Serija "Poziv" - 2. Dio - Subota

Uvod

Dobra večer, dear spectator. My name is João Relić Macedo, and welcome to another instalment of the series about the life of Jesus. As I already mentioned yesterday, the overall title for the weekend is “Poziv,” and we are studying a few different aspects connected to a famous invitation Jesus makes. If you haven’t yet watched the first part, I would encourage you to do so before you watch tonight’s sermon.

Now, as I said yesterday, in the first part of these three studies about Jesus’s invitation we looked a bit more closely into what is Jesus inviting us to. And today and tomorrow we will go a bit deeper into the connection between that invitation and the couple of stories that immediately follow it. The first of those stories is the episode in which the disciples plucked the grains from the field. We can find this story in the book of Matthew, chapter twelve (12), verses one (1) to eight (8) and I would like to read the text with you tonight. I will be reading from the Suvremeni Hrvatski Prijevod. Matthew, chapter twelve (12), from one (1) to eight (8) And the text says the following:

Tekst

1 “U ono je vrijeme, na šabat, dan odmora, Isus prolazio kroz žitna polja. Njegovi su učenici ogladnjeli pa su počeli trgati klasje i jesti. 2 Kad su to vidjeli farizeji, rekli su Isusu: »Gledaj! Tvoji učenici čine što nije dopušteno činiti na šabat.«

3 Tada im je Isus rekao: »Zar niste čitali što je David učinio kada su on i njegovi ljudi ogladnjeli? 4 Ušao je u Božju kuću i jeo posvećene kruhove prinesene Bogu iako ni njemu ni njegovim pratiocima nije bilo dopušteno da ih jedu, nego samo svećenicima. 5 Niste li čitali u Zakonu da na šabat svećenici u Hramu krše zakon o zabrani rada na šabat? No njima se to ne uzima za zlo. 6 No ja vam kažem da je ovdje nešto veće od Hrama. 7 Da ste shvatili što znači: ‘Želim da iskazujete milosrđe, a ne da prinosite žrtve’, ne biste osuđivali ove nedužne.

8 Jer, Sin je Čovječji gospodar i šabata.«

Propovijed

I have a prijateljica in Portugal who grew up liking Disney princesses. She was one of those traditional girls who wanted to have a fairytale wedding in a castle, and become the princess of her loved one. Knowing this, when her boyfriend decided to propose to her, he had a special idea. He invited her to go for a weekend to the Disneyland theme park in France. He got in touch with the park management, and asked if he could disguise himself as one of the Disney characters. His plan was to come next to her without her realising it was him, and then suddenly reveal himself, get down on one knee and propose to her. They said yes, and so they went to Paris for a special weekend at Disneyland Paris.

Now, there is a video of this, and I always found it very funny. As he approaches her, she has no clue that this Disney character approaching is her boyfriend. He had told her a few minutes before that he was going to the toilet. So, she is just on a bench, sitting there, waiting for her boyfriend to come back. In the video, he keeps on approaching and approaching until he is just a couple of meters away from her. She still has no clue. He comes right next to her. She still doesn’t realise it was him. He speaks to her, and that’s the funniest moment of the whole video. She looks at him and looks away, not completely processing the information that it was him. And then, all of the sudden, she realises it is him, and quickly looks back. And then she says: “Od kud ti?”

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There is one moment in the passage we read a couple of minutes ago in which I think that the Pharisees probably had a similar feeling to the feeling my prijateljica had on that day, in Disneyland. Not because they didn’t realise Jesus was there, but because, all of the sudden, the Jesus who was there was someone quite different from the Jesus they thought was there. Let me explain.

As I told you yesterday, it seems like, in the passage immediately before the text we read tonight, Jesus is doing an invitation. An invitation to put to aside the yoke the religious authorities of the day — the Pharisees included — were trying to put onto the Jewish people and to take upon themselves Jesus’s own, lighter, yoke instead. But, to be fair to the Pharisees, I don’t think the implications of what Jesus was saying there were immediately understandable.

Keep in mind that Jesus was regarded by the Pharisees and the other religious authorities of the day as a normal teacher of the Bible. As I told you yesterday, a lot of people still today see in Jesus’s use of the word “rest” in Matthew, chapter eleven (11), verse twenty-nine (29) a reference to the text of Exodus, chapter twenty-three (23), verse twelve (12), which says the following: “Šest dana obavljaj svoj posao, a sedmog se dana odmaraj. Tako će se odmoriti tvoji bikovi i magarci te se tako okrijepiti tvoji robovi i stranci.” So, when Jesus said there that he would provide rest to those who are hard working and burdened, the Pharisees probably understood it as normal, common, reference to the Jewish law. In other words, they probably thought that Jesus was just teaching good, sound, biblical values.

