Simply Jesus | Finding Freedom from Performance Culture - Fr. Aaron Damiani

The Holy Ghost of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to Mark, one

Sabbath he was going through the grain fields, and as they made

their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain.

And the Pharisees, we are saying to him, look, why are they doing

what is not lawful on the Sabbath?

And he said to them, Have you never read what David did when

he was in need and was hungry, He and those who were with him,

how he entered the House of God in the time of abatha, the high

priest, and ate the bread of the presence, which is not lawful

for any but the priest to eat, and also gave it to those who

were with him. And he said to them, The Sabbath

was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.

Again He entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a

withered hand, and they watched Jesus to see whether he would

heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him.

And he said to the man with the withered hand, Come here.

And he said to them, Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good

or to do harm, to save life or to kill?

But they were silent. And he looked around at them

with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and say to

the man, Stretch out your hand. He stretched it out, and his

hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and

immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him.

How to destroy him? The gospel of the Lord?

Let's pray together, Lord, we pray now that just as you

brought the liberating power of the gospel to your disciples and

to the people who needed it on that day of Sabbath, we pray

that you would bring freedom for us, Lord, in whatever ways that

performance culture or rules based performance is gripping

our our lives, our, our, our families, our friends.

We pray, Lord, that the power and beauty and light of the

gospel would shine now into our hearts, into our church and into

our city. We pray this in the name of the

Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

And please be seated. We're returning to our series

that we started last fall called simply Jesus, and we're walking

through the Gospel of Mark section by section and looking

at the beauty, the power, simplicity of Jesus and his

gospel. So I admit you to turn there now

it's imprinted in your bulletins or turn there in there in your

turn there in your Bibles as well.

Mark 2 verses 23 through chapter 3, verse 6.

Mark 2:23

In high school, I attended a Christian School that was very

strict. Every day the men were to wear

ties, every day the women were to wear dresses or skirts of

appropriate length, and under no circumstances were the men or

the women to hold hands with one another.

I joined in my first year of this school.

I joined the puppeteering team. And we worked on and put on an

amazing show for the school. It was a banger.

It was a huge hit. It was a rare moment of fun.

But all the fun ended when our team was called into the chief

administrator's office because someone in the audience, one of

the authority figures, thought they heard one of the puppets

say the word. Darn, which was considered one

of those junior swear words. Now, if you're if you're on the

outside looking in on an environment like this, it's

hilarious. It's quirky and silly.

If you're on the inside, it does not feel funny.

It's heavy. It's super serious.

Lot is riding on these kinds of silly situations because behind

all the surface level behaviors that everyone is trying to keep,

there are these heart level questions like this.

Do I belong here? Am IA good person or a bad

person? Am I better than everyone else

or worse than everyone else? Does God approve of me?

Do others love me? Am I looked at or am I truly

seen? And whenever we try to answer

those questions, those deep questions with surface level

behavior, that is what we might call a performance culture.

And the behaviors might be different, but the questions are

pretty much the same. You know, human beings are are

basically of the same nature wherever you go.

And so my school environment's one example of performance

culture, but you might have your own story of a performance

culture. The preschool Co-op parents

group can be a performance culture.

So can the college dormitory. So can the sibling text thread,

right. So can the Zoom call with the

department heads, as you're talking about the quarterly

reviews. Where do we find ourselves,

like, playing silly little games to earn love and to prove

ourselves? Where do we find ourselves

jumping through kind of bizarre hoops to get approval from

certain people? Where have simple interactions

become kind of heavy and weighted and complicated and

sort of charged? As we'll see in our gospel

reading today, Jesus Christ came to set us free from performance

cultures and from slavery to performance cultures.

His gospel is the opposite of performance cultures.

It's simple, it's clear, it's life giving, it's honest.

He doesn't play our silly games, but He does answer the deep

questions of the heart that drive those silly games in the

1st place. He says in me you are forgiven,

in me you are loved, in the Father you belong, You are free.

And if you can just imagine whatever, whatever way in which

performance culture has gripped your heart or made life heavy,

imagine releasing that and just knowing that you could walk

free, that you could live a little bit more courageously,

and that you could actually let God's love fill the place of

heaviness that you carry around. The gospel of performance just

tends to suck the life out of people.

And Jesus Christ came to bring life abundantly and to relieve

us of everything that would weigh us down.

