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John 5:5-16; Mark 2:23-3:6 Jesus the Law Breaker 6 3 18

Murphy, North Carolina is home to a Biblically-themed park called Fields of
the Wood. Nestled into the folds of the Great Smoky Mountains, this tourist
destination hosts a shrine to the 23rd Psalm, a garden tomb cut out of stone, and a
replica of Golgotha Hill displaying three crosses. Guests are welcomed free of
charge to walk the two hundred acre site, and to stand literally inside the world’s
largest monument to the 10 commandments. The construction of the tablets
covers the size of about 6 football fields on the side of a mountain. The
caretakers of the park, the Church of God of Prophecy, are pious and spirit-filled,
so one would expect there to be strict adherence to God’s laws, especially to the
commandments – the big 10. However, I noted on their website that the park is
open to the public… 7 days a week! So much for keeping the Sabbath holy.
Apparently Jesus had a bit of trouble staying within the lines of the laws of
faith as well. One of the basic tenets of the Jewish faith was and is to keep the
Sabbath holy. How one keeps the Sabbath holy, apparently, is open to
interpretation. Orthodox Jews and Reformed Jews of our time keep Sabbath
differently – some resting from work to the extent that turning on lights is not
done, and others simply stay home from the office to be with family for the day.
We are rather cavalier about keeping the sabbath – some of us have the day off of
work, and some of us (yours truly, for example) do work on the day set aside for
worship. How many of us have gone shopping on a Sunday? Checked email?
Checked work email? Or worked in the yard? At this point people might quibble –
“But, but, working in the yard is holy.” Or, “shopping isn’t work.” Or, “checking
email decreases my stress, so that’s good, right?”
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We are quite accepting of the variety of ways that people choose to keep
Sabbath. There is a lot of history around interpretation of the laws in the Bible.
We are familiar with denominations that claim to take all the words and laws of
scripture literally, and yet those believers still must discern and make decisions
about those aspects of our holy writings that contradict each other. We are
always interpreting.
Back to Jesus on the Sabbath. What is baffling about these stories of Jesus,
is that the Pharisees were only triggered by this rabbi’s choice to heal on the holy
sabbath day. They were not shocked by his ability to cure, just about when he
cured. The miracle of healing didn’t even spark an “Oh my God!” or “did you see
that?” They knew he was a healer, and they feared this other-worldly gift was a
gateway to claiming power in the eyes of the people, that is, claiming power over
the people.
We are living in a time of slippery slopes when it comes to following the
rules. Citizens and government officials alike are pushing the envelope of the law,
as though challenging each other to see how far they can go before being shut
down. International relations, immigration, the second amendment and women’s
rights are just a few of the arenas in which we are on tenterhooks. We are
watching each other like Pharisees, wondering which laws are being broken, for
fear one broken law will soon put us at risk of losing the power that we have.
When we watch like Pharisees, we are fearful. And when we are fearful, we
become defensive or go on the attack.
No matter what role we play in society, fear-mongering leads to the
deterioration of trust and true communication. Jesus’ actions on the Sabbath
teach us to snap out of a fearful stance. When the Pharisees were poised to take
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him down, Jesus got angry and defensive. In an instant, rather than rising up with
righteous indignation, Jesus’ anger shifted to grief at those who were missing the
point of what God intends for us in the world. Then, rather than blasting them
with deserved condemnation, he shifted. He made a choice not to dehumanize
the Pharisees, and chose instead to uplift the humanity of the man with a
withered hand. Through this gift of healing, the man was able to re-enter the
temple again and be welcomed into society. //
I hear many of you expressing fear and despair and frustration at
“everything that is going on” whether referring to family issues, politics, child-
rearing, power plays at work, or physical health. You and I have the ability to step
away from the role of the Pharisee; we can step away from a fear-filled place. We
can tap into our rising anger and grief as Jesus did, and make a pivot toward
healing and wholeness.
I wish I could end the message today with a simple call to “do the right
thing.” It is no longer sufficient to say that. We need to be more specific. We
need to say to ourselves and to each other, Do the loving thing. The kind thing.
The life-giving thing. Even though this may lead to breaking a law, it is exactly
what Jesus teaches us to do.
Amen.
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John 5:5-16
[At the Sheep’s Gate pool] one man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When
Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you
want to be made well?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool
when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead
of me.”Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” At once the man was made well,
and he took up his mat and began to walk. Now that day was a sabbath. So the Jews said to the
man who had been cured, “It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.” But he
answered them, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’” They
asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take it up and walk’?” Now the man who had
been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was
there. Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you have been made well! Do
not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.” The man went away and told the
Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. Therefore the Jews started persecuting Jesus,
because he was doing such things on the sabbath.

Mark 2:23-3:6
One sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields; and as they made their way,
his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. The Pharisees said to Jesus, “Look, why
are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?”And he said to them, “Have you
never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need
of food? He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the
bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he
gave some to his companions.” Then he said to them, “The sabbath was made for
humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; so the Son of Man is lord even of
the sabbath.”
Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered
hand. They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so
that they might accuse him. And he said to the man who had the withered hand,
“Come forward.” Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on
the sabbath, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. He looked around at
them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart/ obstinance /
stubbornness, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out,
and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired
with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.