Right Religion

Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost

One Sunday morning a pastor discovered that the road leading from his house to the church was impassable. Fortunately, he was able to get to church by skating on the frozen river. When he arrived, the elders were horrified that their preacher had skated on the Lord’s day. After services they confronted him. He explained that it was either skate to church or not come at all. Finally, one elder asked, “Did you enjoy it?” When the preacher answered, “No,” the board decided it was all right!

Religion is a dangerous thing. It can deceive us about what’s important and what’s not. Religion can make us suspicious of pleasure. It can drain the joy out of our lives and, far worse, rob God of the praise He is due. How can we keep religion from doing that to us? How can we be sure that our religion is, as James 1:27 puts it, a “religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless”?

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Put another way, how can we avoid being humiliated by our religion like the synagogue ruler and his allies were humiliated by theirs in Luke 13:10-17? Theirs was a religion that resented the pleasures of God’s grace at the very moment they should have been rejoicing in them.

What are the marks of a right religion that rejoices in God’s grace?

Right religion delights in Jesus and the wonderful things He does.

One Sabbath day, Jesus was teaching in a synagogue. A woman who had not enjoyed the simple pleasures of standing or stretching for 18 years walked in. Luke 13:12-13 reports, “When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, ‘Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.’ Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up…” Her response was both natural and right. She praised God, rejoicing in the pleasures of His grace! Likewise, verse 17 tells us that the people were “delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.”

Right religion always begins with our personal and corporate delight in Jesus and the wonderful things He does. Even as Jesus saw this woman in her need, He sees us in ours. Like Jesus called her, He calls us. And in the same way Jesus touched her with His healing touch, He touches us. This Jesus who had no sin became sin for us. He paid our penalty. He died our death. And only by these pleasures of His grace do we stand straight before God—set free from our bondage to Satan and sin.

It’s no wonder we delight in Jesus and the wonderful things He does! How else could we respond? Unfortunately, many refuse to delight in Jesus and His grace. Verse 14 reports, “Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue ruler said to the people, ‘There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.’”