Relating to Religious Authority

The man went away, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. For this reason the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because He was doing these things on the Sabbath. (John 5:15-16)

Why did this man go and get Jesus in trouble when Jesus had just done the most wonderful thing for him that had ever happened in his whole life?

That is a question that will likely be met with immediate challenges of its own. Most would say that, of course this man didn't know that this would be the result of him going to the religious leaders and telling them who it was that had healed him. And that is very likely quite true. But nevertheless it still happened that because the man dutifully complied with the demands of the religious leadership of his day that the ministry of Jesus encountered persecution as a result.

How interesting.

Again, I find myself wondering just how this story may work itself out in similar ways in my day and in my life.

Do I feel compelled to comply and conform to the demands of religious tradition in order to satisfy the expectations of people who are focused on wanting to control others and forcing them to align with their own narrow views of religion?

Am I possibly a bit naïve about the consequences of my attempts to keep peace and not upset those in established religion but which may have unintended consequences for Jesus?

How am I to know how to evaluate my responsibility to religious authorities in contrast to being loyal to what I am learning about God in my own life that seems irreconcilable with some of the beliefs and practices of people around me?

I am aware that religious authorities can be very sensitive and easily upset whenever they meet with what they view as dissension whenever someone begins to gravitate toward an intimate encounter with Jesus, for such a shift of allegiance will always be viewed as a serious threat to the ability of religious people to keep everyone else in alignment with their expectations in religion. I see a growing rift between the demands of 'religion' and the new reality I am finding in true spirituality even though religious people insist that their version must be accepted as the ways of God and must be given greater priority.

On the other hand I also sense the Spirit of God pressing me to not enter into open conflict with religious authorities unnecessarily. I am being shown that there is extreme danger in allowing a spirit of offense to take any root in my heart and to stay in harmony with those around me as much as possible while still maintaining my allegiance to God at the heart level above any other obligation. These competing loyalties are not easily resolved especially when religious people demand that they have been given authority by God to impose their ideas onto my life and God Himself is telling me to avoid resisting authorities unnecessarily.

This is a very real dilemma for me even as I write. I have had recent discussions with various people in authority revolving around these very issues and the discussion this week for Bible study in our church is about what is to be viewed as the real definition of 'truth'. One's opinion about what is 'the truth' is going to be radically affected by their other entrenched beliefs about God and about what is really involved in religion or spirituality.

For instance, if I believe that religion is primarily conformity to a set of ideas, subscribing to a set of doctrines or a creed, being able to give right answers to certain questions and sufficiently behaving in in conformity to other religious people around me, then what I believe is 'truth' will inevitably be oriented toward knowing God on an intellectual basis with little or no value for a heart knowledge of Him. This is the kind of religion that I see predominant in many people that I know and that is expected of me to 'keep the peace'.

But God has long been leading me down a somewhat different path that what was just described. That kind of religion seems to me to be suspiciously similar to the religion and attitudes of the Pharisees and religious leaders of Jesus' day and in the end led them to even feel compelled to do away with Jesus as a dangerous non-conformist who threatened their established system of traditions and control over the common people. Jesus found Himself in constant tension with religious authorities, not because He was rebellious and looking for conflict but because His fundamental view of reality was so different than theirs and He was unwilling to come into alignment with their demands while still not going about to deliberately stir up trouble for Himself.

Every story that I have looked at thus far in the book of John here has revealed growing tension between Jesus and the religion promoted by the people who were chosen by God to represent Him in this world. The problem for Jesus was not that He was at odds with religions invented by humans or promoted by pagans. Jesus' problems almost always revolved around conflicts between His perceptions of God and how God feels about sinners in contrast with the entrenched, established practices and rules and demands of the religious authorities that were in place among the very people that God had placed on earth to be His chosen authorities. This makes it far more confusing for me to know the fine line between submission to authority that God expects of me in my relationship with His church and knowing when to be firm in my resistance to conforming to undue pressure from those same authorities the way Jesus had to do so often.

It is far easier to delineate how one should relate to secular authorities or even openly false religious authorities when it comes to maintaining allegiance to God than it is to know how to relate to legitimate authorities within God's appointed church that put more emphasis on conformity to their rules and policies than on the priority of each believer being led by the Spirit of God. Human desire for control in the hearts of those in authority nearly always drives people to insist on external compliance by others over encouraging them to give precedence to an intimate devotion and allegiance to a personal God who can and will lead each individual in perfect synchronization with the rest of His body.

Human religious authorities very often have a deep fear of the words of Jesus to Nicodemus when He said, "The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit." (John 3:8) We sometimes tend to want to 'spiritualize' away these words to keep them from threatening our ability to keep people in alignment with church policies or prevent this from causing people to think differently than the mainstream ideas from leadership. I am afraid that churches and religion today is not really much different than the religion and church of Jesus day when it comes to differing views about what is right and true and necessary for serving God.

But I notice that Jesus did not feel that this man did anything wrong when he ran to the authorities and 'tattled' on Him for healing him. Instead, Jesus took the resulting flap head-on Himself and did not allow the prejudices and bigotry and false ideas about God by religious leaders sway Him in the slightest from His higher allegiance to His Father in heaven. While Jesus never deliberately tried to pick an argument with religious authorities, He also never allowed their narrow views and counterfeit demands to influence His own perfect alignment with His Father and His own careful practice of always obeying the leading of the Spirit in His life. This is the example that I must understand better so that I can avoid undue resistance to authority while at the same time preserving the more important need for me to always give my highest priority to my own relationship with my heavenly Father.

And in doing that I can expect to find myself repeatedly at odds with religious authorities even though I need to avoid it if possible. Jesus found it far more difficult to relate to religious people than He did connecting with common people and others considered degraded 'sinners' or low-life. These latter people were often more in tune with their own spirit and their true condition than were those immersed in formal religion and they seemed to respond in some cases more readily to the transparent authenticity that they saw in the life and attitudes of Jesus.

I want to have Jesus living His life within me so thoroughly that I too can be an attraction to those who are repulsed by religion but are very hungry to encounter a compassionate God who actually cares about their heart and has a real way of saving them from the sins that are destroying their lives.

Father, give me discernment and tact while at the same time a fierce loyalty to You that cannot be swayed by the demands of those You have placed in my life as religious authorities. They may not understand very well what You are doing in me and may even insist that I do things that conflict with what Your Spirit is leading me to believe or do. But help me to have the spirit that Jesus demonstrated in all of His relationships and encounters with religious authorities so that others can see Jesus once again living in human flesh and be attracted to want to know You more intimately for themselves.