Matthew 12:9-12
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.”
Reflection: Religion versus Relationship
Written By: Pastor Jesse Caro
Jesus now has become exceedingly popular. As his popularity swells, the pharisees begin to lose traction as authorities of religious practice. How could they compete with a person who is healing infirmities and casting out demons? Having lost credibility and a following from the crowd, the Pharisees seek any tactic and reason to accuse Jesus such that they could seek to get him killed. Of all of the hair-brained ideas, they try to accuse Jesus of breaking the rules: healing on the Sabbath. Healing is “work,” after all, and work is not prohibited on the Sabbath.
And this story is a learning lesson as to what is a Pharisee. They did not just exist 2000 years ago. Not at all! They exist today. A pharisee is a person who is so set on the religious rules that they think (wrongly) that abiding by the rule is righteousness. They think that checking a box of mandates makes you good. Jesus, on the other hand, believes that what makes you good is a disposition that begins on the inside. In this case, should it not be that someone’s care for another human outweighs a rule written somewhere? Jesus calls the Pharisee out for breaking the rules for animals but not loving people enough to care for them over and above their dogma. This, of course, is an instruction to us… and it is simple: we should care about people more than our rules. Rules are guideposts but they are not, in themselves, righteousness. Rules exist to serve people and love them, not to spite them. May we learn to be wise enough to know when the person trumps our religious rules.
Prayer
Lord, help us to love people, not in disregard for your holiness, but because you are holy. May we be like you, becoming on the inside, all that you have called us to be.
