Rules - Ex. 21-22 & Matt. 19

Today's readings focus on rules...yeah!!! Don't you love rules? Don't they just excite you? hahaha Why is it that we dislike rules so much? Isn't it kind of funny how we're wired like that? As a parent and as a youth minister I am always teaching that rules are good, they are given out of love, they are there to protect you. But when I'm at a stop light with a "No turn on red" sign with no one in sight or on a road with a 25 MPH sign my opinion on rules changes!

The thing about rules is that they don't make us better people. They do keep us safe and out of trouble, but they are not life-transforming. God knows that, yet what did He do throughout the Old Testament? He gave rules. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. Rules about sorcerers, rules about farm animals and slaves. Rules about fights and thieves and kidnappers. But the people just couldn't obey. And neither can we. As I mentioned yesterday, it's enlightening how we read through the simple list of just Ten Commandments and find ourselves thinking, "guilty, guilty, guilty, um I might be ok on that one, guilty, guilty...." haha it's pathetic isn't it?

God gives us the privilege now of looking back on the rules listed in the Old Testament and comparing them to the life-giving ideas of Jesus. Notice that Jesus didn't let go of the rules of the OT, but He got to the heart of the matter. "If you look at a woman lustfully you have committed adultery." Whoa! Yikes!

In Matt. 19 a the Pharisees ask Jesus about the rules of divorce and Jesus says "let no man split apart what God has joined together." The Pharisees remind Jesus that Moses gave permission to divorce and Jesus says, "Yes, I know this, but it was because of your hardness of heart - that wasn't God's original intention - whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery."

Another man in Matt. 19 asks Jesus how to inherit eternal life. Jesus tells him to follow the rules, to which the man says "I have, what else do I have to do?" (Interesting that the man somehow knew there was more to it) And Jesus tells him to go and sell all of his stuff and give it to the poor. At this the man walked away sad, because he was a rich man.

Jesus says at the end of this story that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven. An interesting pastor in Michigan named Rob Bell ( http://nooma.com/Info/Speaker.aspx ) reminds us as Americans that in our world today, WE ARE THE RICH. Even if you're considered low-income in America, you are rich compared to the rest of our world. The reason it's hard for the rich to enter heaven is because we are more focused on ourselves and our stuff than God. We don't recognize our dependence on Him.

Obeying the Ten Commandments or all of the other rules in the OT or in our current world is not what makes you a good person or a Christian. God cares about how clean the inside of the cup is as well as the outside. If we want our lives to change and if we want to help others change their lives, the place to start is on the inside, not the external actions.

Obeying rules is not equal to living for Jesus.

Lord, help me to learn this.