In His life and ministry, Jesus truly inaugurated something new. But this new thing is not completely untethered from what came before. It is an expansion, not a contraction.
What the Lord expanded was God’s covenant. He expanded to include everyone who would believe in Him as Savior and Lord. In a sense, God’s chosen people became those who choose God by choosing Christ.
As Christians, we certainly understand fasting to be one of the core spiritual disciplines taught to us by the Lord Himself. In context, why would His disciples fast while He, the Bridegroom, was among them? Christ’s presence is always a cause for rejoicing, even when it experienced under horrible circumstances.
If obedience is better the sacrifice, then sacrificial obedience is better still. Liturgical rituals often become rote, something that is done more by sheer force of habit than a loving response to God’s grace extended to us through Christ.
It’s easy to be obedient when it doesn’t cost you anything or when it gains you something. When I was in high school, I figured out early on that if I came home from school on Friday and completed all my chores, seeking to make a really good job of it, when I asked my dad for $20 and to take the car, he was much more amenable to my request.
Too often, people see their relationship with God as transactional in just this way. But God is not transactional. Sure, bad choices usually result in bad consequences, but this is hardly God’s judgment. What about when, like Job, you do everything right and life still seems to conspire against you?
One scripture verse I have found personally informative, consoling, and useful over many years is from the book of the minor prophet Habakkuk:
For though the fig tree does not blossom, and no fruit appears on the vine, Though the yield of the olive fails and the terraces produce no nourishment, Though the flocks disappear from the fold and there is no herd in the stalls (Habakkuk 3:17)
This completely relates to what is new in Christ. It is the difference between being a Christian and being a pagan. It is not a Christian mindset to worship a temperamental god who punishes you when he is angry and rewards you when you are good. A god from whom you can get what you want if you say the magic words, perform the prescribed ritual, make the right offering.
Such a god is not a personal God, one who wants to be in a close relationship with you. Yes, God wants to obey Him. But He wants you to do so not for fear of punishment but for love of Him. In our Psalm today, God asks: Do you think that I am like you? It’s a rhetorical question, or at least it should be. The one who “offers praise as a sacrifice,” says God, “glorifies me” (Psalm 50:21).
God is referring to the one who offers praise as a sacrifice always and everywhere, regardless of fortune or circumstance. This is what means to be obedient to God at its most fundamental. This is what it means to be upright and see the salvation of God.
What is the salvation of God? Well, it isn’t a what but a who: Jesus Christ. The reward for following Christ is Christ. He is the end for whom we strive and not a mere means to any end.
Today our country observes a day in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It is a day we recognize the importance of human rights. The very concept of human rights arises from the deeply Christian understanding that each person is an image-bearer of God.
Those who struggled long and hard for racial equality and succeeded did so non-violently. Non-violence requires much more courage than violence. Most of those who undertook this struggle were able to do so out of their deep faith in Christ. They were able to trust Him as they took the slings and arrows that came with their fight for justice. As the late John Lewis, a protégé of both Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy urged those who engage in action for justice:
Release all bitterness. Hold only love, only peace in your heart, knowing that the battle of good to overcome evil is already wonGod loves your enemy and so should you. Easier said than done!
In his Letter to the Ephesians, written as he made his way to Rome to be martyred, Saint Ignatius of Antioch insisted:
These are the beginning and the end of life: faith the beginning, love the end. When these two are found together, there is God, and everything else concerning right living follows from themFor those who are about to join the order of catechumens, let the joy of the Lord be your strength (Nehemiah 8:10). Learn God’s love poured out for you in the life, death, and resurrection of His Only Begotten Son. Open yourselves to the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life. This will bring about something new in and through you.
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