And I wonder if that's why he allowed the behavior in verse 23

of Mark 2. You can look there as it says,

Mark says this one Sabbath, he, Jesus was going through the

grain fields. And as they made their way, his

disciples began to pluck heads of grain.

Now, I don't know if you've ever plucked heads of grain before,

but they must have been pretty hungry to eat raw grain.

It was edible. Probably they would have

preferred like hot, fresh bread. But the heads of grain were, you

know, right there and they walked everywhere and there

probably didn't have a lot of like, food on hand, money on

hand. So here they have some kind of

sustenance. And there and there maybe they

give Jesus a look like, am I allowed to do this?

And maybe he smiles back at them and they just pluck it and eat

it and chew on it. And how that, how good that must

have tasted, how refreshing those heads of grain must have

tasted on a hot Palestinian day where you are just, you know,

needing something to fuel your ministry and your walk and

everything else. And, you know, I just imagine

Jesus. Jesus may have smiled.

Maybe he shrugged his shoulders. Maybe he raised his eyebrows

like he knew what was coming because the very next verse,

it's almost as if the Pharisees pop out of the grain fields.

They certainly are right there, verse 24, ready to catch them.

The Pharisees were saying to them, look, why are they doing

what is not lawful on the Sabbath?

Immediately, Pharisees, they notice an infraction.

It's a simple thing, just a basic thing.

Someone's just eating, you know, heads of grain, and they're

there and it's not lawful on the Sabbath.

You're breaking the rules. Their intention, their focus was

like, OK, it's the Sabbath, what are the rules?

What are the rules? But God's intention for the

Sabbath was not the rules. God's intention for Sabbath from

the very beginning was the rest. Sabbath rest, not Sabbath rules.

Rest for you, rest for me. For six days we we labor.

For six days we're carrying out hard labor.

But the 7th day we rest Why? Because God loves us, because

we're not slaves, because he he wants us to be filled with life.

That does mean that we don't work.

And so the question was like, what does not working mean?

And so some of the lawyers of the day were working really hard

to be like, OK, well, you can't skin a fish and you can't like,

you know, pluck heads of grain and you can't sort one thing

from the other. And there's all these things

that are not. But the focus was off of God's

love, off of the rest of Sabbath onto the rules of Sabbath.

And they're, they, they came up with like 30-9 different rules,

which were very, very specific. And their focus was on don't

break those. And ironically, Sabbath had

become the heaviest day of the week.

It was what they were so focused on.

And we go, why was Sabbath? Why were they so focused on the

rules? And we have to remember those

deep questions of the heart. Remember those those burning,

churning questions of the heart of do I belong and am I loved

and how do I rank and does God approve of me?

And just think, you know, the Pharisees, these are like

regular human beings just like you and me.

And you consider their situation.

You know, foreign armies had dominated their people like 1

after another for centuries. There's lots of generational,

you know, trauma and being shuffled around and moved

around. Their culture was despised,

their rights were taken away. And you know what?

The Sabbath was one of the only things that distinguished their

culture and their religion from other people.

It was one of the only things that they had.

It was central to their covenant.

It was central to their story. It's central to our story.

So of course they would care about it.

The problem was not the Sabbath. The problem was the pressure

that they put on the Sabbath and Sabbath rules and one another to

answer the deep questions that only the gospel can answer and

satisfy. The truth is, I've got some

Pharisee in me. Maybe you've got some Pharisee

in you. Where are we watching for those

infractions? Where does fairness matter more

to us than fullness of grace? Where does rules matter more to

us than rest, behavior more than belonging?

Do we like Santa Claus? Keep a naughty list?

Who's on the naughty list? How did they get there?

They ate the rest of the chocolate ice cream.

That's what they did. Or they got into credit card

debt. Shame on them.

They hurt my friend. They're on the naughty list.

They cut in line in Costco when clearly everyone is running late

and everyone's stressed. They said something offensive

and ignorant in the year 2026. The thing is, it's like not hard

to become an accidental Pharisee.

It's not hard to pop out of the bushes and say you did an

infraction. It is not lawful to say what you

said. It is not lawful to do what you

did, and you don't belong and you are not worthy of love

anymore. The thing is that we could all

use some of what Jesus brought which is this gospel freedom,

the simplicity and he provides it.

As the story continues in verse 25 Jesus responds to the

Pharisees accusation and he said to them, have you never read

what David did when he was in need and was hungry?

He and those who were with him, how he entered the House of God

in the time of Abbathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the

presence, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat,

and also gave it to those who were with him.

