The Father and the Son
Jesus once told this story about a man with two sons. Maybe you’ve heard it before.
The younger son wanted his inheritance before his father even died. It was unheard of. Essentially he was telling his father he wished he were already dead. But the father responded in love and gave the boy his part of the inheritance.
The boy left town, went out on his own, and wasted all his money on things that didn’t last. After his bank account hit zero, he hit rock bottom.
He found himself feeding pigs for a living and so desperate for food that he would eat the pig slop to keep from starving. At that point, he began to come to his senses.
He thought, “I can go back to my father and just be a servant in his house. Even my father’s servants have a better life than this.” So he prepared his apology speech. He made the long trip home.
Before he got home, his father saw him in the distance. His father ran to his son.
The rules said the father should wait, the father should never run to this son who had disrespected and disgraced him and the family. But the father broke the rules and the father ran to his son.
The rules said that the father shouldn’t accept his son. And if he did there would be a price to pay for his bad behavior.
But the father threw a party for his son instead and restored him not as a servant, but as a son in his house.
The RULES said one thing, but LOVE required something else.
The Woman Who Was Caught
Or maybe you remember the time that Jesus was in town and the religious leaders caught a woman in the act of adultery.
That sentence should make your skin crawl. That religious leaders would do such a thing to begin with. Set a trap for a woman in order to make a point.
They brought the woman to Jesus in the middle of town, in the middle of the street, to make their point, asking Jesus what they should do with this rule breaker.
The law says, stone her! What do you say, Jesus?
But Jesus didn’t respond with the rules. He just reframed the situation by saying, “Let you who is without sin throw the first stone.”
The RULES said one thing, but LOVE required something else.
The Criminal on the Cross
Or maybe you remember the time the religious leaders manipulated the rules in order to crucify Jesus, putting him through a sham of a trial with false witnesses in order to have him killed.
They got their way. They bent the rules to have Jesus taken and crucified on a cross.
That day there were two criminals crucified with him, one on each side. Both of them deserved the punishment they were getting. They broke the rules and the consequence was death.
One of them looked at Jesus and simply asked, “Remember me.”
Jesus looked at him and spoke these words, “Today you will be with me in paradise.”
That man didn’t deserve that. According to the RULES, he should not have gone to paradise. But LOVE required something else.
Jesus Shows Us the Way to Live
We could go on all day looking at the life of Jesus and seeing how, by the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus invited people to leave a life of rules and enter into relationship, into the way of love.
But this is what the Holy Spirit does. This is what life looks like empowered by the Holy Spirit. Jesus shows us what a life looks like that is empowered by the Holy Spirit!
The Holy Spirit sets us free from the power of sin and empowers us to live a life of love. Romans 8.1-2
This is the reality of the Spirit that is living inside of you!
So what if we could make the shift? To make the shift from trying to keep the rules to believing in the power of relationship, the power of being called a son and daughter of God.
When this happens, the rules change. No longer are we trying to follow the rules, enforce the rules, or make the Christian life about the rules. Now there’s only one question: What does Love compel me to do?
And if we’re ever unsure how to answer that question, we just look again at Jesus.
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