September 1, 2024
Today we’re talking about sin. What is sin? We don’t usually talk about it in our everyday lives. For instance, parents have rules, and if they are broken, they say to their child, you disobeyed. They don’t say, you sinned!
If you break the law, get in trouble, and have to go before a judge, you get a good lawyer to help you. If you sin? There is no lawyer for sin. Sin is associated with religion. If you break a law in religion, you have sinned.
We love God and want to follow him. So, it’s important to know what the rules are in following God, so we don’t sin.
Rules are important. Before you go in a store, you want to know if they have a “you break it, you buy it” rule. Once we got together with Kevin’s family in Texas. I went for a walk to the store. This was Houston: it was really hot and humid! I came in and thought, “I need some water or something!” I opened the refrigerator: there was a cherry 7up! I popped the top, started drinking and Kevin and his brother said, “No!” It turns out while I was gone their mother had said, “There’s a cherry 7up in the refrigerator. It’s the last one and it’s mine, nobody drink it!” I felt bad I broke the rule!
Just like good parents make the rules clear, and government makes the law clear, we want Jesus to explain the rules. We want to know what sin we need to avoid in order to be faithful followers of God.
In our Christian faith there are so many different faith groups. There’s Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant. Within Protestant there’s so many denominations and there’s non-denominational. All these groups have different ideas on the rules. How do we know what’s a sin? We just know we’re right!
In the history of Christianity, believers didn’t always realize what was a sin. There are some unbelievable things that have been done in the name of Christ: like torture, killing, and burning people at the stake. Sometimes, Christians weren’t clear on the rules, what is most important!
So it’s important to be thoughtful about our faith: what is good? What is most important in our faith, what is sin we should avoid? Jesus wasn’t happy with some of the Pharisees: they were very religious people. They told people to follow so many rules, some rules they didn’t even keep themselves! They followed Jesus around complaining about him breaking the rules!
We want to be sure we’re acting Christlike and sort out what is essential. What did Jesus consider a sin? In Matthew 22:36, a Pharisee tests Jesus, asking, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?” What’s amazing is that Jesus didn’t reply, “The greatest? They’re all equally important!” Jesus picked out one commandment, and it helps us know what sin bothered Jesus the most, what to avoid. Jesus said the greatest commandment is, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind.” But Jesus didn’t stop with one commandment. He said, “And the second is like it.” Not as important as the first. But the second is still very important! It shows how well you’re keeping the first. Jesus said it’s “Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.” All the Scripture is based on these two commandments: Love God and Love your neighbor. The worst sin is to hate God or your neighbor!
In Matthew 12, our gospel today, Jesus is travelling through grainfields with his disciples, and they are picking grain as they walk, and eating it. The Pharisees see what is going on: they seemed to have eyes in the back of their head. They say to Jesus, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”
Keeping the sabbath holy is one of the 10 commandments. It’s a good law: that once a week you should take a break from work, that you need to worship God. The Pharisees see the disciples walking in a field with Jesus and picking some grain and they believe they are “harvesting grain,” not just eating lunch. The Pharisees accuse them of working on the sabbath, because they are “harvesting grain.”
Jesus replies, “Haven’t you read what King David did when he and his companions were hungry?” They went into the house of God and ate the holy bread, even though it was only for the priests. Again, Jesus is saying that some rules and laws of religion aren’t so important. What is important? The greatest and second greatest commandments. Because the worst sin is to hate God or your neighbor!
Then Jesus went into a synagogue. A man with a withered hand was there. The religious leaders were watching Jesus, and they asked, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” Because it’s doing work on the Sabbath when you’re not allowed to. Jesus replies in Matthew 12:11, if you have a sheep that falls in a pit on the Sabbath, won’t you lift it out? “How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore, it’s lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
Jesus said in Mark 2:27, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” God wants us to have rest, and to enjoy relationship with him. He wants us to relax and enjoy the Sabbath! God cares about people! People are more important than following every rule in the Bible. The worst sin is to hate God or your neighbor!
Just about everybody has at one time asked, “Does the Bible say (fill in the blank here) is a sin?” We ask that question, because we want to do it! So, to find out if something’s a sin, you ask yourself: Is it good for other people? Is it good for me? Is it good for God? For example, say you want to know, Does the Bible say drinking is a sin? You ask yourself, when I (drink) is it good for other people? Am I kind to others when I drink? Is it good for me? Can I drink and not harm myself? Whether it’s a sin or not depends on if you can do something and love God, neighbor and yourself.
Following the Greatest and Second Commandments means we can’t pride ourselves on our rule keeping. Are you responsible? Great, but Jesus says it’s more important to be loving than to strictly keep every rule. Do you go to church every Sunday? Wonderful, (I really appreciate that!) but it’s more important to love God with all you’ve got.
The apostle Paul was a Pharisee. He was like the Pharisees who enjoyed pointing out every rule Jesus broke. Paul thought he was a righteous follower of God, better than others because he strictly kept the Jewish law. He helped round up and arrest Christians so they could be killed for their faith. But the Lord spoke to him one day, struck him down and Paul heard the voice of the Lord asking him, “Why do you persecute me?” Paul came to see he was a sinner. He changed his life and became one of the greatest apostles, starting churches and writing letters to encourage the believers. He wrote that love is patient, love is kind. He learned you can think you’re a saint, but if you don’t love others, you’re nothing!
My homework for you this week is to take something that you wonder if it’s a sin, and ask, Can I do it and love God, love my neighbor and myself?
What’s a sin? It’s important to know what Jesus said because we want to follow him! Jesus said the best thing we can do in life is love God and other people! Being good at keeping the rules isn’t good enough. Making God and other people a priority is what put’s a smile on God’s face! Amen.
Maureen Duffy-Guy's blog 