Disobedience Leads to Discomfort

 Psalm 137            Numbers 5-6      Mark 2

Too often we avoid the songs of Israel that make us uncomfortable and this is one of them. They have been defeated in battle, sent into exile in a foreign land, and feel hopeless. Like so many others they were quick to claim the promises of God, the promised land, the blessings of being God’s chosen people. They were less willing to reflect on the curses that God had promised if they were disobedient to God’s command, statues and leading. They had claimed credit for what had God had done for them.

While there isa disturbing violence called for here, even the dashing of the children of their enemies upon the rocks, they are grieving all they have lost and what the future how holds for their children. They feel powerless as their captors demand they sing those songs of the power of Zion to mock them for their inability to be what they claim God called them to be and had proclaimed it loudly for all the nations to hear. Now they are grieving their loses and calling on God to restore them.

Numbers 5 & 6 are rules that God lays out for Moses for the people to follow that many of us will struggle with how to apply them today. They start out isolating people that have contagious diseases.

Next there is on outline for the punishment for someone that commits a sin against other man or woman they must confess their sin, make restitution plus 20% to the person that has been wronged. Then there is a system of determining unfaithfulness that none of us today are likely to understand or believe is the way it would be done today. However, when we get to chapter 6 we realize that both of these chapters are about setting ourselves aside for the glory of God and the responsibility that comes with that. The reading closes with a blessing over the people.

The second chapter of Mark tells of Jesus continuing to touch peoples lives and drawing very large crowds so that it was almost impossible to get to him. There were those that persisted in their pursuit of Jesus so that they could receive something from him. The more people who he touched with healing and renewal of hope in their life the larger the crowds grew.

Again, we see Jesus calling someone to be a disciple that the world, especially the religious hierarchy, would have rejected to follow him and become his disciple. The leaders continually challenged his choices of disciples and even who he spent time with. Jesus had to make it clear he came for those that were lost in their sin and not those that thought they had it all together. He didn’t come to change those that were seeking to live life God’s way but those that didn’t.

The leaders that were most challenged and had the most to lose were the first to challenge and try to destroy him. They used their false beliefs and teaching to try to make him look wrong. Continually Jesus called all of them to return to focusing on what God expected and not other men and women.

Today’s readings will make most of us uncomfortable if we use them to examine our lives and our obedience to the ways of God. When we fail to live life God’s way, we find ourselves isolated and far from the joy of being in God’s presence. The further we drift away the darker life becomes. Jesus came not to add to the burdens but to take them on himself that we might be set free.