and the state in the matter of taxation.  The efforts of the Pharisees fail miserably and so then the Sadducees make an effort to get him to comment on the laws of marriage and how they apply in the resurrection.  Jesus exposes their ignorance of the word of God and they remained unsuccessful in their quest to trap him.

Once the crowd disperses an individual Pharisee asks Jesus what the most important commandment in the law was.  Jesus answered this question and quoted the first two commandments of the Ten Commandments.  He said that adherence to the first two would take care of all ten.  The teacher replied that keeping the first two commandments was more important than all sacrifices, offerings, and religious ceremonies. Jesus declared that he was close to the kingdom.  

There are some real similarities between these events and events that are going on in our society today.  Religious leaders are factionalized into parties known as liberals and conservatives.  The liberals emphasize their brand of social justice and equality in efforts to help the poor and give equal rights to any group that they deem to be downtrodden.   The conservatives emphasize adherence to the teachings of the Bible but do not give much attention to applying the teaching outside of their assemblies.

There are some real similarities between the issues that they discussed and issues that are being discussed today.  The subject of taxation was controversial then as it is now.  Is it right for churches to be exempt from taxation?  The subject of marriage came up and the religious leaders tried to frame the discussion in a light that would reflect negatively on their opponents. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? 

Their rituals, formulas and uniforms defined the religious culture of Jesus’ day.  There was a great separation between the ceremonies of religion and the application of religion. The ceremonies were intended to paint a practical picture that would be used as a blueprint for application in daily life.  The sacrifices and ceremonies were intended to teach the people how to live.  They didn’t really associate the performance of their ceremonies with their lifestyle.  They learned to do the ceremonies flawlessly but, they saw the ceremonies as an end in themselves rather than a means to an end.

The religious leaders were tasked with the responsibility of making people aware of how to properly relate to God and to one another.  They were supposed to be erect bridges of access and understanding.  They were supposed to empower people to have a relationship with God and not alienate them from God.  Jesus made them uncomfortable because he changed the subject away from the ceremony and on to the result that the ceremony was intended to teach.  They were reading the Torah, offering the sacrifices, and meticulously practicing the law and yet their society was godless, faithless, and corrupt.

 If Jesus was to come to our churches today would He reward us or would He rebuke us? Are we doing things differently then the religious leaders of Jesus day or are we operating out of their playbook?  The lone Pharisee that talked with Jesus asked the most relevant question, what is most important?  We need to ask the same question.

How would our society look today if the church majored on application and minored on technicalities?  How would marriages look if people were Biblically literate?  What if Biblical literacy was measured by working knowledge and not just conceptual knowledge?  If our neighbors could see God through our actions would they pay more attention to Him? 

The religious leaders of Jesus’ day thought that they knew the Scriptures thought that they knew God, and thought that they were qualified to teach others.  Jesus called all of that into question then and is it possible that he would call the religious leaders of our day into question now?

The church is designed to be a place of influence in the community not a place of isolation and refuge away from it.  The church that is operating according to God’s plan will be a church that remembers the lessons taught in ceremony and applies them in their community.  We are to point people to the Bridge to Life and the only way we can do that is to build a Bridge of Love.  As we join together in our facilities of worship can we remember Jesus in the ceremony of communion and then as we leave our facilities can we demonstrate our communion with Christ in our neighborhoods and communities?  If we take our communion seriously our society will take us seriously as well!