Licenced to do good and heal or…
/January 25, 2021
Scripture
…. 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 said 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. (Mark 3:1-6 ESV)
Licenced to do good and heal or…
“You are just being flippant”, or “You are irreverent”, I sometimes have received with pleasure. Other times maybe I should have been more careful. If a judge wears the correct robe but doesn’t do justice, what good is the trapping? If I tithe my income but use it as a way to avoid greater generosity, what good is the observation of a discipline?
Many rules are observed to oil the wheels of society. If we take the trapping seriously but forget the underlying aspiration of a practice, we can get hard hearted. Jesus’ critics watched him heal on a Sabbath -it broke a rule about work. His action caused them to plot his death – okay to do that on a Sabbath, I guess.
Jesus looked them straight in the eye and asked if their rules allowed for good or healing. Their silence was deafening, and Jesus was angered by their callousness. As we navigate our culture it is good to let Jesus look us in the eye and ask if our practices lead to doing good and creating health.
A Prayer for Today
O Jesus, scrutinized by the angry, help us not to join in with them in our approach to life. We are impatient with restrictions and perceived inefficiencies of vaccine delivery. We want ours now, a challenge to our desire to love our neighbour as ourselves. Grant us generosity of spirit that we engage in discussion that creates light and not heat, healing not wounding …. For Jesus’ sake.
