Comfortable Bondage

In Genesis, God created mankind to be free to enjoy personal friendship with him. He never intended us to know good and evil, but to know him. Yet, for a relationship to be authentic, there must be a choice. So, he created the Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil. To eat from the tree was to choose to determine good and evil apart from God’s input. It was to choose independence over friendship with God.

From that point forward, man’s primary concern was behavior rather than friendship with God. So, God provided foundational principles to guide behavior, and started by addressing interactions with him.

Since God is merciful above all else, the boundaries were pliable. Mercy and graciousness were offered in considering the motivation of offenders rather than rigid boundaries. But as man judged one another’s behavior, a more legalistic perspective emerged much like the sidelines on a football field which have evolved from no lines, to thin lines, to the 72” wide bright white sidelines of today’s NFL fields.

One example of this is the fourth of the Ten Commandments –

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God…”

Exodus 20:8-10a

For centuries, the religious elite stacked volumes upon this commandment to define prohibited works. Then, in the New Testament we find them challenging the healing of a blind man and the stripping of grain from a stalk as prohibited. While they may have been well-intentioned, their focus on behaviors rather than on friendship with God served to separate people from God, leaving most feeling unworthy to approach God.

The religious elite developing these broad boundaries were esteemed and were considered more holy than others. This led to an inevitable religious hierarchy and left the common man to rely on the religious elite to approach God on his behalf. Once it was clear to this religious elite that the stacking of rules upon rules was how they attained and sustained their authority, the entire process went into overdrive, leaving the common man with the perception of no access to God without the intervention of the self-made religious elite.

This is especially clear when they built upon the third of the Ten Commandments –

“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.”

Exodus 20:7

They determined that the only safe way to keep from misusing God’s personal name, was to eliminate it, neither saying nor writing it. So, God’s personal name, “Yahweh,” was removed from all Jewish writings and teaching. Since people were only allowed to refer to the formal titles and functions of God, the possibility of personal friendship with God was all but removed.

This process of establishing a religious elite and creating rote rituals and traditions that became even more binding than God’s own foundational principles served as the formation of a religion which normalized a known, therefore comfortable, bondage for those seeking to be faithful.

Eventually, history recorded a period of 400 years without any known interactions between God and his people. I suspect this period was orchestrated by a perceived lack of inaccessibility to God rather than an absence of God. He was there, but both the elite and the common man found themselves leaning on their religion rather than reaching for their God. He was present and approachable, though they perceived him as distant and inaccessible.

After 400 years of this spiritual blindness, God broke through the silence with the ultimate message of presence and approachableness. He came as Emmanuel (God with us), and arrived in the most approachable form any human could imagine – a human infant.

For 30+ years, he remained remarkably approachable – eagerly, mercifully, and graciously engaging tax collectors, fishermen, criminals, lepers, prostitutes, those deemed unclean and unwell by the religious elite, children, Gentiles… all while continuously reminding the rest of creation - trees, rocks, livestock… - who must have desperately wanted to bow before him, that during this time he was “The Son of Man.”

As he hung on the cross, and gasped his last breath, the veil in the Temple separating God and common man was torn top to bottom. In that moment, Jesus removed both our sin and whatever religious mediators we think we need. His declaration of being present and approachable for all who believe, amplified by his resurrection, will echo throughout the universe until he physically returns.

Then in his last recorded words to his disciples, he clarified his declaration to be present and approachable…

“Teach them to obey everything that I have taught you, and I will be with you always, even until the end of this age.” Matthew 28:20

Why am I droning on about God being present and approachable?

Because apart from personally embracing God as present and approachable, the best you can do is to embrace the comfortable bondage of religion. It’s comfortable because once you learn it, it never changes. You’ll find solace in routine. You’ll find peace as you rely on the religious hierarchy to provide the predictable. You’ll gain confidence from knowing the scripts – what to do, where to put things, what to say, how to act…

And your religion will keep you from knowing God. For God is neither routine nor predictable. Follow his interactions with man in the Old or New Testaments. They never follow what religious people expect or teach. He’s full of surprises. He personally embraces the unclean, unfortunate, and irreligious far more often than those upholding their precious religion. Why? Certainly not because he loves religious people less, but because they are less likely to recognize his unpretentious presence or embrace his unreligious demeanor.

Most of us shy away from seeking to influence those we don’t know well. That’s why prayer is so dang hard. We’re reaching out to someone we know about, but don’t know. Eventually we get discouraged and stop trying. Why? Because whether we admit it or not, we don’t think God is present or we don’t think he’s approachable. For if we knew who he is and embraced his presence, knowing we could personally approach him, we’d do so with the unrestrained anticipation and excitement of approaching the most respected and admired person we know.

The fact that few of us approach God this way is sad since he sent Jesus to make sure that we each know that he is present, he is approachable, he is merciful, he is gracious, and he loves us endlessly.

Don’t miss this.

It doesn’t matter what you’ve done or where you’ve been.

It does not matter what others have said or think about you.

Religion can’t save you.

Religious tradition is nothing more or less than comfortable bondage for those who have trusted in it.

Yahweh, the creator of the universe, the Alpha and Omega, wants to be your friend.

He is with you.

He is approachable.

He is merciful.

He is gracious.

His love for YOU knows no end.

Will you trust him?

If so, your life will never be the same.