MARK 3:1-6Jesus went into the synagogue again and noticed a man with a deformed hand. Since it was the Sabbath, Jesus’ enemies watched him closely. If he healed the man’s hand, they planned to accuse him of working on the Sabbath.
Jesus said to the man with the deformed hand, “Come and stand in front of everyone.” Then he turned to his critics and asked, “Does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?” But they wouldn’t answer him.
He looked around at them angrily and was deeply saddened by their hard hearts. Then he said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” So the man held out his hand, and it was restored! At once the Pharisees went away and met with the supporters of Herod to plot how to kill Jesus.
Suffocating Propriety
Jesus is a breath of fresh air. I wish we could find a way for his attitude to blow though organized Christianity!
Raised in and a leader of the “organized” church for all my life, I’ve realized how stuffy with propriety we are. The bottom line for us isn’t “saving life” but being proper. Sermons have to be proper. Dress must be proper. Vocabulary must be proper. Decisions must go through proper channels so no one will feel left out of the decision-making loop. And in all this propriety that question “Is this helping bring life to people?” either never gets asked or gets drowned out in the debates about propriety! Jesus would suffocate in most of our churches. Either that, or he’d blow all of our propriety out our stained glass windows.
This morning’s newspaper offered an article and two columns related to abortion. One column reported how protesters not only physically blocked women from entering the women’s clinic in Allentown, PA but protested at the home of its director. And leafleted her neighbors! If I know anything about abortion protestors, most, if not all of these are deeply religious people, and likely faithful to their local churches.
Jesus would make a lousy pastor.
There was enough sin and evil in Jerusalem when Jesus preached there to fill pages. But Jesus never once preached against those evils happening in this sacred city! Instead, he chose to harangue the most conservative religious people in that town – the Pharisees. He went out of his way, too. Today’s text is an example.
Sabbath extended from Sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. Jesus could easily have waited several more hours to heal this fellow. But he didn’t.
Any denominational official worth his or her salt would counsel a pastor not to goad conservative church leaders who are heavily involved in the church and who tithe faithfully. If they won’t come on board with the vision, work around them. Don’t pick unnecessary fights. One of the fights in many of our churches is what is proper for Sunday. This is really important to many members since they understand Sunday as the Christian Sabbath.
If Jesus first century actions are any indication, he’d stand in the pulpit Sunday after Sunday, and confront sin without sparing any intensity. But he’d largely ignore national and community issues like abortion and gambling. He’d spend his time hammering conservative religious men and women for their fixation with propriety – the thousand and one ways we make doing good and saving lives a complex and dizzying maze.
God of Life, forgive me when I add layers of propriety minutia to the community of faith. Forgive me when my ego, traditions, and assumptions about spiritual propriety masks and saps authentic love with distracting and unimportant issues. Forgive me when I cannot figure out how to balance both the anger I feel at this dark side of the church and my pastoral instincts to care for the very people who add layer upon layer of propriety to so many decisions about meeting human needs. Please breathe your fresh air into my soul.
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