Continuing from a previous post Jesus Authority IV Jesus . . . .~Richard Neitzel Holzapfel and Gaye Strathearn, Today, we do not expect a group of Pharisees to come from Jerusalem to see if we are observing the traditions or the elders. Instead modern society and popular culture have created a new set of traditions, obligations, and expectations that can weigh us down. These include the pursuit of perpetual youth and the never-ending need to be popular, admired, and envied. They also include the need to conform to political correctness—to accept what society declares right instead of allowing people to vote their conscience. “He Will Give You Rest”, a much-touted slogan, is unacceptable when it diverges from what popular culture accepts and promotes. As a result, society points a proverbial finger and attempts to shame, belittle, challenge, pressure, and condemn us for the way we live, adding to our burdens the weight of public disapproval just as heavy as the Pharisees’ self-righteous condemnation of Jesus in these stories.
On a basic level, the commandments or traditions of the elders included the pressure to live in the right neighborhood, to drive the right car, and to own the right wardrobe. Elder Bruce C. Hafen captured the essence of our times when he wrote: “Every day we hear messages of indulgence from today’s culture of self-absorption and personal entitlement: you are entitled to a life of pleasure; go ahead, pamper yourself—you deserve it.”10
Our children and grandchildren have a double burden. Not only have they inherited Western attitude and unrestricted consumption—“He who has the most toys wins!”— but they have also failed to learn the lessons from the generations who lived through the Great Depression and World War II—“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.”
Voices from a variety of sources, including TV, the internet, current movies, modern music, and popular magazines, seek our notice. Not only do modern-day Pharisees want the attention of our eyes and ears but they want our hearts and minds as well. They want to shape our attitudes and control our lifestyles in ways much more insidious and burdensome than the strictures the oral Torah placed around the law two thousand years ago. These heavy burdens and human-constructed yokes weigh us down and burn us out. In the story of the Sabbath day, Matthew provides and example of how Jesus lightens the burdens that come as a result of taking upon us false traditions and values of our age—freeing us to live out God’s original will.~~~~Richard Neitzel Holzapfel and Gaye Strathearn, “He Will Give You Rest” p.31-33 (For the first post of this series, click: Neitzel Holzapfel and Gaye Strathearn, “He Will Give You Rest” p.33-35 (
