I love a good plan. I’m the kind of person that sits down every 12 weeks to literally write out what my top goals are for the next 12 weeks, then plot out the ideal week-by-week strategy for achieving those goals. As I write this there’s a post-it note stuck to the bottom computer monitor with my top 3 priorities for this week.
Plans are great. Rules are beneficial. In the chaos of the world having structure and systems to guide us is essential. However, there is an inherent danger in our desire for structure, rules, and systems. If we hold them too tightly they blind us to God’s beautiful interruptions.
That’s exactly what happened to the Pharisees when Jesus stepped onto the scene. Jesus disrupted their carefully crafted system of rules and plans for the Israelites to become the kind of people God would come near to again so their nation could be restored to its former glory. They had the proper rules in place. They were convinced that if their plan were followed God would come to save them.
What they didn’t plan for was that salvation not fitting their plan.
Jesus crashed head-long into the Pharisees and their constrained structures. This is particularly clear in a scene that John records in the 5th chapter of his Gospel.
After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.
Now that day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.
John 5:1-14
The Miracle
A man crippled for 38 years is healed in an instant. Presumably he’d spent many days sitting at the pool, so it’s likely that he’d be recognizable to those who frequented the area, including the Pharisees.
A man miraculously healed after being lame almost his entire life is mind-blowing. That should, at the very least, cause the Pharisees to stop and be impressed. Instead they’re more concerned about the fact that the man is breaking a rule.
The rules that blind
The problem with making our plans and rules ultimate is that they become blinders, preventing us from seeing the wondrous interruptions of God. Rules operate like a spotlight in a dark room when you’re focused on them, enabling you to see what they’re shining on very clearly but making everything else harder to make out.
The Pharisees’ rules caused them to only see the fact that the healed man was breaking a rule. It prevented them from seeing the fact that a miracle had taken place.
What rules/plans/systems have you put in place in your life that are blinding you?
Where have you taken God’s rules and mis-applied them?
What rules have you made about who you are supposed to be that blind you to the pleasure God takes in you?
What plans have you made that prevent you from slowing down to see how God is working around you?
What systems of thinking blind you to the love, goodness, and kindness that await you today?
The Heart of the problem
Near the end of John 5 Jesus pinpoints the heart-level problem that the Pharisees have. He tells them,
You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. I do not receive glory from people. But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?
You search the scriptures
Oh how true this is of so many Christians! We search the scriptures for the rules, the systems, the actions that we think will bring us life, forgetting that the scriptures and God’s law aren’t our savior; Jesus is. We ask, “what must I do?” rather than asking, “Who are you for me? Who have you created me to be?”
Our soul’s need isn’t more knowledge, more rules, or a better plan for navigating the future. Our need is to simply come to Jesus. To respond to his question like the lame man does. To do that requires setting aside the things that have blinded us.
You receive glory from one another
More importantly, Jesus points to the fact that the Pharisees cared more about what other people thought of them than what God does. They wanted glory from those around them.
If you search your heart deeply, odds are you’ll find that every one of your constraining rules and plans are, at their root, about getting glory from humans rather than from God.
We make rules about our diet because we want to look good to other people. We hold ourselves to strict church attendance, Bible reading, and Bible study because that’s “what good Christians do.” We live believing unspoken rules about where we should be at in our lives at this age.
And, if I’m honest, I often make my quarterly, weekly, daily goals because I want the glorious feeling of productivity and progress and the approval of my fellow workers.
If we’re busy making rules and plans that will garner glory and acclaim for other people, we’ll be blind to God’s beauty and miraculous work in our life and world.
Receiving eyes to see
Want those blinders gone? Repent and believe.
Repent of your rules and systems wherever they’ve become a higher priority than knowing and being known by Jesus. Set aside your self-made internal standard that demands you do everything right on the first try. Set aside the internal critic that shames you every time you fall short. Let go of the rules that say you have to be the most knowledgeable about scripture and never ever sin.
Replace those rules and systems with the simple love and belief that manifests itself in obedience. Let Jesus come near. When he asks you what you want, tell him honestly. If he tells you to pick up your mat and walk, try it – even if it breaks your rules – and see what happens.
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