Scripture: “These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.”
Observation: Our capacity for focusing on the wrong things and missing the essential thing is pretty amazing. In today’s text, Paul is referring to the rules he mentioned in the last verse. They were rules about eating and drinking and about various religious festivals. The sorts of rules about eating and drinking were either about what food and drink was permissible and what was not, or about whether Christian believers should eat food and drink that has been sacrificed to an idol before it was set before them. The religious festivals, the Jewish ones, would have been about keeping covenant. Any non-Jewish religious festivals would have been about giving honor, worship, and possibly sacrifices to some other religion’s god.
Paul sets before us a simple contrast: the shadow and the reality. Rules and observances are attractive because they provide us with an easy to understand transaction. Do this, get that. Simple exchange—if you can keep up with all the “do this’s.” Christianity provides us with something that is both more challenging and more attainable. Trust Jesus, get life. It’s a relationship.
Transactional religion puts it all on us to do enough. Relational faith offers it all through Jesus. The rules and the religious activities were and are not the thing. They were a shadow of the real thing.
We get seduced into putting more stock in the shadows than we ought to. To be charitable, the shadow might have some purpose it is serving. We have rules and rituals in our lives that draw us away from God. We’ve also got rules and rituals in our lives that help us get closer to Him. But in the case of the good rules and rituals, we’ve got to remember that they’re not the point—He is.
The shadow lets you know something or someone is there, it just isn’t the real thing. The reality, the real thing that connects us to God, is Christ.
Application: What rules and/or rituals in your life draw you away from God? Which ones draw you toward Him? How can you keep them from replacing Him as the reality?
Prayer: Lord, keep me centered on you, the ultimate reality of my life. Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
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What rules and/or rituals in your life draw you away from God? Which ones draw you toward Him? How can you keep them from replacing Him as the reality?
The most obvious are holidays, based on religion, which have been commercialized and are far, far from faith rituals. Christmas, Easter to name two. All about gifts, decorations, baskets full of candy eggs, stuffed animals and the like. These rituals are all well and good for the children in our family but are we sharing with them the true meaning of these holidays? Are they Jesus centered? I think not. We are all guilty. We Christians need to remember, especially during this season, what Christ has given us; forgiveness, eternal life with Him, if we don’t squander the opportunity Don’t become blinded by the “bling” but be dazzled by the light of Christ Jesus.
Daily life takes me away from God. I must keep Him in my thoughts. So many times during the day I hear or think of something and I answer “thank you God” or “please help me to understand”.