And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. (Mark 2:27)
So often men turn simple things, which were intended to be simple, into detrimentally complex matters. Why? Control. We are afraid of the unknown and the intangible. However, when we quantify something or someone, when we label it or them, it or them loses some of it's awe. It's original sin continually slapping us in the face. The desire to be like God and it takes on so many different aspects that it can hide behind even seemingly holy things. Look at Mark 6: Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?” So they were offended at Him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house.” Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them.
See here how these people brought Jesus down to their level and stripped Him of His godhood. Now don't be too quick to dismiss their argument. Would you really have been so quick, if you were one of these people, to chastise them and stand for Jesus? Knowing what you know today perhaps, but if you were there, if Jesus had played with your kids as a child, if you had paid Him to work on your home or to build something; would you be so quick then to come against these people? It's far too easy to stand in judgement of these people. It's far too easy today, 2000 years removed, to make Jesus out to be this ethereal spirit man who is unreachable and these types of people as fools who should've known better. If you can try to understand the position of these folks, or the Pharisees, then you can start to understand the importance of faith and why Jesus continually pushed its importance in the Christian walk. Even here it was the lack of faith which held Jesus back from performing many miracles.
As something or someone becomes more known and understood, fear fades as does awe and mystery. So the question is this desire to quantify and understand stem from a holy desire to know and be known, to be holy as He is holy or to somehow gain the control and upper hand or to control our own destinies? The Jews created many laws around the Sabbath: Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. (Exodus 20:8) Now holy doesn't equal adding burdens, laws, duties and following old traditions (necessarily). These are all burdens and so work. Jesus was fighting against this false premise throughout His ministry. Why? Well look at the Pharisees. They worshiped their ancient traditions and laws while ignoring the greater things (love and mercy, or God Himself).
It is very easy to see the Pharisees were closer to the truth than any of the other religious groups of Jesus' day. This is also why Jesus conflicted with them more than the others. It's far too easy for the modern day pot to call the old kettle black. What's the point? The point is everything we do must be only and always to worship Jesus! NOT traditions, duties, comfort, personal beliefs and especially NOT ANY person (other than Jesus of course)!
If your church traditions and leaders help you to worship Jesus more, draw closer to Him, fall more in love with Him, trust Him more, be more concerned with God's praise and opinion of you, rather than the opinions and praise of man, then you are where you need to be. However, if your church leaders simply tell you what you want to hear or encourage you to worship traditions, duties and them, get out now! You must throw out any personal beliefs which contradict the bible, your personal Jesus and any traditions and duties which take your eyes off of the real Jesus! If you don't take a Joseph type stance on this (running away from his masters wife) you are in danger of falling, just as Joseph would've if he hadn't taken immediate action.
Try this: "church wasn't made for man and man wasn't made for church. Both were made for God. However, Jesus was sacrificed for the salvation of man." Everyone must ask themselves how they ought to respond to this. The answer is profound and should impact the way you view God, church and life. Essentially, if its not about Him then something's missing and you should consider a change.
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