DAILY DOSE OF HOPE – BLOG – NAIMA LETT
BREAK THE LAW?
(photo source)
I was 16. I had just gotten my license. I was trying to make curfew.
Things didn’t go so well.
I “rolled through” the stop sign across from the mall. Before midnight. Nobody knew. Except that really big cop lurking in the shadows waiting to catch the unsuspecting, almost innocent teen who was simply trying to get home and avoid having her car privileges revoked.
I begged. I pleaded. I threw myself at the mercy of the cop court/jury of one.
He looked up my record and saw I had no ‘priors’, so he gave me a warning.
I learned a valuable lesson:
Don’t break the law.
But breaking the law is exactly what Jesus is accused of – twice!- on the same day! – when it comes to the Sabbath.
This week, we’ve been exploring rest and thinking about the principle of the sabbath. We saw yesterday in The Rest Test that rest ain’t easy and God’s people struggle with the mandate to cease from work once a week in order to honor God and be refreshed. The sabbath observance is such an important law that breaking it is punishable by death. EX 31:12-7
Thus, the Pharisees are quick to point out when Jesus, aka the Radical Rabbi, breaks the law.
Today’s Meditation
Read below or click: MATTHEW 12:1-14
1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. 2 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.” 3 He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. 5 Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent? 6 I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. 7 If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” 9 Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, 10 and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” 11 He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” 13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. 14 But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.
THE PROBLEM
The problem is that Jesus does two things on the Sabbath that seemingly break the Sabbath.
In the wilderness, when God’s people break the Sabbath to gather food AFTER He has told them not to, He rebukes them, “How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My instructions?” (EX 16:26-9)
So, why, then, is it OK for Jesus’ disciples to gather food on the Sabbath? Are they not held to the same standard? Do different rules apply to the Son of God? Does He get special treatment?
Since He is the Lord of the Sabbath, does that mean He is the one person that can do whatever He wants on the Sabbath?
Why is it acceptable for Jesus to break the law?
THE PROBLEM BEHIND THE PROBLEM
Jesus wants to address the real problem behind the problem. Jesus is after something deeper. He challenges the motives of His accusers. He is after the heart.
The truth is that the Pharisees are more concerned about keeping the law than caring for people. They are being legalistic. Jesus quotes two examples in which needs of physical and spiritual hunger are met on the Sabbath without consequence to breaking the Sabbath.
Notice, in both examples, Jesus does not say, “They didn’t break the law”.
He says, “Their actions are not lawful” and “They desecrate, yet are innocent”.
Jesus does not pretend the Law is not there. Be clear. Jesus could choose to follow the Law. He is the Law. He says that He has come to fulfill the Law, not abolish it. (Matthew 5:17-20) Jesus knows the Law.
Jesus basically unpacks the Law. He says, “It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath”. He challenges the Pharisees to do good. In other words, care for people. Meet needs. If healing is necessary, heal. If hunger is a need, feed.
Jesus gives an example of a sheep falling into a pit that the Pharisees would rescue on the Sabbath. Certainly, people are more valuable than sheep, He concludes. He wants them to shift their hearts to caring as much for people as they do for keeping the law.
THE CONSEQUENCES aka A HOT MESS
Too bad Jesus doesn’t have a cop that can look up His record and see no ‘priors’ and give Him a warning. His little break-the-law-to-make-a-point exercise ends in a murder plot.
How the Pharisees are able to justify this is beyond me. If gathering food on the Sabbath breaks the law, certainly plotting to kill somebody is a law breaker! “Do not murder” and “Honor the Sabbath” are part of the same Ten Commandments (EX 20:8-17), yet, the Pharisees overlook the “Do not murder” clause.
It seems to me that the very people who are bringing charges against Jesus for breaking the law are eager to break the law when it fits their agenda. Talk about hypocritical.
This is a hot mess.
Hot. Mess.
BREAK THE LAW?
And the moral of the story is stop at stop signs. Just kidding, but we do need to obey the laws of our land as well as God’s laws. Let’s stop at red lights. Pay our taxes. Don’t kill. Don’t steal. Laws are in place for a reason. Please don’t go away talking ’bout, “Naima told me to go break the law”. I’m not advocating law-breaking.
But there are also times when we break the law to expose hypocrisy. Jesus did. Rosa Parks did. She broke the law and wouldn’t give up her seat and move to the back of the bus, so she was arrested. That incident is seen as the straw that broke the bulldog’s back and propelled the Civil Rights movement forward.
A month ago, Hollywood’s most likable megastar, Academy Award winner George Clooney and his father were arrested protesting the Sudanese government’s slaughter of its own citizens. That arrest high publicized the abuse that is happening in Sudan.
Who would think that something as simple as the Sabbath is a law worth fighting over? But Jesus and the Pharisees have their own little showdown over this mandate to weekly rest.
If ever I have to choose sides though, I’m going to go with Jesus, seeing as He’s God and all, and seeing as He created the Law and knows how best to interpret it. He says, “It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath”, so let’s focus on doing good.
The Do-Gooder (except that time when I got pulled over for running a stop sign :=),
Naima