What is Lawful

Gospel: Mark 3: 1-6

"Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath? To preserve life rather than destroy it?"  

We might well consider what it is we do when we gather to worship together in our congregations each week.  This story takes place within the context of a synagogue service on the sabbath, and a man comes forward in the midst of the congregation needing healing. But the congregation and leaders were not willing to provide him with that healing, so Jesus provides it to him.  

Very often we look upon our weekly communal worship as an end in itself rather than a means to an end.  It is as if what we do in our congregations each week has no connection at all to our daily living.  But communal worship is designed to assist us in our mission of doing good, of being part of Jesus' mission of mercy each and every day.  If we cannot heal a person who comes in our midst during worship, then we cannot heal anyone at any time ever.  If we are unwilling to help a person among us in our sabbath service, then what makes us think we would be willing to do so on any other day?

This is why the law of love must be the lens through which we see all other laws and duties in our life.  The law of love must be the light that illumines everything else.  For it is only then that we come to realize that mitzvah - good deeds - are always allowed and encouraged, that preserving, nourishing, and cultivating human life for full flourishing is the end goal of the Sabbath and all other days.