But immediately after teaching this, Jesus goes away from that place to another one and, on the way, his disciples go into the grainfields and they start plucking grains and eating them on the Sabbath. Now, yesterday I gave you one example of what type of restrictions the theologians of the time had in place for observant Jews. Well, picking grains of the Sabbath was also not acceptable behaviour in the eyes of many of the theologians of the time. After all, in a mainly agricultural society, picking grains is work...

So, the shocked Pharisees go complain to Jesus and, because they know that he is a teacher who teaches good, scriptural values, they expect him to reprimand his disciples. They expect him to tell them off, to stop that nonsense. It’s Sabbath. It’s the day of rest, not a day for plucking grains and eating them.

But, contrary to what they expect, Jesus doesn’t tell his disciples off. Instead, he turns to the Pharisees and gives them a Theology lecture. And the main point of his speech is: my disciples are doing nothing wrong.

I can imagine the surprised faces of the confused Pharisees, as they heard this good teacher of the Bible argue that there was nothing wrong with plucking grains on the Sabbath. They had just heard him defending good, scriptural, values not too long ago. And now here he was, defending the disciples for what was a clear violation of the way the majority of the people in their society kept the Sabbath. Indeed, od kud came this Jesus?

Now, I don’t know about you, but I kinda understand why the Pharisees would be confused by what Jesus was now telling them. For those of our spectators who are Adventists, it would be a bit like me, a pastor, deciding to take the Youth to a McDonald’s after the Sabbath morning sermon. I don’t about you, but if Jesus would come to me today and say that it’s okay to take the youth to McDonald’s after the Sabbath morning sermon, I too would be confused. How can you teach us about the commandment of the Sabbath in Exodus, Jesus, and still think that going to McDonald’s on a Sabbath is okay?

But that is precisely the point, isn’t it? The Jesus of Matthew is not a Jesus who is concerned with external displays of a connection with God. He is not concerned with the rites and religious observances. He cares little about the way in which we see and judge each other. He only cares about the way in which God sees us.

And this can also explain a bit better why Jesus said what he said in the invitation we studied yesterday. The yoke the religious authorities had put on the Jewish people of the time was, indeed, a heavy yoke. It was a yoke based on external displays of the Jewish people’s connection with God. It was a yoke that was concerned with the physical effort the disciples were making on a Sabbath by plucking grains and eating them. But Jesus’s yoke was different. Jesus’s yoke was more about our connection to God than it was about any external demonstrations of that connection. Jesus’s yoke was, indeed, lighter. And this why the invitation for each and every one of us to accept this yoke is so important.

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My friends, let me ask you: what kind of religious experience with Jesus do you have? Is it a religious experience in which you are only interested in the external expressions of your connection with God? In which all that matters is that you go to Church? That you observe certain rituals? That you act in ways that you know the others around you will approve?

Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with going to Church, observing rituals and trying to externally express your connection with God. But I think the Jesus we encounter here in these passages is inviting us to something more. The Jesus we encounter here is a Jesus that is more concerned with what is going on in our hearts than with our external displays of religiousness and righteousness. He is the Jesus who understands that God only sees what is going on in our hearts, and so he want all of us to have that special connection with God.

My friend, I have absolutely no idea where you are standing today. But my wish for all of us is that we may open our hearts to God and accept Jesus’s invitation to take on this lighter yoke.

Let me pray for you tonight:

Molitva

Dear God who always sees our hearts,

We want to thank you because you, better than anyone else, knows what is really going on inside of us.

You know our struggles, our questions, our doubts.

And you, better than anyone else, understands what we need in our lives.

Today we want to ask you again that you may open our minds to the invitation we find in these passages.

That you may bring us to a situation in which we can fully have a deep relationship with you.

A relationship that is not based on external displays

But on our own personal connection to you.

By doing so, may we be responding to Jesus’s invitation,

And may we be able to better serve those around us.

I pray for this

In the name of Jesus,

Amen.

Zaključak

I wish all of you a good night. We will see each other tomorrow, at the same time, to conclude our study about this invitation that Jesus is extending to us. God bless you and see you tomorrow!