Word to the Wise
Wednesday, January 21, 2009 - St. Agnes, virgn and martyr
[Hebrews 7:1-3, 15-17 and Mark 3:1-6]Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?
The first chapters of the Gospel of Mark demonstrate the growing rift between Jesus and the Jewish authorities. (In the case of the incident in today's gospel, the opposition would bring together people who had no use for each other: Pharisees and Herodians! ) The mutual hatred of Jesus is greater than their mutual hatred of each other and unites them in plotting against him! But this is what provides the supreme irony of this gospel incident. The murderous intent of the Pharisees about Jesus on the Sabbath means that they consider it lawful to do evil on the Sabbath but not lawful to do good on the Sabbath (because they oppose Jesus' healing of the man in a non-emergency situation!) This turns the whole moral world on its head! But for them, Jesus' gratuitous healing of the man with the withered hand was an "in your face" act. From the viewpoint of Jesus, the man needed healing and the Pharisees needed a challenge to their rigid views. One can only wonder what the man with the restored arm felt. Both joy AND fear? Sabbath rest is a cornerstone of traditional Jewish (and, indeed, should be of Christian) faith. In Jesus' time, it signified the original creational covenant. Jesus appears to the Pharisees to be breaking that covenant, but the irony is that the one who originally created is the one who is establishing a new covenant in their very sight. To them, he is a traveling rabbi and healer! There are times when we need to avoid letting indignation blind us to the possibility that God may be working through a situation that seems to challenge cherished beliefs or customs, even those we might consider to be of divine origin in the first place! As a former student parishioner of mine was fond of asking: "What is God trying to teach us in this situation?" I will always be grateful to her for that insight! AMEN
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