Mark 7: 1-8 (NLT)
One day some Pharisees and teachers of religious law arrived from Jerusalem to see Jesus. They noticed that some of his disciples failed to follow the Jewish ritual of hand washing before eating. (The Jews, especially the Pharisees, do not eat until they have poured water over their cupped hands, as required by their ancient traditions. Similarly, they don’t eat anything from the market until they immerse their hands in water. This is but one of many traditions they have clung to — such as their ceremonial washing of cups, pitchers, and kettles. So the Pharisees and teachers of religious law asked him, “Why don’t your disciples follow our age-old tradition? They eat without first performing the hand-washing ceremony.” Jesus replied, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote,
‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship is a farce,
for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’
For you ignore God’s law and substitute your own tradition.”
Many of us at Refuge have stepped out of other churches to join the fellowship here. The reasons we have done so are numerous. Some of us have done so to escape the bondage of rigorous religious traditions and man-made standards . Religion has obscured the grace, mercy, and love of Christ into a list of “do’s and don’ts.” This hits home with some of you. Remember the days of being at the church every time the doors are open. Remember the pressures of trying to be perfect, reading your Bible daily, saying the correct prayer so God will hear you, making yourself feel guilty for things out of your control, staying in a spiritually sanitized environment, not associating with sinners, bowing your head and folding your hands to pray, throwing a certain amount in the offering plate, wearing holiness clothes, adopting doctrinal speaking points as Scripture, never questioning anything (and being judged if doing so). Remember the “us versus them” mentality, the “holier-than-thou” arguments. Remember the gnawing hypocrisy of sweeping dirty things under the rug.
Even if Refuge is the only church you’ve ever attended, you can no doubt remember the damages of religion. It’s a sickness within the church and it’s a sickness Jesus dealt with head on during his time walking the earth. Jesus hated religion and despised the traditions of the religious scholars. They had taken a relationship with God and turned into a religion. They served the system rather than the Savior.
My prayer is we not be bound with the chains of religion but with the freedom of a relationship with Jesus Christ.