Jesus is telling a story here from First Samuel 21 when David,

Israel's true king, was running for his life from Saul who was

literally trying to kill him. What did God do in that moment

for David? God provided a way for David to

stay alive. David was starving, his men were

starving, and so how did God provide for David?

God provided for David by giving him some of the bread that was

consecrated for the Levitical priests.

And according to ceremony law, only they could eat it.

But when David broke into this unholy site, not in Jerusalem,

but off site nevertheless, dedicated to God, the priest

gave him the consecrated bread. David ate it.

David shared some of it with his men.

And you know what? That was God's provision for

them. It meant they broke a ceremonial

rule, but they stayed alive and David fulfilled the greater

call, the greater, you know, path before him which which was

to simply live his life and eventually rule Israel and

become king. So here's the point.

Jesus says it in verse 27. The Sabbath was made for man and

women. The Sabbath was made for people,

not man for the Sabbath, not people for the Sabbath.

So the Son of Man, he's referring to himself is Lord

even over the even of the Sabbath.

The Son of Man is Lord even over the Sabbath.

Friends, listen, wherever Jesus is Lord, there is freedoms.

Jesus is Lord, and when he is Lord over a situation, he

restores it to God's life, giving love, God's life, giving

purposes, God's true heart for the Sabbath, which is it is for

people. Sabbath is God's container, his

fountain for pouring out life for his people.

It's not meant to be a sieve or a drain on people to suck the

life out of them and grind them into the ground.

It is not intended to be a burden.

It is intended to be a burden lifter.

And I wonder, what performative area of our life could we

declare Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, is Lord over this area,

over this performance culture? Where are their burdens or

pressures in our life to get things exactly right, to never

make a mistake? Can you imagine Jesus being Lord

over that area? Where are their judgements

against others from our own hearts, contempt for others,

where we could say Jesus is Lord over this situation, over this

judgement, over this, over this sense of rejection over other

people? Where are there silly games and

rigid rules that we're kind of caught up in?

We see others caught up in? Can you imagine saying Jesus is

Lord over this situation? It's for the benefit of people,

not the other way around. Ask Jesus to become Lord over

it, friends, and over you, and to fill your heart with freedom

and love and to lift the burden. And then things begin to change.

How do we know though? How do we know that the gospel

of Jesus is beginning to to transform our heart and give

freedom from performance cultures?

I think one test is this. How do we see people who have

nothing to offer us? How do we treat them?

How do we lift them up? And case in point is the man in

verse 1 of chapter 3. Here's a test case again.

He Jesus entered the synagogue and a man was there with a

withered hand. Now this is likely a long

standing condition for this man. We don't know why his hand was

was withered, as Mark called it. It could have been from an

injury and then maybe it was paralyzed and he couldn't use it

anymore. So could have been atrophy in

his hand. And maybe it was from birth,

maybe that he was born with a, a smaller hand or a, you know,

just a, you know, a hand that was paralyzed.

But in any case, he had a hand that he probably couldn't use

very much. In a manual labor economy.

This put him at a huge disadvantage.

So he couldn't perform the feats of strength that other men could

perform. And in a religious culture of

outward appearance, he would be diminished.

He wouldn't, his body wouldn't be whole as it were.

And so he would be in some ways kind of put off to the side.

He could still come into the synagogue and still clean

technically, but he would certainly not have been a

platform. He certainly would not have been

considered whole. Now, how did the Pharisee see

this man? Verse 2?

And they watched Jesus to see whether he would heal him on the

Sabbath so that they might accuse him, Accuse Jesus.

All the Pharisees saw in this man was an object.

Some might call him what's called an NPC.

You familiar with this phrase? A non player character.

He's just kind of like part of the game they're playing.

They don't actually see it. They're looking at him because

he's useful to their game, but they don't actually care about

him as a person. Jesus, on the other hand, sees a

man that he loves. Verse 3.

And Jesus said to the man with the withered hand, come here,

come here. Word for here really is this

like middle, middle of the synagogue.

There's a a way in which everyone can see what's about to

happen. This man is drawn from wherever

he's sitting into the middle, into the center, not only of the

synagogue, but of Jesus's presence and his Kingdom, not to

perform something for everyone, but to simply receive God's

healing and God's love. Now Jesus turns to his critics

and he he uses their words against them when he says this

in verse 3. Is it lawful on the Sabbath to

do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?

