Mark 2: Jesus and Religion

Recently, there has been a video about Jesus that has been quite the sensation on YouTube.  Entitled "Why I Hate Religion But Love Jesus," the video starts with the words "What if I told you Jesus came to abolish religion?"  While the video is well-intentioned, it is too extreme in that it overstates its case.  It's hard to argue that Jesus came to abolish religion when He attended synagogue (see yesterday's reading in Mark 1).  Perhaps it is not that Jesus came to abolish religion, but instead He came to abolish a certain type of religion.  It's clear that Jesus was not a big fan of the religion of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.  He thought there was a lot wrong with faith as practiced in His day.

Conflict with the religious leaders starts early in Mark.  Here we are in chapter 2 and the sparring has already begun.  The religious leaders are already critical of Jesus.  First, they are critical of His claim to forgive sins.  Next, they don't like the company He keeps.  Then, they don't like His piety and the piety of His disciples.  The religious leaders feel that Jesus and His disciples are not nearly observant enough when it comes to the customs surrounding the Sabbath and fasting.

Jesus has no tolerance for the criticisms of the religious leaders.  First, these criticisms are based on a faulty understanding of who He is.  But second these criticism are based in a false style of religion.  The religion of the religious leaders lacks mercy.  It is arrogant in assuming that there would never be enough grace to forgive certain type of people.  It has a false love of asceticism, thinking that true faith is about repressive denial rather than joyful reception of God's blessings.  It also has no compassion.  It makes rules more important than the legitimate needs of people, failing to recognize that as valuable as rules can be, they have their time and place.  From Mark 2, we learn that Jesus apparently hates a religion that has no mercy or compassion and that elevates man made rules above joy and human need.          

It may very well be that Jesus hates our religion.  Perhaps our faith often is very much like the Pharisees and Sadducees, but that doesn't mean Jesus hates all religion.  He loves religion as He practiced it: a religion of forgiveness and compassion, one that celebrates the joys of God's blessings and does not steal that joy under a blizzard of man made rules and regulations.