Jesus Is The Boss

So last Sunday we discussed Jesus the Redeemer. Our only response to the Redeemer is to do what he told us to do. He simply said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me.” Luke 9:23.

Jesus wants us to lay our lives down for him. He wants us to consider everything else in our life garbage compared to knowing Him. Last week we discussed that nothing is more important than knowing and obeying the Redeemer. This is how a follower of Jesus thinks.

The last two Sundays we have walked through a story in the life of Jesus to discover more about who he is and how I can be more like him with my attitude and priorities. For one last Sunday I want to walk through one of his stories told in the Gospel books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and take note of three parameters.

First, in the story I’m reading what do I observe about the personality of Jesus. Was he kind, generous, angry, patient, was he positive, negative, and/or critical?

Second, what do I discover about his priorities. What does Jesus consider most important; what does he put first and/or what is he willing to sacrifice to achieve his priorities?

Third, how did Jesus display his power? What does he have power over? What really amazes me about his power?

The story I want to look at today is found in John chapter 9. Jesus is ready to make a defining statement about who he is and what he’s about. It’s not a coincidence that this day is a Sabbath day. A day that for Jewish people was holy. We might think of Sunday as our Sabbath day, but, we don’t take it near as serious as the Jews did in Jesus day. There were strict laws regarding what a practicing Jew could do or not do on the Sabbath. In Numbers 15:32-35 we read, “One day while the people of Israel were in the wilderness, they discovered a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day. The people who found him doing this took him before Moses, Aaron, and the rest of the community. They held him in custody because they did not know what to do with him.35 Then the LORD said to Moses, “The man must be put to death! The whole community must stone him outside the camp.” So the whole community took the man outside the camp and stoned him to death, just as the LORD had commanded Moses.” Now we might think this is a pretty intense punishment for some poor guy who just wanted to grab a couple pieces of firewood so his family wasn’t cold at night.

But it’s obvious from God’s reaction that this guy was actually doing his job on the Sabbath. God said, “You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of complete rest, an official day for holy assembly. It is the LORD’s Sabbath day, and it must be observed wherever you live.” Leviticus 23:3

So apparently this guy was out working, gathering wood for sale and getting a leg up on his competition who were playing buy the rules. This guy was thinking that if nobody else was going to be out there, he would get the choice pieces, the best stuff and more of it. And that is why he lost his life. There was no room for this kind of devious behavior among a few million people wandering around in the middle of nowhere without a standing army or police force. God needed to make a statement to keep people in line and keep things as fair for everyone as possible.