24.01 | Good Things Running Wild

Matthew 15:1-20

‘He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?”’

Matthew 15:3

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My 11 year old daughter Estie recently started playing football (or soccer, depending on where you’re from). After her second training session, I asked her how it was going. She said it wasn’t going well — that all the other girls were annoyed with her, and that she spent the time not really knowing what she was meant to be doing.

“Estie,” I said: “Do you know the rules of football?”

“The rules? Not really.”

Problem identified.

We spent the next twenty minutes with a diagram of a football field, running over the basic rules of football. Not the intricacies of the offside trap, or why and when (and, seriously, why?) the VAR system kicks into play. But rather the difference between a throw in and a corner kick, that the keeper can’t pick up the ball outside the penalty area, and that kicking people’s legs rather than the ball is a foul.

The next training session went much better.

The rules of the game are important if you want to play. Essential, in fact. But when we come to Jesus, again and again we come to clashes between Him and the religious leaders about rules. 

At this stage of Matthew’s Gospel, we can picture him, sitting down all those centuries ago, and selecting material to write. This topic—this radical kickback against the religious leaders and norms of Jesus’ day—is one that just keeps coming back. It’s a topic that Matthew clearly didn’t see as peripheral, but as utterly core to the person and ministry of Jesus. It’s a topic that he knew would need to permeate deep into the fabric of our souls, and yet that our souls would be resistant to learning. Today’s passage is inviting us a little deeper in.

The rules weren’t bad. They were good. But people took the rules. Then they made extra rules to clarify the rules. And then these sub-clause rules needed cross-referenced against all the other sub-clauses and rules. And in this myriad of pedantic details the actual purpose of the rules were lost. The rules became about inclusion and exclusion. Life became about fear of transgression. And religion existed within the anxiety of this endless pressure.

In short, they took the commands of God and turned them into the traditions of men.

Why did this grieve Jesus so deeply?

Because it missed the purpose of what we were actually created for. We were made for life—for freedom, flourishing, purpose, and joy. The Pharisees had taken what was meant to be an interactive relationship of love and trust with a good Father, and turned it into a stagnant relationship with the rules.

The religious made life about rules; Jesus made the rules about life.

Matthew knew his readers would need this. We need this. 

We need to hear again today that the heart of God is not so much that we abide by a certain set of rules, as much as that we become certain kinds of people.

We need to hear that God is not so concerned to mark our homework according to all the Do’s and Don’ts of religiosity, but that He is wanting to restore us to glory.

We need to hear that the heartbeat of discipleship is not rules to restrict, but healing that leads us into extraordinary freedom.

G.K. Chesterton put it this way: “The more I considered Christianity, the more I found that while it had established a rule and order, the chief aim of that order was to give room for good things to run wild.”

For good things to run wild.

The endeavour of Jesus with your heart today is to release it into the kind of goodness that can run wild, adventurous, joyful, and free. 

On the football field, the rules are helpful, but they’re not the point. They might get you started, but they are not maturity. They’re not what Messi is thinking about when he magically turns that defender, or what Harry Kane thinks about when he intuitively knows where the top corner is. The rules are not the point. 

Is there a rule that you are religiously following? 

Do not lust. Do not get angry. Do not exaggerate. Do not envy.

Look a little deeper. 

Look past the bad thing you’re trying to stop doing.

What good thing is the Father looking to build in you behind this?

Honour. Patience. Grace. Simplicity. Gratitude. Joy. Courage. Creativity.

Life. 

That these things may become the substance of our hearts, 

and that we may run wild and free.

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Reflect:

Is there a rule I’ve been really trying hard to follow?

What would need to heal in my heart to be able to run in wild freedom in the ways that are good?

Bring this to Jesus. Invite Him in.

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Pray:

Lord Jesus,

Lift my eyes again.

So quickly do I reduce you

To a rule-maker rather than a life-giver;

To the Great Restrictor rather than the Great Restorer.

But your Ways are not as our ways;

Lift my eyes again.

Where I have dropped my gaze to cold religion;

Lift my eyes again.

Where I have made following you about following rules;

Lift my eyes again.

Where I have lived in the illusion that you seek to control me rather than liberate me;

Lift my eyes again.

Re-create glory in me,

That my heart may become beautiful goodness,

And my ways become the wildness and adventure

Of the heart that has become truly free.

In Your Name,

And running joyfully in your direction,

Amen.

Old Testament: 

For those also reading the Old Testament this year, your additional readings are here:

Genesis 48-50 | Psalm 14