Law Breaking

If the rule requires a work-around, maybe it isn't a good rule or law.

Now Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, "Woman, you are set free from your ailment." When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day." But the Lord answered him and said, "You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?" When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing. - Luke 13:10-17

In today's Gospel, Jesus demonstrates an important flaw in the interpretation of the Sabbath, the day God gave us to rest.

Because we cannot be trusted to interpret that commandment for ourselves, we need others to create many laws about specific things we can and cannot do on the day of rest.  This is where the hypocrisy Jesus talks about comes from.

Technically, Jesus did do work on the Sabbath, which is prohibited, but he points out that what he did was no different than what others also do.  There are things we must do to properly care for one another and for our animals, like free them so they will not die.

If that is breaking the law, the law needs to be changed, or people will suffer needlessly.

And why would God want us to suffer on the day he gives us to rest?

Two things are needed to get this right, trust and common sense.  Both seem to be lacking here. 

We have this problem today.  Some people want more detailed and specific laws to control people and situations that could lead to harm, while also wanting work-around for outdated laws that keep people from enjoying what we have to offer.

If the goal is to live peacefully in God's Kingdom, we should start from a position of trust.

There was an interesting discussion on the radio yesterday about trust.  The author of the article claims we are actually living in a time of greater trust in one another, as evidenced by online shopping and ride sharing. 

We trust a stranger to drive us where we need to go with Uber, and we trust a stranger in a foreign land to send us a product after we pay him money on Ebay.  These are two things our parents warned us never to do.  Don't ride with strangers and don't give money to a stranger.

So, if we are finding ways to be more trusting, maybe we should take a long hard look at our laws and see how we could infuse them with a modicum of trust.

Then everyone could have a good Sabbath.

More to come...