He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. Or haven’t you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple desecrate the day and yet are innocent? I tell you that one greater than the temple is here. If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” Matthew 12:1-8.
Jews also had expectations of what should and should not happen. And what if I told you that Jesus was a bad Jew. He was looked down upon, judged to be a big sinner, and ostracized because he didn’t follow the Jewish religion to the letter. There is a little document called the Talmud. It basically expands the laws and clearly lays out how people are supposed to be good Jews. One aspect is the way in which they celebrate the Sabbath day. No work is supposed to be done. I mean none. They were not allowed to walk more than a mile. They were not allowed to prepare food. That was to be done ahead of time. They were not allowed to light a fire in their homes, but could keep a previously lit fire burning.
So, when the disciples were gathering food on the Sabbath instead of eating already prepared food, they were not practicing Judaism correctly. So the Pharisees let them have it. But Jesus isn’t impressed. He told them they were full of it. He gave an example of David and his companions doing something even worse. They entered into the temple and took the special bread. That is what happens when religion takes over. We loose the ability to be free in Christ. We care more about the ritual than the relationship. The Pharisees didn’t care if the disciples were hungry; they wanted to make sure that their traditions weren’t broken. Their traditions weren’t even from the Bible. They were made up. And many of ours are the same.
We all do things without thinking about it. We drive to familiar places and don’t remember how we got there. We do things without really considering the impact. In the same way, we think that doing a few ritual type things is what makes one a Christian. But that is dead wrong. God doesn’t care a whole lot about the rituals if the rituals aren’t being done to draw close to Him. That I what Jesus means when he says, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” It is what Jesus means when he says that He is greater than the temple. A relationship is greater than a religion. God desires a heart that longs after Him, not that just goes through the motions and actions that are expected. God wants a relationship with you, not your religion. If our religions they aren’t done to cultivate a relationship with God, then why are we doing them?
You can spend the rest of your life living a religion—going to church, singing songs, taking communion, offering up halfhearted prayers. But if you are just going through the motions, without any goal of drawing close to God, you are missing out. You are just doing busywork. God desires a vibrant relationship with you. He wants to provide you with a life-transforming, destiny-changing experience. It results in a definite commitment to the crucified and risen Savior, which establishes an ongoing personal relationship between a forgiven sinner and a gracious God. Rituals may help that relationship. But when the fulfilling the rituals becomes the end instead of the relationship, we turn into a bunch of emotionless followers who are aimlessly driving around with no clue how we got there.
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