Games We Play – Twister #2
An eternal game of Spinner was going on when Jesus showed up to join the game. For centuries the Jewish people had been spinning the dial and ending up all twisted up in their religion. They had been trying to follow the Laws of Moses and then along came some leaders who added to the laws and made it even more impossible to win the religious Twister game. The Pharisees added rules upon rules to the Jewish people and their faith. No matter how hard they tried there was no winning, much less even survive this game.
Then along comes Jesus and changes the game entirely. It must have broken his heart to walk around and see so many people spinning the arrow and ending up falling flat on their face. The Pharisees were not the only ones who have added to people’s religious trouble and weight. Religions have been spinning us around for centuries. It seems just when we get some steady footing the right foot red happens and we are falling down once again.
As I grew up in churches a game of Twister would have been a relief. Of course, my youth group taught us that you could not play Twister because of the close contact with each other. We had rules for everything and it was so easy to mess up and end up feeling like a spiritual failure. It seemed that the harder you tried to do right and good, the more it exposed just how twisted the pursuit of being religious really was. As I grew up and began to realize that God was not out to create a religion for us to follow, but is interested in our relationship with Him.
When Jesus shows up he begins to express and show a different way to be involved with God. When he took this approach he drew the ire of the Pharisees. They could not believe the way he explained God to the ordinary people he hung around. He angers them because he will not keep up their game of religious Twister. He called them out every chance he got. A story in Luke gives us a chance to see how Jesus viewed the religious leaders of his day.
“Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his followers, “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees have the authority to tell you what the law of Moses says. So you should obey and follow whatever they tell you, but their lives are not good examples for you to follow. They tell you to do things, but they themselves don’t do them. They make strict rules and try to force people to obey them, but they are unwilling to help those who struggle under the weight of their rules.” Luke 4:1 – 4 (NCV)
Jesus puts it out there about the religious leaders being able to teach about the laws of Moses but not being able to live up to those laws in their personal lives. All of the sudden the crowds begin to understand that the ones spinning the arrow could not win the game they were running. Jesus took the normal people behind the curtain and it angered the leaders. These rules were set up for people to fail and leaders to gain control of the people. It was their way to keep people weighed down with religious rules that no one could carry.
They looked for ways to catch people who were doing wrong, or would love when neighbors would turn people in to them. They took laws God meant to help people to use them to tax them, burden them and punish them. They turned a loving God into a vindictive, mean and cruel ruler. They operated from a place of fear. The more you feared God and feared them was better for them. Those are the people Jesus confronted when he walked the earth. That was the reason they wanted him dead. They were afraid he would take their followers, power and money.
We need to all admit that life is tough enough without extra weight being added to our burdens. It is just sad that we have the trouble we do in life, and then along comes religion to add some more trouble. I really find it hard to believe that religion would add more weight on purpose or to be mean. I think it all begins with good intentions, but then it heads down a road that leads to unforeseen consequences for all involved. When people are trying to lead others and protect them they can lose sight of the original intention. It is said that the further away from the beginning you move that the further you get from the original idea. That is what happened over time with the temple.
That is what made Jesus turn over tables in the temple, drive out moneychangers and declare that the temple would not be a place for those whom take advantage of others. He Walks into the world and tells us there is a different way to have faith and a relationship with God. When he stands and makes the declaration that is burden is light it changes everything. We’ll talk about that next week.