by Steve Brown
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Galatians 5:1

Read Matthew 12:1–8.
Now I want to tell you something radical: if you’re going to be free, it means being normal. Jesus’s disciples were hungry. They weren’t trying to make a statement or an obscene gesture to the Pharisees. They weren’t saying, “We are free—look at us!” They were simply hungry and they ate the grain. In today’s world, people standing around would object to their eating by saying something like, “You can’t eat that. It will make you fat and give you cancer.” But Jesus would respond to those little-“l” laws the same way He responded to the big-“L” law the Pharisees were concerned about. He would tell them they had it all wrong.
Many of us have this really stupid idea that if we don’t seem like we have it all together, we will hurt our witness. Let me tell you something: this doesn’t help your witness. Nobody’s ever drawn to Christ by people who pretend to be something they’re not. Instead, they’re drawn to Christ when they see how messy you are and how honest you are, and yet how much at the same time you enjoy the love of Jesus and trust in Him rather than appearances. Yes, if you do this, you might end up living your life in such a way that uptight Christians doubt your salvation, but people who enjoy grace and people who desperately want grace will be attracted to you, and you will look normal.
The point? Be who you are. And I think that’s what was going on in Matthew 12. The disciples were hungry, so they got some food and they ate; and the Pharisees went ballistic.
Here’s what Martin Luther had to say about that kind of religion in his treatise on Christian liberty: “Use your freedom constantly and consistently … despite the tyrants and the stubborn, so they may learn that they are impious, that their law and works are of no avail for righteousness, and that they had no right to set them up.”

Thought to Remember for Today

Many of us think we can win others to Christ by being punctilious and overly strict with ourselves. But neither Jesus the Savior nor Martin Luther the Reformer would agree. What draws people to Christ aren’t your multitudinous rules and straitlaced life but rather the one-way love of Jesus, who loves to save and welcome sinners.

Fitzpatrick, E. (2016). Grace untamed: a 60-day devotional. Colorado Springs, CO: David C Cook.