Matthew 12:1-8
"For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath."
This story isn't about the disciples picking grain and eating it on the Sabbath; this story is about the Pharisees and their modus operandi for worship. The Pharisees were real good about keeping up with their ideas for devout living, but in so doing they lost sight of what worship was about. It wasn't about them--it was about Him.
Worship is about Jesus, not the methodologies we have dreamt up. Some worship tradition. Some worship breaking tradition. Some are stuck in a shell called worship--only if you dress a certain way (or not a certain way), sing certain songs (or not certain songs), follow certain order of events (or not) and say certain phrases (or not) are you indeed worshiping. When we lose sight of Jesus for a list of things for "worship" we are no longer worshiping Jesus. When we make worship a thing we do on Sunday rather than a daily conversation with the Lord, we've missed the boat.
Can you imagine what the reaction would have been in that day and time when Jesus said, "Something greater than the temple is here," especially to the Pharisees? Yet, I think it's something we need to remind ourselves--something greater than worship is here. Does that make sense? Do you think we, if we're not careful, can tend to worship worship rather than the object of worship? That we can focus more on the comforts of our repetitious practices (Sunday after Sunday), focusing more on "the temple" than the "Son of Man" in our day-to-day living?
When we take our eyes off Jesus we get lost in the non-essentials. I like watching the Discovery and History and National Geographic Channels. This week and last week have been filled with shows about Da Vinci this and Code that. I haven't read the book or watched the movie, but it seems like part of the Da Vinci Code deals with this: A man stands and looks at the great masterpiece "The Last Supper." He looks to the left of center and notices that the person looks a bit girly and thinks, "That must be Mary Magdalene." He doesn't bother to realize that in every Renaissance masterpiece John the Beloved, which most every art historian since Da Vinci's time argues it is, looks like a girly-man. Then he thinks, "If I cut Mary out and moved him next to Jesus it would look like she is laying on his shoulder; therefore they must have had something going on." He doesn't bother to realize that in most other Renaissance pictures of the Last Supper that John the girly-man is laying on Jesus' shoulder or lap. Then, this person notices to the left of center what looks like a "V", an upside-down symbol for the woman as a kid-carrying vessel and somehow thinks this Mary must be pregnant with Jesus' baby.
Do you see the problem? It's the same problem we, if we don't check ourselves, make in prioritizing our lives around the Kingdom. Da Vinci's "Last Supper" is about Jesus. That's why Jesus is in the center with all the disciples clumped in threes and separate from Him. That's why all the light seems to radiate from Jesus. It's about Him. The rest is peripheral.
When we take our eyes off Jesus and get caught up in the non-essentials we have stopped worshiping Jesus and have begun worshiping worship. This passage forces me, again, to evaluate what I define as "devout." What do you think?
