The Priority of Love

Gospel: John 5: 1-16

Today's Gospel portion states that it was Jesus healing people on the Sabbath that led to opposition against him.  We can look at this conflict in two ways.  The first is one of competing duties or obligations: the law commands rest on the Sabbath; it also commands help for one's neighbor.  Jesus prioritizes the second duty; his opponents emphasize the first.  They claim love for God is greater than love for neighbor.  Jesus says that we love God only by loving our neighbor.  

Another way of looking at the issue is to look at the nature of the Sabbath itself.  God gave the Sabbath to provide a day of rest and healing for human beings who have toiled for six days.  The Sabbath is provided to heal.  To heal another person, in Jesus' view, is fulfilling the very purpose for which God gave the Sabbath in the first place.  Healing others is what the Sabbath is all about; it is what we as God's people are to be about.

We find many people today who will put attending church services, constructing grand worship spaces, and attending to the minutia of liturgical practice and dress as the most important thing of religion.  The teaching and example of Jesus suggests otherwise.  To follow Jesus' example will result in the same opposition he faced from religious leaders.