Chapter Six

Chapter Six

As a teenager I attended Catholic high school. Coming back to school on a Monday, we were greeted with the sad news that a member of our sophomore class had drown in the ocean on the previous day. He had apparently gone surfing instead of going to mass and according to Catholic law, as we understood it, as a result, it was really possible that his soul was not in heaven. I was struck by the unfair and arbitrary laws that God must have invoked and basically decided that if that was how petty God was, then I would ignore Him from that point on.

Following the Sabbath rituals as defined by man has caused many people to lose their faith. The guilt of not going to church on Sunday could be overwhelming and could ruin whatever activity that you chose to do instead. How could God be pleased as we treat Him like the old family relative that your parents visited out of obligation and not joy? Everyone has or had an uninteresting, old and boring relative or family acquaintance that mom or dad felt obligated to visit on an annual basis. Remember how you would sit and stare off at a hot and dusty landscape because they didn't have a television or any good magazines? They didn't have Coke or Pepsi and they made you drink that crappy lemonade that just wasn't right (without ice cubes), the house was filled with antiques that you were told not to touch and the conversation between the adults was so boring and seemed to drone on forever? That’s what it was like for me as a child attending church.

In the sixth chapter of the book of Luke, Jesus comes face to face with the religious critics that have been hired to follow Him and report back to their superiors. It seems that Jesus was walking with His disciples and one or two of them broke off the top of the ripe grain in the field they were walking through and after rubbing off the husk, popped the grain in their mouth as they were conversing. The religious spies couldn't help themselves and after writing down this violation of Mosaic law, pointed out that Jesus and His disciples should not be harvesting grain on a Sabbath day. Jesus responded by asking if the men remembered the story of king David (1 Samuel 21:1-6) when David was on the run with his men and the only food available was the holy bread in the temple, and they ate it without guilt. The Pharisees had such a set of convoluted laws designed to bind others, they had no answer and must have really lost it when Jesus spoke of being God and having control over even the Sabbath day.

If Jesus saw that eating grain on the Sabbath really wound up His enemies, He chose to go a step further to confront their legalism. While teaching in the synagogue, on another day, Jesus saw a man with a withered hand in the audience. We again have a situation where He knew He was being watched and His activities were reported on.
The bible says that Jesus knew what was up and so He invited the man to present himself to the audience and He then asked those assembled if they thought that the Sabbath was a day for doing good deeds or a day for doing harm? He then healed the man's deformed hand and His enemies went wild with rage.

The word Pharisees comes from a Hebrew word that means "separated". During their history, they were a political party, a social movement and a school that taught a creed of separation for a life of purity and it should be noted that they had a history of being supported by the general Jewish population (common people) even though that population itself was non-sectarian. The relationship between the Pharisees and Rabbinic Judaism (exemplified by the Talmud) is so close that many do not distinguish between the two. Nevertheless, the social standing and beliefs of the Pharisees changed over time, as political and social conditions in Judea changed.

While we may look at the actions of the Pharisee’s to be overbearing and legalistic, you don’t have to look very far to see that they exist, in spirit, throughout the Christian church today. We have believers who claim the Sabbath is on only a specific day, others who argue that only one interpretation of the bible is correct and yet other congregations that believe that there is a specific way to worship (cannon law, ceremony, sacraments etc...) as a church. They are so fervent in their beliefs, in some cases, that they will separate themselves from other Christians because of those self imposed laws and traditions.

If you think about it, if Jesus were to show up today and walk into a rigid denominational Christian church, it is possible that the pastor or religious leaders might just assign a detail of the most fervent believers to follow and keep notes on His daily activities. You know, nothing too James Bondish, just enough to protect laws and traditions that the church was built on.

The bible tells us that after this encounter with the religious leaders, Jesus went to a mountain to pray to God, all night. This was done just before He chose His twelve apostles. Again I bring up the fact that God became man and gave us a perfect example to live up to as a human being. Christ prayed to the Father for help in making an important organization decision. Jesus was, and is, God in human form asking for wisdom and help in making a tough decision. After a night of prayer, Jesus went before His followers and selected twelve apostles. According to Latin (apostolus) and Greek (apostolos), the term apostle translates into “messenger” and “to send off” while current definitions refer to a “learner” or “follower”. Jesus chose these twelve disciples to be the initial group to be trained by Him and sent out to teach others later.

Reading into this account, it is very possible that Jesus had quite a pool of followers to pick from. In the book of John 6:53 through 6:70, the bible tells us that Jesus explained that He was God, born a man, and many of the disciples that followed Him, turned away and deserted Him. This would help to indicate that the twelve were selected because of their faith and not by a structured selection process. If we follow this theory, we can assume that the number of disciples or apostles was self determined and based on a threshold of faith in who Jesus was and is. That being the case, His followers are still selected in this manner today.