Jesus went to the very heart of the matter. He recalled that when David ''was in need and was hungry'' he entered the very precincts of the house of God and there ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for any but the priests to eat. This teaching was revolutionary to the legalists of that day. All legalism sacrifices human need to ceremonial observance. Let the law be upheld at all costs, regardless of human suffering or inner turmoil.
Men are but machines, mere robots, to perform stated acts.
The goal of religion is to develop one in all his faculties and potentials to the highest possible degree. It is to encourage and assist him in the arrival at that place where his personality fulfils the divine responsibility which is his to bear. When religion becomes destructive of the finer virtues, when it engenders hatred, animosity and carping criticism, when it drives apart those who claim to love Jesus instead of drawing them closer together it is prostituted to the baser elements of our earthbound existence. It is a sad error to mistake being loyal to the party or to partisan traditions with being loyal to Jesus and the ideals which he espoused and for which he died. It is possible that nothing in our day so militantly stands in the way of real Christian living as party prejudices.