July 5, 2026 Sermon: Rules

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

The Holy Gospel according to Matthew. Glory to all the Lord. Jesus spoke to the crowd, saying, To what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, We played the flute for you, but you did not dance. We wailed, and you did not mourn. For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He has a demon. The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners, yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds. At that time Jesus said, I thank you, Father, Lord, in heaven on earth, because you have ridden the hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to the infants. Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal to him. Come to me, all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. The gospel of the Lord. Please be seated. We like the rules, whether we want to admit it or not. We like the fact that people stop at stop signs, that people, for the most part, don't just randomly walk in your house just because they can. We have rules that govern ourselves. We have rules that are made from the federal government down to the local government. We have homeowners associations that make up their own rules as they go. In the Old Testament alone, there are 617 rules to follow. 200 and something were please do this. 300 and something were please don't ever do this. And then in the New Testament, there were 1,050 commands made. We like rules. Because technically I'm not ordained yet. Do I? Do I not? Well, it turns out we don't have one and I forgot mine. Sometimes the universe decides. Sometimes the universe decides. And what does this have to do with the passages that we read that were super confusing? I might add. We can just go ahead and admit that. We start off with Zechariah, and it talks about a great king coming, not a warrior that we all wanted to save us, but someone who breaks the bow of war. And looking back into some Hebrew words, they often use the word bow or bow. I'm not quite sure how they pronounced it in English, for a metaphor for war. So ending the war, which means ending the jobs of armies, which means people are out of the job and suddenly they're made obsolete, which becomes a problem later in life. This is someone who wants to bring peace in. And something that I was looking at as I was studying this, because it's my understanding that the Jews were looking for someone who was bringing in peace. And they say that since peace did not occur, then this must not be the Messiah. How do you define bringing in peace? He did bring us peace. He taught us how. Did we choose to do it? No, not always. I don't choose peace in traffic. Most most and then the psalm talks about how God is gracious and steadfast and abounding love, and it talks about this king who comes to those who fail, who fall down and lifts them up. I'm sorry, but have you ever seen King Charles do anything of the sort? So this is once again a different way of doing things. This king is gonna be different. And in Romans, wow, tongue twister of the day. Um I do not do what I want to do, and I do what I don't want to do. And basically, this is saying there are rules and I can't follow them all. I am oppressed by rules. There's so many that I can't get it together. And when I try to, I fail, who is going to help me with this but Jesus Christ, our Savior? And then Matthew continues this whole thing about rules, looking at people saying John the Baptist was a drunkard because he didn't act like he was supposed to. Jesus was hanging out with sinners and tax collectors. I love that there's two distinct different classes, like one must be worse than the other. And um they're saying that he's not acting right because he's hanging out with these people. This is not how you're supposed to be. This is not what you're supposed to do as a religious person. You're not supposed to wear converse shoes in a church because that's not what pastors wear. And all of these rules become so oppressive. So, what does this have to do with anything, and what does this have to do with Jesus? Can you imagine living in a world where the Old Testament, I mean, being in Jesus' time, where you've got 617 Jewish rules and now you have a thousand and fifty extra rules? Can you imagine what it must have felt like on top of living in an oppressed Roman Empire where they thrived on oppression and fear, and now you've got to follow all these rules just to be a correct spiritual person? Can you imagine what that must be like? But do we not do that to ourselves and to others, telling people that they're not good enough, thinking that you aren't good enough? Maybe you weren't enough, maybe they're not enough for you. Do we not still do this to ourselves? I know I do. I struggle a lot with being enough. I've I've gotten much better at it, but you know, it's a daily battle, and I think we all have little daily battles like that that we struggle with, and we just keep having to tell ourselves that God will provide and God will help us out. And that's exactly what Jesus is saying in this. He's not saying follow one more rule in here, he's just saying, come to me. You already belong here. You don't have to act right, you don't have to follow certain rules, you don't have to not wear converse to church. Come to me now, just as you are. You already belong. Walk with me, be my disciple. Um, at some point, learn from me. Um, in the Greek, it talks about learning being a disciple. Come with me, be in relationship with me, talk with me, walk with me, learn from me. Not follow these rules because if you walk with me and learn from me, you'll figure it out as we go along. And when he says, My yoke is light, it is. It's not saying it's technically easy, like physically, our lives are going to be easier when we share our lives with Jesus, but our spirit will be so much lighter. And when we wonder if we're enough in Jesus Christ, we are. And that is such a comforting thing to have. But what does this have to do with anything? Um, you know, the question of the day that one of my professors always asked was why did Jesus have to die for this to be a sermon as opposed to acute message? Jesus is asking for relationship. He is saying, you already belong, you will eventually learn how to behave, and eventually you will come to believe. Diana Butler Bass wrote a book called Uh Christianity After Religion, I believe. And it's like in 2006 or 2007, so it's um it's it's a little ancient at the moment. Um, but she talked about how Jesus wants us to belong first, then eventually learn to behave, and then eventually come to believe. Yet most Christian churches out there and probably some other faiths expect you to you have to believe first, and then you better behave. And only if you believe and behave can you belong. How did we get it so backwards? Rules. We really like rules, and you know how it goes. If somebody's dog does some stuff in your yard, we have a tendency to go complain to the HOA, not to the actual person themselves. We would rather create a rule than have to talk to somebody, yeah. Right? We've seen it all the time. You see it everywhere. We would rather create a rule, the government would rather create another rule than have a conversation with people and tell them how this impacts others. Jesus wants relationship, and therefore we should engage in relationship. Something I harp on, and and my student names here can say, I harp on belonging like nobody's business. I often say belonging saves lives because it does. If you feel like you belong, you have something more than um, oh shoot, uh Maslow, the psychiatrist, psychologist, said you needed. He thought we all needed food, clothing, and shelter as a as a bare necessity. But I say you probably need to belong somewhere first to get said food, clothing, and shelter. It is a fundamental need for all human beings. It is what we were created for, to be in relationship with one another and with God. And so Jesus here is saying, be in relationship. And that did not go over well in the Roman Empire because, again, they built an entire empire on fear and oppression, and Jesus is eradicating that oppression. He's eradicating the need for war because we're having conversations with people and we don't need to be babysat anymore. And when you start doing that, people start becoming, as I said, obsolete. Suddenly your power is waning because there's a different way to live. So it wasn't just that he said he was king of the Jews and that he had a kingdom, he was threatening the very livelihood, if you will, of the Roman Empire, all because of conversation, community, belonging, relationships. So, where does this leave us? Perhaps before writing a letter or requesting a new rule, take that extra step and have that conversation with somebody. Before assuming the worst, take that step and have a conversation with someone. Because that's what Jesus would have us do. In the midst of a world where we even to this day are oppressed by what we're supposed to do and what we're not supposed to do. Create relationship, create belonging, create community. Because that is what Jesus wants us to do.