Illegal Healing Series

The preacher is totally missing the point. Sabbath was given as a day of rest. It was a gift from God, a day off from work. Some of us have no idea what that means because we are way too busy, but God instructs us to take some time every week to rest, to recover, to take care of ourselves. We are not built to run 24/7. Stop trying. The whole point of Sabbath is to set people free from their bondage to work. It only makes sense that this woman who has been bound by illness for eighteen years be set free on the Sabbath. Jesus isn’t breaking the Sabbath, He is fulfilling it. What the religious people have done is turned the gift into an obligation.

Religion enslaves people. It replaces slavery to sin with slavery to law. What religion likes to do is to focus on the restrictions. Welcome to the church: here is a list of things you can no longer do. God focuses not on the restrictions but on the freedoms. Like in the beginning with Adam and Eve God creates this entire garden paradise for them to enjoy and the serpent comes along with a nice religious attitude adding rules to God’s law and what does he do? He focuses on the one restriction. Sure God gave you this whole paradise to enjoy but what a bummer that you cant eat from one whole tree. Even now God blesses us with so many freedoms and liberties in our relationship with Jesus.

God’s laws are like a fence. They are designed to keep God’s children from getting hurt. The purpose of the law is to protect us from harming ourselves or others with sin. The way we use the law in our religious practices turns it from a fence which is made to protect us and keep us safe into a prison which is meant to keep us in. In the prison of religious rules and laws God’s children don’t have the freedom to run around and enjoy God’s creation. They just wake up, eat, and sleep when the prison guards tell them to. If they get out of line, they get beaten. If they don’t do what they are told they get beaten. If they ask questions or why following Jesus isn’t any fun anymore they get beaten. God says: don’t have sex until you are married because He knows that will hurt us. Religion says if you are dancing and your clothes fall off and you fall over you are having sex so no dancing unless you’re married. What was once a fence to keep us face becomes an 8x10 cell.

God gives us so many gifts that we can enjoy and what religion does, is steal away that joy by focuses on the restrictions. It’s like we win the $100 million lottery and go: “Oh this is terrible, can you imagine the amount of taxes I’m going to have to pay.” God gives us liberty, and religion focuses on the restrictions. There are few things more detrimental to the life of a Christian than focusing on the rules. Jesus came to give us life not laws. Focus on what really matters.

Can you imagine how far from the heart of God you have to fall to get upset that a person in pain was healed? Even with the Sabbath, there is no wrong time to do the right thing. Some of us like this woman have been enslaved by a heartless religious mindset. Our lives have been about obligation and requirements. As a result we don’t really enjoy life. God gave us this world so that we could run and play. God wants us to enjoy ourselves, within the boundaries of His kingdom. God’s restrictions are there not to hold us back but to keep us safe. God wants you to have fun. God wants you to enjoy your life. God cares. Even when religion doesn’t.