“Hence our rules and regulations”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Friday, May 24, 2024

Matthew 12:1-14 (Forward, p. 26) CEV p. 996

The Pharisees had a problem, a problem that has bedeviled the church and followers of Jesus ever since: they had given human-made rules and regulations the status of being from God. These were the rather detailed and onerous set of regulations, the so-called ‘fence laws’. Of course, to start with, the intentions surrounding them were noble and rather laudable.

The idea behind them was to honour the Sabbath by preventing anyone from violating or desecrating it by working on that day. What these laws did was to build a fence or a hedge around the Sabbath, by rigidly defining what did or did not constitute work. In essence, that meant that by simply remembering those definitions one could avoid engaging in that activity. However, here lay a couple of problems: firstly, the regulations were infinitely precise and detailed, such that it was difficult to adhere to them. And secondly, there were so many of them more than 300,000 to 500,000 by some estimates, that no one could keep track of all of them.

And what was worse was that all this nit-picking and rule-keeping took them away from the primary focus of the Sabbath, which was to worship God! Yuck.

However, those concerns were only the start of what bothered Jesus about them. He noticed, for instance, that the so-called experts on such matters, the Pharisees, were quite willing to bend or circumvent these ‘fence laws’ when it was convenient. For instance, they were more than happy to rescue one of their domestic animals in distress on the Sabbath, but not one of their fellow human beings. But more than this, and most distressing, is that they’d forgotten the true and original purpose of the Sabbath, which was to benefit humankind by setting aside a day for rest and worship. In other words, the Sabbath was put in place for our good! And as such, it was to be a day of blessing and of good works. After all, as Jesus suggested later, the Father is still at work—doing good--on the Sabbath, so why not us?

So, what about us? For the most part in our Western world we can no longer say that we are ‘rule-bound’ when it comes to the Sabbath—not in the least. In fact, I think I can say that the opposite is true. Our Sabbath, Sunday, has, for the most part, virtually become almost like every other day

of the week. Apart from actually coming in to work, almost everything else ‘goes.’ So, no one can accuse us of being ‘rule bound.’

However, can we not say that there are other things that we have set up in the church or society, almost unconsciously or undeliberately, as rules to follow or as expectations? Things like dress, appearance and deportment, or things like accepted practices or behaviours. Or expectations or ideas of what ‘goes’ in terms of church worship or functions. A parishioner once said to me that she felt uncomfortable around the church because she couldn’t afford to dress well or contribute to church potlucks. So then, these rules or expectations are fine as long as they don’t get in the way of serving people or worshipping God. It is a good lesson for all of us.

Forward notes: “He said to them, ‘Suppose one of you has only one sheep and it falls into a pit on the sabbath; will you not lay hold of it and lift it out?’” (verse 11)

“Throughout Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus wrangles with the Pharisees over their differing interpretations of the law, but it is crucial for us present-day readers to remember that Jesus is far from an opponent of the law. In fact, he says in Matthew 5 that he has come not to destroy but to fulfill the law. Jesus very much values the law but teaches that the law was made for humans, not humans for the law, and therefore, there needs to be some latitude for when life happens.

“As an Episcopalian and a type-A rule-follower, I believe rules are good and point us in the right direction, but I also need to remember to have room for leeway. One mentor of mine, alluding to the Book of Common Prayer, called this ‘the rubric of common-sense.’ In granting flexibility, Jesus also offers us grace.”

Moving Forward: “Do you believe rules are meant to be broken? What is Jesus saying in this passage?”