The Sweet Smell of Freedom

Jesus surprised and disappointed the leaders of Jewish orthodoxy. Their hopes for a Messiah probably involved finding a stunningly capable rabbi who would think their thoughts, only deeper,  and do their deeds, only more so. Their picture of the ideal Messiah no doubt would have looked a lot like the person they knew in the mirror. They would have liked him to surprise them with new, creative interpretations of the rigorous treatments already given to the Torah. If only he could be tougher, harder, narrower and more exclusive, he would be the perfect Messiah. 

What a disappointment Jesus was as he ate with the sinners, picked grain on the Sabbath and healed the crippled on the day of rest. He could not be the One. How could their orthodoxy be maintained by a heterodox Messiah! No wonder Mark says the Pharisees went away and conspired to kill Jesus with the Herodians,  their political enemies. The enemy of their enemy was their friend. The freedom lived out in Jesus was their enemy. The smell of such freedom sent the Pharisees hurrying back into the stench of their legalistic, judgmental lives.

I am afraid that I know the lure of a world that would never require a moral, ethic decision. If I could just have rules about every possible situation, I would never have to seek God's wisdom, wait on the Spirit or act out of simple understanding of the nature and direction of the heart of God. I would just have to know the rule that had already been established about the matter in question. Living would be a matter of keeping the rules. It sounds simpler than the world Jesus opens to me and to you. It might seem simpler, but the life God wants cannot be produced in it.

Jesus gives us principles to follow. The New Testament gospels and letters give us guidance in moral, ethical life individually and socially. But Jesus and the Scripture that followed him do not propose a world without the need for moral, ethical decision-making. We are called to a living relationship with Christ and to the life that flows from that. We are called to life as temples of the Holy Spirit and the choices that such a relationship demands. We are called to lives lived to the praise and glory of the Father. We are called make holy choices in the dynamic environment of real life.

I think it is harder to live watching the Ruler than it is to live making up and keeping the rules. As we try to be the Body of Christ in the heart of Austin, let us be a church ready to walk the path of a challenging freedom in Christ. May those who walk among us catch a whiff of the sweet smell of freedom.

God bless us all.