Our own stubbornness causes us to suffer

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The most important message I picked up from today’s readings overall is our own stubbornness causes us to suffer.

My primary takeaway from each of the passages was this:

• Exodus 9,10  – Like Pharoah, we tend to forget our promises and oaths when things are going well. It is oftentimes our own stubbornness that causes us to suffer.
• Mark 2 – God is not dependent on, nor subject to, man’s traditions. Neither is he static. God is living and ever-changing, and we are expected to keep up.
• Psalms 30 – God answers our prayers and deserves our gratitude and praise.
• Proverbs 30 – The universe is full of mysteries we cannot understand, but God is master of them all.

Today in Exodus we see Pharoah doubling down on his stubborn refusal to let the Hebrew people go, and more plagues. Every time I read this passage it occurs to me how much of our own suffering is because of our own stubborn refusal to surrender to God. I talked about that at length yesterday.

In Mark 2, Jesus is repeatedly rebuked by the local authorities for healing people, forgiving them of their sins, and not strictly observing the local customs. This passage is all about how people with authority and power given to them by the church and the state can feel very threatened when someone comes along who has authority and power outside of their organization. It’s a perfect illustration of the ways in which the letter of the law can interfere with the spirit of the law.

The spirit of the law is the intent behind the law. For example, in our time that means making sure that the citizenry is cared for and has access to employment, food, clean water, healthcare, transportation. In the United States we call this “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” In Jesus’ time there was no social safety net. If you got sick you suffered, and usual died. If you ran out of food you starved unless your neighbors had mercy on you and shared with you. It was a brutal world.

Jesus breaks a bunch of laws and social mores in order to act on the spirit of the law. He feeds people who are hungry, heals the sick, and hangs out with people who were social outcasts. The local authorities didn’t like that because it made them look bad and also diminished their authority in the eyes of the people they were lording it over. Jesus didn’t care and he used their own legal jargon to confound them. They had no way to legally make him stop. As we see at the end of every gospel, this did not go well for Jesus later on. The people he was dealing with were willing to kill him (to kill God) to get him to stop challenging their authority.

We still see this kind of thing here in the present day. When we go out of our way to make sure the poor are taken care of, those with all the money and power squawk about it and do all they can to silence us. A little charity here and there is fine, but real, lasting change is threatening to those who hold the most power in our society.

It is much easier to lay low and mind our own business; to not make waves or rock the boat. But that’s not the example Jesus set for us. “It is the not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sick. I came to call not the upright, but sinners.” (Mark 2: 17).

Whenever I read this passage I wonder if I’m rocking the boat enough. Am I helping people? Am I spending time with the lonely? Am I taking care of my neighbor? Am I voting in a way that makes sure that every fellow citizen, regardless of their circumstances or means, has access to basic human necessities such as food, clean water, healthcare, and housing? Do I live in such a way that people know I’m here for them? If I’m not, I’m not doing enough and I need to rock the boat a little more. It’s what Jesus would have done. It’s in fact what Jesus did.

Psalms 30 is all about crying out to God when we need help. He will answer us. In fact, the way he usually answers is through the people around us. When I reach out to help someone else, when I provide for someone in need, or vote for important social safety net initiatives, I become the answer to their prayers. So do you. God works through us. He provides for those in need through us. I frequently ask myself, “Am I being responsive to God’s prompting?”

Proverbs 30 warns us against wanting or acquiring too much in the way of worldly possessions. When one has a lot to protect, one tends to forget to take care of God’s concerns, which are all about loving our neighbor as ourself. Too little of what we need causes despair and desperation. Too much causes fear of losing what we have. In both of those extremes we can forget who we are: children of God walking through this world with other children of God. There are many lessons in this chapter of Proverbs about balance between too much and too little. There is also a warning about covetousness, which is illustrated through adultery (the ultimate act of covetousness and theft). We are to be satisfied that what we have is enough and not go grasping for too much. We are to share what we have with those who have nothing. We are to do good work to earn what we need, and we are to balance that work with enough rest. We are to avoid extremes.

That’s what I got out of it. What did you get out of the readings today?

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This post is part of the series, “Read the Bible in a Year.”

To see other posts in this series, go to the Chronological Index of Read the Bible in a Year Posts.