X) BREAKING WITH CONVENTION

Luke 6:1-11

It was the Sabbath and over the centuries, especially with the rise of the Pharisaical school, many customs and traditions had been layered upon the Law. People trying to be more holy, and more righteous, had increased the severity and the difficulty of the requirements of the Law until the average Jew had to walk on the proverbial eggshells each day. This was especially true of the Sabbath requirements.

Jesus criticized the Pharisees for their legalistic approach in Matthew 23:4:

“For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders ; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers” (KJV).

However, Jesus refused to be bound by convention and tradition when there were larger issues at hand. In Luke 6 Jesus was in a grainfield with His disciples on the Sabbath and they were hungery. So they picked some of the grain, rubbed off the husk, or the chaff, and ate the raw grain. The Pharisees saw this and immediatley began to criticize Jesus and the disciples for breaking with the religious custom of the day. According to the manmade tradition, it was considered work to remove the husk from the grain and to eat with unwashed hands. There was a long and convoluted list of what constituted work and what was acceptable activity on the Sabbath. In the process of trying to provide minute details on the subject, they had made the Sabbath a day of anxiety and frustration instead of a day of rest and recuperation. Jesus would have none of this. He understood the intent of the Sabbath and would not allow tradition to rob Him or His disciples of the blessing of Sabbath.

Jesus then gave two reasons why their criticism was unfounded. First, He provided a Scriptural precedent:

3 Jesus answered them, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions."

Second, Jesus affirmed His own authority:

5 Then Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath."

How do you know if your organization is being hamstrung by convention? If you hear the people say; “We’ve always done it this way” or, “We’ve never done it like that before,” then you may be dealing with convention that imposes restrictions that have muted the original intention. Great leaders will not allow convention to keep them from moving forward.

In any organization there is a pattern of initiation, growth, and stabilization. An organization can only stay at that place of stabilization for so long. This is a critical time in the life of the organization because it will either decline and die, or it will be invigorated with new vision, new life and with the will to break out of the geocentric orbit and soar into new heights of possibility. But to break with the familiar, with the customary, with convention, requires new energy and a bold willingness on the part of leadership to chart a course that will provide a new trajectory for the future.

Jesus was bound only to the will of the Father and to the integrity of Scripture, but He refused to be bound by manmade restrictions that would have impeded His mission. Great leaders will maintain integrity and will stay true to the mission, but they will not allow custom and tradition to keep the organization from reaching its full potential.

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