“What Makes A Hero: Right, Wrong, and Holy”
What Makes A Hero? The Death-Defying Ministry of Jesus Christ
“Right, Wrong, and Holy”
Mark 2:23-28 (New Revised Standard Version)
One sabbath he was going through the grainfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?” And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food? He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions.” Then he said to them, “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”
What is right? How do we always know what is right? Could doing right also mean doing wrong?
Sometimes doing right means breaking the norms, or even the rules.
What are rules? Why do we have them?
There are good rules, such as those in place to ensure unfair advantages aren’t taken.
Are there rules that exist that are made to be broken because they get in the way of doing the right thing?
As important as rules are, they aren’t perfect and never will be.
When the rules breed injustice, abuse, and discrimination, then we have to ask who is making the rules, why they are making them, and for what purpose?
Rules are needed, and are there for a reason, but just like on that day with the disciple’s hunger, rules are never to stand in the way of grace.
According to human and societal law, Jesus was a terrible rule-breaker.
It’s not that Jesus was breaking the rules; rather he was redefining them.
He sought to understand and amplify the Law, bringing to mind what motivates us to do wrong rather than focusing only on the wrongdoing itself.
According to Jesus, it wasn’t about doing right, it certainly wasn’t about doing wrong, but it was entirely about doing what was holy.
The cross is our ultimate example of what it looks like to do what is holy rather than do what is “right” or “wrong.”
Jesus didn’t submit to the cross because it was the right thing to do. Jesus submitted to the cross to show that God can transform even death itself.
Following Christ is not about being right or wrong; it’s about continuing God’s story through holiness of living.
Life is not a series of choices, rather it is about our relationships with one another, and our relationship with God.
Jesus redefined the rules and brought them to completion so that we might be a holy people.
What is holy?
To be holy is to be pure, innocent in all you say and do, having no hidden motives, wronging no one. It is to be as open-hearted as a little child and transparent in spirit as the crystal sea before the throne. To be holy is to be a keeper of all promises and a restorer of all good things. Holiness in the foundation of all right relationships and the standard for all actions of all people at all times. -From “The Urban Dictionary Online”