Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant. (Mark 10:43)
I tend to be the poster child for rule-following. I like to go just a couple of miles under the speed limit to be on the safe side, and yes, I will count the items in my cart to make sure I’m in compliance with the express lane at the store. And it’s true that I even make up a few extra rules just to try to make life easier for those around me—like not going into a place of business within fifteen minutes of closing so I don’t create additional work for the employees.
Jesus came into a rule-laden world. The religious leaders not only meticulously kept the rules of the law, but they added dozens of extra policies, too. They taught them with such fervor that by the time Jesus was born, the people really didn’t know which laws were God’s and which were man’s. They only knew they were required to follow them all.
Jesus’ spent his earthly ministry trying to show the people a different way. He came to expose the extra laws for what they were: man’s additives. He came to expose God’s heart of truth behind the laws he had actually given. Jesus’ way shook up the world he lived in, and if we live according to his teaching, it should shake up our world, too.
Live a different way to show the world God’s way.
Bekah Shaffer is an alumna of Indiana Wesleyan University and enjoys endless coffee, scrapbooking, and adventuring with her husband, Ryan.
© 2020 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
