Bondage Breaker

Me

I like to think I’m a pretty good observer of rules.

I like rules in the military

I know where I stand, what my role is, and how to do a good job.

I try to abide by the AFI’s that apply to me.

I like good order in the church, too.

I try to follow customs and courtesies.

I want to know what my job is, what your job is, and what everyone else’s job in the church is.

I like rules in the home.

I’m pretty good with unspoken rules too!

What are my responsibilities toward Jerianne. What are her responsibilities towards me. What are our responsibilities to our kids and our families?

Rules make me feel like there’s order

When everyone plays by the rules, everyone knows how things stand, and nobody has an excuse to violate the rules.

In fact, I tend to feel really, really guilty if I break a rule.

I’d be the worst criminal EVER!

I’d confess before they even got me to the station!

When everyone plays by the rules, everyone knows how things stand, and nobody has any excuses.

When everyone plays by the rules, everyone knows how things stand, and nobody has any excuses.

For people who likes rules and structure, there’s really only one rule...

DON’T BREAK THE RULES!

Luke 13:15–17 NRSV

But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?” When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.

Luke 13:

We

But we have a problem

We have people this morning…IN OUR MIDST…Who like to push the boundaries of the rules.

CAN I GET AN AMEN!?

You like to go off, do your own thing, find your own way, basically create your own AFI, and make people like me absolutely frustrated.

And AAAAALLLLL of us rule keepers have to clean up your rule breaking messes!

But sometimes…sometimes…the rule breakers force us to ask whether our rules are good rules.

So, the people who try to follow the rules, constantly have to clean up after

But sometimes…sometimes…the rule breakers force us to ask whether our rules are good rules.

Many of you probably know the name Billy Mitchell, but how many of you know why he was immortalized by the Air Force?

For a lot of reasons, he recognized the capability of air power, but he was angry that Airmen were being used as pawns for ground troops.

Army and Navy basically just wanted airplanes used to support ground troops, not as a force in and of itself.

Mitchell pushed back to the point of going to trial and he lost his career.

It was 15 years after his death that he was finally vindicated, and the United States Air Force became its own branch.

There are times when we need the rule keepers, and there are times that people who push the established rules need to be heard.

Here’s the tough thing.

How do we determine which is which?

God

In today’s lesson, Jesus is viewed as a rule breaker by the leader of the Synagogue in Jerusalem.

Luke 13:10–17 NRSV

Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.” But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?” When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.

Luke 13:

Luke 13:15–17 NRSV

But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?” When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.

Question: After hearing this, how many of you would tend to say that Jesus was breaking the rules?

Here’s why…You don’t understand why he is so indignant about the rule breaking.

Point 1: Jesus was pointing out the distinction between ritualistic laws and the law of love.

Jesus was not anti-law, or anti-rules.

Jesus was not anti-law, or anti-rules. Rather, he was focused on the REAL meaning of the law.

Exodus 20:10 NRSV

But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns.

Matthew 5:17 NRSV

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.

Matthew 22:40 NRSV

On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Matthew 22:

Matthew 22:35–40 NRSV

and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Matthew 22:38–40 NRSV

This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

What Jesus wanted to make clear is that the law of God was always fundamentally grounded in the love of God.

As Martin Luther often said about such things, man was not made for the purpose of following the law law. The law was made because God loved humanity.

The law was always designed to serve love.

God gives us the law

We become aware of what Godly love looks like

We return love to God

We share Godly love with our neighbor

Point 2: The law of love looks to the heart first and the action second.

It needs to be noted that the leader in question was creating an unnecessary rule on top of the Biblical law that he himself did not likely observe.

Point 3:

The Interpretation of St. Luke’s Gospel Chapter 13

these hypocrites first set up a definition of forbidden work which was not forbidden and then applied their definition against Jesus only and not against themselves.

Point 3: We must be careful not to create spiritual laws that are not in the ___________.

Point 4: God’s laws are always designed to break the chains of spiritual bondage.

You

Point 5: This week I will be a

We