Luke 11:46, Matthew 23:25 "Hard Life Harder"

“And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them." (Luke 11:46)

“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence!"  (Matthew 23:25)

Religion is, of course, not necessarily a bad thing. Religion is believing in God. Religion is tradition and ceremony. Religion is learning the difference between right and wrong. Religion is praying and celebrating religious holidays and reading the Scripture and coming to church and giving our tithes and offerings.

Those are all things that I affirm and have made a part of my life. Religion is not a bad thing –unless we simply practice religion instead of entering into the relationship that God wants to have with us.
Jesus told one of the most religious men of His day that unless a person is “born again,” he will never see the Kingdom of God. Unless I allow Jesus to transform my heart and mind, it really doesn’t matter in the big picture if I know how to act religious.

Religion might change my behavior, but only Jesus can change my heart. Why is this important? Because acting religious doesn’t forgive my sin. Being religious doesn’t take away the emptiness in my soul. Being religious doesn’t take away my sense of guilt and shame. Religion without relationship only treats the symptom, it doesn’t cure the disease.

It seems to me that religion often makes a hard life even harder.  Because religion cannot change the heart, it tries to control people with laws and expectations.  Religion is good at describing high standards of right behavior –but only a right relationship gives hope and mercy to those who realize they don’t measure up.

When we finally get to the end of ourselves and begin to understand that we hurt, that we are empty inside, that we have deep spiritual needs that we can’t meet ourselves, that there has to be more to life than we are experiencing –when we finally admit that we have made a mess of things and we need divine help, if we turn to religion, we only get the added burden of additional laws that in our hearts we know we can never keep.

Religion makes a hard life harder. But a relationship with God through Jesus gives mercy and hope.

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