Beyond the Weekend: Taking Jesus Seriously
What if the most famous sermon ever preached wasn't meant to be admired—but lived? Jesus didn't give us the Sermon on the Mount to impress us. He gave it to transform us. This summer, we're diving into Matthew 5 to wrestle with the hard questions: How do I actually love my enemies? What does it mean to deal with anger at its root? How do I live authentically before God, not just before people? Jesus ended with a warning: hear these words and do nothing, and your life is built on sand. But hear them and act—that's building on rock. Are you ready to start building?
Tradition Without Truth
Read: Mark 2:23-28 Listen: Mark 2
One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” Mark 2:23-24
The Pharisees continue to ask who Jesus is and what his disciples are doing. Jesus’s disciples pick and eat grain on the Sabbath. The Pharisees cry that it’s a violation of God’s commandment to keep the Sabbath day holy (Exodus 20:8). By picking heads of grain, they were “working.” But God's Sabbath is a rhythm of rest to remind humanity they are created for more than work. The Sabbath day is designed for delight and to recalibrate hearts toward God. Jesus confronts the religious leaders, saying they’ve missed the heart of God behind this commandment. They have turned it into a lengthy list of rules. They made the Sabbath a legalistic burden, rather than the blessing God intended.
We can miss God’s heart just as the Pharisees did. We all have opinions, ideologies and traditions that we impose on Scripture. We examine Scripture without letting it examine us. We treat Scripture as a therapist rather than the Word of God. As followers of Jesus, we must allow Scripture to transform every aspect of our lives (2 Timothy 3:16). Scripture is meant to teach, examine and correct us. If the Bible never contradicts us but only agrees with us, we are not following Jesus. Instead, we are following a god we find in the mirror.
TODAY: Memorize 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” Ask God to reveal any parts of your life where you need to allow Scripture to examine and correct you.
