Early witnesses tell a story about Jesus that makes me itchy. I cannot shake the feeling that if I were there, I’d end up on the wrong side of it.
It’s Saturday, the day that good Jews set aside for rest and worship. Jesus is eating with a group mostly made up of Pharisees, religious leaders, devout men with a passion for living rightly before God and teaching others to do the same. Also in the room is a man suffering from a medical condition that causes abnormal swelling. Out of the blue, Jesus asks the table of faith leaders, “Does God’s Law allow healing on the sabbath?”
The room falls awkwardly silent. These faith leaders now have a problem. The scriptures prescribe the death penalty for working on the sabbath. These men aren’t monsters, nor even unreasonable. They all know and accept that rules have exceptions. If somebody tripped and fell down the well, they’d save her from drowning without quibbling if it was too much work for a Saturday. And they’d all fully expect God’s gracious dispensation.
The trouble is, the sick man in this room, of whom they’re now acutely conscience, is not dying of swelling. He needs primary care, not an ambulance. These are good people; of course they want him to get better. In their heart of hearts, some of them might even suspect God would be fine with a little sabbath healing. And yet…where would it stop?
These committed faith leaders know what all pastors and parents also know—give an inch, and most people will quickly take a mile. Many are always already looking for an excuse to do what they want. The most practical solution is to keep sensible guardrails in place. Admit too many easy exceptions, and the guardrails will fall off, and no one will care anymore about God’s commandments at all. With so much at stake, can’t this healing just wait a few hours, to avoid any confusion?
Yep, as a seasoned religious professional myself, I’m pretty sure I’m with the Pharisees on this one.
Then Jesus goes ahead, in the middle of the silence, in the middle of the sabbath, and heals the swollen man anyway.
The God whom Jesus represents wants the healing and freedom of this suffering man. On this we can probably all agree. Could this healing have waited for the following day? Almost certainty.
What apparently could not wait for a different day was the healing of the Pharisees.
Jesus says to the table of devout religious leaders, “Suppose your child or ox fell into a ditch on the Sabbath day? Wouldn’t you immediately pull them out?” Many people mistake the nature of Jesus’ relationship with the Pharisees. There’s a reason he’s at this table: these aren’t Jesus’ enemies but his peers. They’re sincere, dedicated, reformers who are willing to sacrifice to do right. This miracle isn’t about Jesus giving them the divine finger. It’s an invitation Jesus is pleading on God’s behalf for them to accept.
The God whom Jesus represents wants the healing and freedom of all the people around this table. Jesus wants more for them than guardrails; he wants them to know God’s heart. Jesus wants more from them than blind obedience; he wants true seeing and mature with-God-ness. Jesus wants healing in the Pharisees’ vision, their perception of the goodness of God. He wants them to truly apprehend God’s character and desires. Jesus wants the Pharisees to have the freedom to make situational judgments based on a real understanding of God’s deeper will and ways. It’s not enough for them to know God’s commands; to properly apply these commands, they must also know God’s heart.
Even today the divisions in the Christian church break down in lines that would have been quite familiar to Jews in the first century. Some, sincere and devout and eager to please God, cling to the commandments but fear to ask questions about their reasons or to consider that the answers have any relevance. Holy exceptions look too similar to self-interested excuses. Others have given up wrestling with reasons at all because the commandments themselves carry so little weight. The life-discerning liberty of Christ is confused with deathly license, resulting in a forfeit of the healing wisdom of God.
Jesus never said to anyone, “Don’t worry about what you do on the sabbath; it doesn’t really matter.” What Jesus said was, “Understand God’s heart and character and how they are manifested in the sabbath. Then you’ll know how to keep the commandments properly.”
It’s easy to understand why Jesus scared these seasoned faith leaders. Jesus’ aspirations for them and the people in their flocks were bold to the point of recklessness. It’s astonishing to me that Jesus would take this risk, that he would make an invitation to a way of being with God in the world that requires so much maturity and wisdom and insight and character.
But Jesus seems to truly believe we can do better. He believes it enough to invite the risk openly: “Know God’s mind! Purify your own heart by obeying the commands and learning their wisdom. But then press deeper still, to the reasons for the commands, for the ways that they reflect God’s deepest heart. And then make judgments accordingly. Mature, wise, understanding, Spirit-taught judgments. So that you and others both can experience God’s healing, freeing power.”
Imagine a church that was like Jesus in this.
