“Confounded rules”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Thursday, October 3, 2024

Luke 6:1-11 (Forward, p. 66) CEV p. 1063

I must say that I am somewhat ambivalent about rules, that meaning that when I think that it is reasonable or expedient to bend or break them, I do so. And so, I feel quite okay with breaking the speed limit a bit, especially if stuck behind traffic that is barely meeting the speed limit--or less. On other occasions, I am much more of a stickler.

Today’s passage deals with rules, rules about the Sabbath. To give them their proper credit, they were designed for a good purpose, namely, to make it very hard to break the Sabbath, whether accidentally or intentionally. These rules were called hedge laws because they built a hedge around possible infractions in such a way as to make it difficult to do so.

So, in the case of the first alleged infraction, that of the disciples picking and eating grain as they passed through a grainfield, there were multiple areas where they were legally guilty of performing some sort of ‘work’. In other words, though it was perfectly okay for them to pick grain for their own nourishment, it was wrong to do so on the Sabbath. But then Jesus raises an illustration from Israel’s history: King David and his men ate the sacred loaves, the loaves from the Temple, when it wasn’t legal to do that. They did this simply because they were hungry. And so, Jesus seems to imply, ‘isn’t human need something that overrides our petty rules.’

And where Jesus only seems to suggest this with this first example, He basically goes out and states it in the second. A man with a crippled hand is there in the synagogue on the Sabbath, so Jesus asks His critics whether it is better to do good deeds or evil ones on the Sabbath, to save lives or destroy them. And indeed, his condition probably circumvented and limited his life considerably. Being healed of this condition would have given him a new lease on life, a new existence. So, it was akin to being born again. Obviously then, Jesus saw this man’s life and continued existence as more important than mere rules and regulations, even if they were ones that had been originally constructed with good motives and for a good purpose. Now they only got in the way, at least in these two cases. But, as we will see, the authorities were not at all pleased. Such can often be the case when ‘rules’ are broken, even for godly purposes.

Forward notes: “But some of the Pharisees said, ‘Why are you doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?’” (verse 2)

“Sometimes, we get caught up in the wrong details, or we put too much emphasis on the wrong thing. Sabbath isn’t supposed to create more anxiety, stress, and chaos in our lives. And if it does, we might be doing it wrong.

“For me, the essence of Sabbath is to remind ourselves that we are human beings and not human doings. It is scarily easy to think that our worth is based upon what we do, what we can produce, and how well we meet the daily demands in our lives. And if we’re not careful, we can be transported to the space where Israelites were valued based on how many bricks they could produce. The Sabbath was a commandment to the people to remind them that they were free; their worth and life were not based on what they produced but because they were God’s beloved.

“Sabbath for us, then, should be a time when we reflect on our lives as human beings and children of God.”

Moving Forward: “Be intentional about taking a moment today to breathe and simply be.”