Matters of the Heart-Jesus Versus Religion – Steve Orr

Jesus Versus Religion:

What if Jesus came to church under disguise like he did on the road to Emmaus encounter in Luke 24? What would he see? Well, 2000 years ago, God did come under disguise to the religious leaders of his time. In the entire chapter of Matthew 23, Jesus told them in no uncertain terms what he saw.

Jesus rails against the religious hypocrites with seven woes. Six times He says, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!” In another woe, He says, “Woe to you, blind guides!” (The exclamation points in the NIV are most apropos.)

Jesus concludes His rant with these choice words:

“You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation.” (Matthew 23:33-36)

This righteous indignation from Jesus about the destructiveness of religion speaks volumes! He saw through the facade of religion saying:

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.” (Matthew 23:27-28)

I picture Jesus walking off the stage with a chiseled jaw after these closing remarks, “Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'” (Matthew 23:39)

According to Jesus, experts in religion are spiritually dead. Religion is obsessed with doctrines of dead works, ethics, principles and programs, doing stuff, making an outward show, and living by a strict moral code under the close watch of others in order to maintain the appearance of righteousness. If you study hard and know the rules well, passing the appearance test with others who are in the same boat is easy.

But deep under your well-protected religious shell, something else is happening inside. When we’re driven by law and performance we lose touch with ourselves, with the inmost being of our heart. This occurs when your strong outer self is at war with your weak inner self; it gradually wears you down little by little every day until…

You do something wrong, everybody sees and there’s no place to hide. Soon, people take sides, it becomes an infectious disease with everyone pointing fingers. The outside appearance looked okay at a distance, but when you get up close and personal, the ugly truth comes out.

All of this drama is just a repeat of the long history of great church fights and religion-based Christianity that has transpired over many centuries. What were once rivers of life have become vast oceans of dead water littered with the sunken shipwrecks of religion at the bottom, well out of sight from the petty illusions of religious teaching up above.

Jesus tried to teach matters of the heart to the religious leaders of his day. He was crucified for it.

Think about it, how did Jesus, the lover of your soul, first pursue you? Did he appeal to your intellect? Did he test your knowledge of Scripture? Did he bore you with the nitpicking minutia on how to keep the law? Did He give you a gold star for all the times you went to church? No, what brings people to Jesus is something much more profound than religious practices. He touches our hearts!

Jesus’ intentions are obvious in his announcement at the start of His ministry:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor, He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to recover the sight of the blind, to free the oppressed and to set the captives free!” (Paraphrase of Isaiah 61:1 and Luke 4:18)

Jesus came to heal those damaged by religion. His message is refreshing. Religion’s message is condemning saying: “Your heart is wicked and deceitful” (Jeremiah 17:9). The proper response to this verse is to believe Jesus is your Healer and accept God’s grace. The improper response, which religion requires, is human works to gain God’s favor by groveling in guilt and making amends with dead works based on lifeless religion.

Through Christ’s finished work on the Cross, God makes it abundantly clear that we already have his favor. All that is left for us to do is believe in God’s goodness and celebrate the free gifts of grace he lavishes upon us all.

Do you still feel the need to perform religious works to impress God? Consider this, in John 6 Jesus was asked: “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” (verses 28 and 29)

The cure for the heartbreak of legalistic religion is an authentic personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It’s a matter of the heart. Christianity is meant to be a love affair with Jesus, to free you to love others as He did. It is not about empty religious practices that steal your joy.

“Do not be overly righteous, Nor be overly wise: Why should you destroy yourself?” (Eccl 7:16)

Attempts to perform religious duties damage your heart with harmful palpitations. Instead of trying to gain God’s favor with empty religion, let Jesus revive your heart with his divine defibrillator of the Spirit. His goal is to lighten your load and bring you fully alive to him.

Jesus’ indwelling transforming life within leads us to the practice His authentic self-giving love.

Jesus is calling you to something much better:

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” (Matthew 11:28‑30 The Message)

The ministry that Jesus announced began what would become a great battle. Jesus versus religion is a major theme of the New Testament. He has recruited fellow “warriors” to join in him in battle, and that includes us.

Stay tuned to see how this spell-binding battle ends between the Lamb of God versus the religious capital of Jerusalem, which is depicted as the great Whore and mother of harlots. Beware, the upcoming series may include some entertaining content.

PTM proclaims authentic Christ-centered Christianity without the religion, giving hope to those burned out by legalistic religion. It’s practicing all Jesus all the time.

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Steve Orr writes to us from Montana. After working in the mecca of technology, Steve traded the rat race of Silicon Valley for the adventures of High Tech in Big Sky Country. Steve has an MBA with experience in accounting, finance, technology, and management. He occasionally writes a little software code, but mostly he likes writing about Matters of the Heart.

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