Green Pastures and Still Waters
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Hand-washing is quite popular these days. Restaurant employees have to wash their hands before returning to work. Health care professionals have to “wash in and wash out.” Little school-children are encouraged to wash their hands before they eat. It was the “in thing” at our house when I was a little kid. Before there were signs for employees, anti-bacterial soaps and school policies, my mom told the Shaw brothers to “wash up, it’s time to eat.” I grew up in a weird home when I think about it. We washed before we ate, we prayed before we ate and we ate meals together. Bizarre. Anyway, this hand-washing practice was also a big deal 2,000 years ago. The teachers of false religion (a.k.a. Scribes and Pharisees) made up a rule that all people who followed the Jewish Law had to wash their hands ceremonially before eating lest they defile themselves. That is serious business right there! They meant by this that without clean hands one’s act of eating would break their fellowship with God! Yikes, grab the hand sanitizer! Jesus knew something about being right with God (He was smart), He knew that the state of one’s heart was way more important than the cleanliness of one’s hands. Washing one’s hands is a good idea, He certainly never condemned that practice. The problem was that when hearts go awry people make up their own rules…and they often hold to them with more tenacity than they observe God’s rules and that is dangerous. Those poor Pharisees were becoming something hideous, something fragmented. Their external actions resembled the motions of worship but internally their hearts were far away from God. Far from His likeness, far from His purpose and far from His heart. We’re going to talk about the “inner-life” this week. It is you and the most important part of you. Is your inner life flourishing or shriveling? What are you becoming anyway?
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I am thankful that my parents took me to Sunday School. I’m not sure my teachers were always thankful I was there but in spite of some of my “issues” I did learn things. I learned the Bible stories from both Old and New Testaments and even memorized a few verses. Looking back I cannot remember a time that I did not know about Jesus Christ. I feel like I have always known about Him and some of the things He did; especially the big ones, cross, burial and resurrection. I don’t remember which Sunday School teacher informed me about the feeding of the 5,000 people and I don’t remember if I brought home a craft. If I did, I can imagine two cut-out paper fish and five oyster crackers glued to a basket. I would probably have eaten the crackers, glue and all—I like crackers. I don’t ever remember doubting that Jesus could actually do that multiplication thing. It has always seemed reasonable to me that if Jesus made the world and could hear everybody’s prayers at the same time that feeding a lot of people with a little wasn’t that big a deal. What I have wondered about is how Jesus would feed me. Now. How will He take care of the situations I am facing today? And this is why we need the story about the “multiplication.” All four gospel writers include this story because it speaks to so many of our basic needs as people. AND, it addresses (in John 6) our greatest need—for the Bread from Heaven. We’ll look at this familiar story on Sunday, I pray the application will be as nourishing to you as bread.