Who Defines Work?

For this reason the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because He was doing these things on the Sabbath. But He answered them, "My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working." (John 5:16-17)

The more I ponder these verses the more I see compelling insights begin to pour out of this story.

Why were the Jews persecuting Jesus?

It had something to do with 'working' on the Sabbath. But immediately I run into the most common problem I have noticed in religion – the accurate definition of words and terms. It does not take much examination to learn that their definition of 'work' as well as their assumptions about what the Sabbath was even all about were seriously skewed and distorted. But I see the very same kinds of distortions all around me today with very similar results, even in my own life.

It is really impossible to even begin to get a handle on the real issues revolving around the Sabbath in this story without seriously getting into the real truth about the original purpose of the Sabbath to start with. To move into this subject is to get into controversial territory on every side. This is a very loaded subject and is becoming even more so as we progress toward the end.

But what many people miss is not just the factual truth about which day of the week should be viewed as the Sabbath as important as that may be, but the real issue that is even more pertinent is the kind of fundamental relationship that God wants us to have with Him which is often most clearly seen in how we relate to Him on the Sabbath day.

So, just like the Jews of Christ's day, if we do not perceive God correctly or have a healthy appreciation for His character of compassion and love and mercy and justice, then our views of the Sabbath and what to do or not to do on that day are going to reflect our confused and usually dark views of what we think God feels about us. Our notions about the Sabbath and how to keep it just might be one of the quickest ways to expose our deeper feelings about how God feels about us personally.

The Jews in this story evidently believed in their hearts that God was more concerned with outward appearances and with technical details of policy and obedience to multiplied rules and regulations than He was interested in an intimate, close, loving relationship with His children. Because of this they found it very easy to completely ignore the obvious demonstration of love and compassion that Jesus had just performed on behalf of this very sick man and instead became very upset because Jesus had violated their petty man-made rules about what they considered proper Sabbath observance.

This is where the intense clash between the real truth about God as revealed in the life and teachings of Jesus appears in sharp contrast with the dark, harsh views about God as cherished by far too many people claiming that they are God-followers. The Jews were not some self-made religion like the pagans or the Romans or even the confused, amalgamated religion of the Samaritans. The Jews were the depositories of the teachings delivered to this world directly by God and through one of the greatest prophets of all time, Moses. Yet in spite of all this their opinions about how God feels about people on this planet were so messed up that they could not accept the clearest revelations about how God views sinners as demonstrated in the life of Jesus and how He related to people.

Thus, their ideas about proper Sabbath observance reflected their screwed up pictures of God and they acted out in their own lives and relationships with others the very attitudes that they felt God had toward them. Instead of having any resonance with the compassion that Jesus felt toward this man who had been sick and helpless for 38 years, they could only feel bitterness, resentment and threats to their control and influence over the masses as Jesus threatened their tiny little views of what they insisted God was like.

I notice here that Jesus did not even begin to try to defend His actions or beliefs or implications about what was true. He did not try to explain Himself defensively but instead seemed to almost fan the flames by stating clearly that God is not obsessed with avoiding activities they had come to define as 'work' on the Sabbath day. What I am also starting to perceive here is that Jesus' focus was not nearly so much on what activities are appropriate or not on a certain day but was on the motives of the heart that were being exposed by this miracle in the lives of those who were in opposition to Him.

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8 NIV)

What Jesus seemed to be doing among many other things in this story was redefining the definition of what work really is in relation to the Sabbath day. The Jews thought that if they could restrict physical activities on the Sabbath day for everyone who was supposed to be part of God's chosen people that somehow God would be appeased and would finally have more mercy on their nation and deliver them from the oppression of the Roman occupation. But God is not into performance to impress Him but is very concerned about the attitudes and motives at the deepest heart level which is where sin resides most tenaciously. This contrast became clear in the complete absence of any sympathy on the part of these Jews about the former condition of this sick man now healed.

What I am now starting to see is that these Jews were trying to mask over their obvious lack of mercy and compassion that was being exposed by this miracle of Jesus were trying to turn everyone's attention to the supposed infractions of the law by Jesus and this healed man so as to discredit Jesus in the process. If they could somehow get people's attention away from the attractiveness of Jesus actions and love for people and turn people against Him by painting Him as a violator of God's strict rules and commandments, then they could re-secure their dominance over the minds of the people that was beginning to slip from their grasp.

Nothing has changed in 2000 years, really. Religious leaders still grasp for control by trying to focus people's attention on policy and traditions and regulations and outward performance to draw attention away from the far more vital problems of how we view God and our relationship to Him at the heart level. Religious people fear that if each person begins to follow the Spirit's guidance individually that the result will be chaos in the church, and that simply cannot be allowed. They feel that it is their God-given commission in life to keep control over the minds and lives of the people within their membership lists and to achieve unity through elimination of all irregularities. But inadvertently they are only following in the footsteps of these Jewish leaders long ago and are simply reinforcing lies about God that have infected all of us since the fall in Eden.

Father, please show me the real purpose and meaning and experience of the Sabbath as You intended it for me. Turn my attention back to the real truth about Your compassion and mercy and healing power instead of becoming fearful again about somehow offending You by some external infraction of man-made rules and policies. Fill me with Your presence and draw me into the real kind of rest that You have for me in a true Sabbath experience. Thank-you for all that You are showing me here.