I can't help but enjoy how willing Christ is to upset the pharisees.
Throughout this chapter, Jesus shows that his primary concern is the will of his Father. At the top of the chapter, Jesus tells the man to take up his mat and walk despite the fact that the sabbath rules forbade that action. He then claims to be the Son of God. He claims he has the power to grant eternal life and forgive sins and he accuses the pharisees of not believing the Old Testament. Incredibly audacious. But I know I often need to be more audacious like Christ.
There are two things we must note at the outset. First, it's important to remember that we are never called to do anything unscriptural. Never. And we should always err toward being too immersed in scripture. Always. Second, we do not have the relationship with the Father that Christ does. In this chapter, we are the pharisees and the lame man, not Christ. So it is to us he directs "… you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.” I know in my life, if I took seriously every word Christ spoke (in other words, believed fully in all he did), my life would be radically different. I don’t even know all that he proclaimed so how I can I abide fully in it? I do believe in Christ, but believing in him fully is something I will be striving toward my whole life.
Ok, having a right perspective (that we are the pharisees and the lame man), we can now ask the question, how can we be more like Christ in this passage? And that’s where we see the call to be audacious. Christ didn’t care about the pharisees rules, he cared about doing the will of the Father. Often times in my life, I put Christ within the rules of how I believe he is going to operate. I must realize that he is God of the universe and he works in ways far above my understanding (Isaiah 55:9) and he chooses to work outside my rules to show that it is him doing the work, not me. So to be involved in his will I must be open to however he is working, regardless of the principles I’ve laid down.
Christ is also bold about who he is. This world is constantly telling me to shut up and coast. Just tolerate. Don’t claim that I know the only way to complete joy and eternal salvation and outside of it is only Hell and damnation. Don’t claim that your god is false and that your life is sinful. Just coast. But that’s not what Christ did. He knew who he was and he knew who he was serving and he was bold about it. He grasped that if he just tolerated sin and coasted with the wind of relativity the world was going to miss it. They were going to Hell without him. So he didn’t tolerate and keep quiet.
Like Christ, I must break away from principles and rules. I must break away from the world’s standard of living and stop looking for glory from them (John 5:41). I must fix my eyes on him and the will of the Father. "I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.” (5:30)
“Who stands fast? Only the man whose final standard is not his reason, his principles, his conscience, his freedom, or his virtue, but who is ready to sacrifice all this when he is called to obedient and responsible action in faith and in exclusive allegiance to God - the responsible man, who tries to make his whole life an answer to the question and call of God.”- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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