“What’s the point?” Have you ever been at a meeting at work, family reunion, or school only to leave the meeting wondering what it was about? If we aren’t careful we can do the same when coming to church. We can sing, shout, clap at the preacher, only to leave and not truly know why we were there to begin with. Jesus came to save us. He has the power to change our lives for the good when we surrender. He shared his perfect viewpoint of salvation with the Pharisees in the grainfield and they missed it. Remember, he doesn’t just want us to talk about living a great life through him, he wants us to actually live it out. The point of change is to live the life God intended for us. It’s not a perfect life, but a life of progress.

The point of change is not to merely look different, it’s to be different. ‍

1. Viewpoint

How we see things is important. Jesus was trying to call out the point of the Sabbath, whereas, the Pharisees were looking for a reason to trap Jesus, so they used the Sabbath as their snare. Because they were more focused on keeping the Sabbath than reaping the point of it, they missed out on what Jesus was doing with it. The point of the Sabbath is rest for our souls, which is ultimately found in Jesus himself.

Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” —Mark 2:27-28

2. Standpoint

Then he went back in the meeting place where he found a man with a crippled hand. The Pharisees had their eyes on Jesus to see if he would heal him, hoping to catch him in a Sabbath violation. He said to the man with the crippled hand, “Stand here where we can see you.” —Mark 3:1-3

Jesus asked the man to stand up in front of everyone, knowing that he was asking the man to obey him despite the fact that many thought his actions were breaking the law. All throughout the centuries Jesus is calling generations to stand up and stand out with actions, not just words.

Oftentimes what we look for, we will find. How we see things determines how we do things and why we do them. When we have a “why” the “how” becomes easy. If we don’t understand the point of change, we can find that much of what God has left in his word to be a blessing for our lives has turned into a burden. We can choose today to change our perspective and take a stand for what truly matters. Our viewpoint will determine our standpoint. And our standpoint will lead to our boiling point. Our boiling point determines our actions and what we are passionate about. The point of changing is to love God and love people. May righteousness be what we are all about. May we not miss the point of change, but may our change be the point.