What a brilliant question. What's lawful guys on the

Sabbath? You know, questions have a way

of framing reality. And it's like, at the end of the

day, what do you want to be doing or not doing on the

Sabbath to do good or harm, to save life or to kill life?

And it just cuts to the heart because he's making them choose.

You know, look at this man. He clearly has something that is

causing him suffering. Do you want to do him passive

harm by denying him the healing that would absolutely change his

life? Is that really how you're going

to to get to me? Is that really what you're going

to do? Are you going to stand in his

way? Or are you going to stand with

him and say, yes, we are for his healing.

And that's what the Sabbath is for.

Choose this day, good or evil, healing or killing, but really

at the end of the day, come out of hiding, come out of your

silent, judgment filled hypocrisy and stand either with

Jesus in his Kingdom or against it.

And I wonder if in that moment when Jesus poses that question,

if he was like hoping for a change of heart, hoping that

they would like be cut to the heart and that they would come

to the center too, and that they would stand with this man and

they would stop trying to use him to get to Jesus, whatever

the case may be, there was no change of heart.

Because verse 5 shows us that Jesus can see he's not getting

anywhere with these, with these, with these people.

And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their

hardness of heart. If we could just stop for a

moment to appreciate that Jesus cared enough to be angry and to

grieve in response to their hardness of heart, you know,

they didn't care about the man. They only cared about their

games, their status. And Jesus's heart was like

strong enough, connected enough, compassionate enough to get

angry and to and to like let himself feel that and to really

actually want their hearts to change.

I think Jesus cared just as much about the Pharisees as he did as

he did about this man. The difference was that this man

was ready to receive what Jesus had to offer and they were not

in. Jesus heart was also large

enough and tender enough to heal this man.

At the end of verse 5, Jesus said to the man, stretch out

your hand, stretch out. Here's that act of agency.

Jesus is calling this man too, and he stretched it out and his

hand was restored. Such love, such tenderness for a

man who had nothing to give to Jesus in return.

It's simple, it's restful, it's good, it has all of the marks of

Jesus is Lord. Wherever Jesus is Lord, there's

something simple and restful and good and life giving.

But for his enemies, they wanted to keep it complicated.

They want to stay in their games.

And so mark ends with a very chilling aside.

Verse 6, the Pharisees went out and and immediately held counsel

with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

The irony is that the Pharisees were also working on the

Sabbath, just secretly. And this is what all performance

cultures produce. They produce sort of chilling

hypocrisy where on the outside you're doing everything you can

to put up a face, put up a front, appear like you're

keeping like all of the rules and you're really good.

But then secretly there's this other side, there's this split

personality, as it were, where secretly there's all kinds of

terrible things coming out and there's a private life that no

one would recognize. And The thing is like, again,

who among us has not done this? Who among us does not put on a

face and been fake and two faced?

Who among us has not been truly a little complicated?

The gospel of Jesus, friends came for complicated 2 faced

people to help to free us from that to to change us from the

inside out. It's simple and the gospel can,

I would say, untangle all these knots that we get ourselves in

because one day after this, Jesus would their their first of

all, their plot would work eventually and Jesus would

stretch out his hands not to be healed, but to be pierced for

all the for everyone who lives a complicated life.

His cross was honest. It was simple, it was public.

It was a public declaration. God loves you.

God came to forgive you. Your sin is real.

It has really hurt people. I came to forgive it.

I came to heal it. And here is grace.

But if you want to receive it, you got to come to the middle.

If you got to come to the cross, you got to come out from the

shadows into the light. Would we but come to the cross?

Would we but come to the center where Jesus calls us like he

called the man with the withered hand?

Come here. Come here out of silly games

into a simple gospel. Come here out of judgement and

into forgiveness. Come here out of performance.

I'll give you peace. Come here.

My yoke is easy. Come here.

My burden is light. Come here, sister.

Come here, brother. Stretch out your hands to be

cleansed. Stretch out the part of you that

needs to be healed that you don't want to show anyone.

Open your heart to be loved. Give me the knots and let me

untangle them. Open your eyes to see those on

the outside who are silently asking the people around us who

are silently asking themselves, do I belong here?

Where do I rank here? Am I better or worse than the

people around me? Am I safe?

Does God approve of me? Bring them to the center.

Bring them to me, Jesus says, and I will give to them what I

have given to you. It's the simple gospel.

Jesus is Lord Hallelujah, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy

Spirit, Amen.