Friday, May 20,
2016
Then Jesus went over to their synagogue, where he noticed a man
with a deformed hand. The Pharisees
asked Jesus, “Does the law permit a person to work by healing on the Sabbath?” (They were hoping he would say yes, so they
could bring charges against him.) And he
answered, “If you had a sheep that fell into a well on the Sabbath,
wouldn’t you work to pull it out? Of
course you would. And
how much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Yes, the law permits a person to do good on
the Sabbath.” Then he said to the
man, “Hold out your hand.” So the man held out his hand, and it was
restored, just like the other one! Then the Pharisees called a meeting to plot how to
kill Jesus. Matthew 12:9-14(NLT)
Sometimes the miracles of Jesus
are so spectacularly overwhelming our poor minds are blown away, and we miss
the larger miracle of why. Of course Jesus healed the man’s hand with a
compassionate touch, and that amazing and fascinating; it is also huge as a
teaching point to be tender and generous towards those in need.
But when you truly wrap your mind
around the context of what was happening (Jesus was sparring with Pharisees
over Sabbath law), you see a loftier point than just one man’s suffering
relieved. Jesus was demonstrating that
the law is our teacher, not our master.
In the case of rescuing a lost sheep (whether it is an actual sheep, or
the kind of sheep that sits next to you in the pew on Sunday), the law’s
command to not do labor on the Sabbath must yield to doing
good as a matter of honoring God.
General Conference (of the United
Methodist Church) ends today. That body
is the legislative branch of the church’s governance, and they grapple with
Sabbath-breaking and such. This
quadrennial gathering typically is a tug-of-war between the left and the right,
much as we see played out in today’s political/cultural drama over which part
of the tribe will be in power for the next four years. This meeting in Portland has been no
different, and, in-fact, particularly contentious.
Back to Jesus and the Pharisees;
when Jesus healed the man with the withered hand it authenticated his teaching. Unfortunately, but typically, it didn’t
convince the Pharisees, it made them angry; in fact, angry enough to convene a
closed-door, back-room plotting session to kill Jesus.
Back to Portland; I suspect there
will be lots of smoke-filled back-room deals cut over the issues facing the
United Methodist Church leadership until the General Conference meets
again. My prayer is that, when the smoke
clears, the more withered parts of the body will receive a compassionate touch,
rather than being brushed-aside by the rising current of cultural storms.
And that is always the rub;
squabbles over issues that are one person’s Sabbath-breaking, and another’s
God-honoring, usually push people aside to the gutter while the big
boys fight their fights.
Lord, have mercy!
For You Today
If you tend to get tense about
the rumblings of church splits, agenda-pushing over Sabbath-breaking, or
political campaigns of any kind…here’s my two-cent bit of help for the day that
can actually make a difference:
Go find a withered hand and be
compassionate.
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