Religion or Relationship - Luke 6:1-11

Once while Jesus and His disciples were going through the grainfields on the Sabbath, some of His disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain. Some Pharisees considered plucking grain on the Sabbath as forbidden work and challenged Jesus on the matter. The penalty for profaning the Sabbath was death (Exodus 31:14), so this was a pretty serious charge made against Jesus' disciples by the Pharisees. Jesus defended the actions of His disciples by telling the Pharisees that He (the Son of Man) was lord of the Sabbath (vs. 5). In Mark's record of this incident Jesus tells the Pharisees that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath (Mark 2:27).  On another occasion when Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the Sabbath, He healed a man with a withered hand much to the chagrin of the Pharisees. This time Jesus defended His action by asking if it was wrong to do a good deed or to save someone's life on the Sabbath. So does God ask us to reject our humanity in order to serve Him? That's the point that Jesus tries to make to the Pharisees in each of these Sabbath controversies. Sometimes in our zeal to serve God we don't see the forest for the trees. What's more important, knowing the rules of our religion or knowing God? Don't choose religion over a relationship with Jesus.