Several of the Scripture passages today note how we stray and in some cases the course of action God may let loose as a result of our straying. I myself began to think of Blue Laws. They were religious inspired laws that made it illegal for certain business, if not all businesses, to be open on Sundays as that was determined by God to be a day of rest. Then there is that separation of church and state thing and I think in most instances blue laws have fallen by the wayside. I'm not advocating a theocracy at all but I wonder if we are not straying too far ourselves.
The Pharisees and religious elite of Jesus' time had strict prohibitions about the sabbath. If such rules were adhered to today, perhaps hospitals would be closed for the sabbath.
How do we determine in our righteous minds and hearts of faith where to draw the line over working on the sabbath not to mention all other religious practises? As our day of rest, could we turn on a TV. Is that too much work? What wold become of football games? I'm not even going to mention the porcine prohibitions, how can one legitimately touch a pigskin, worse so perhaps on the sabbath! What if you wanted to serve at a post religious service coffee clotch? Is that too much work? Or could you volunteer for Habitat for Humanity on the Sabbath? Heavy work. What is it that draws the line of work and no work?
Being the rebel that He is, Jesus throws questions into just about every aspect of existence. In the Gospel reading today He cures on the Sabbath. That was apparently a really big non-no. Hard to imagine or believe?
Jesus throws a wrench into almost everything. Obeying rules did not guarantee salvation. He supplemented or clarified the Ten Commandments with the Great Two. Things become much harder. Perhaps easier for those who want plenty of wiggle room to stray, much much more difficult for those who have to use their brains and heart and mind to be believers and followers of the law. Disrespecting people and demeaning them is as much 'killing someone' as taking a knife or gun to them. Life using your heart and mind is a challenge. Anyone can simply obey all the laws with mindless adherence.
As faithful people we are callled to much higher and more difficult standard. We are called to use our faith but also our minds, our hearts of love and our entire humanity in fulfilling laws and our faith.
The Scriptures are full of stories of a vengeful God for people who stray. How can we be faithful and balance our faith and our actions on a daily basis? Just one more thing to think about during Lent
John 5:1-18
After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew* Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralysed. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to be made well?’ The sick man answered him, ‘Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Stand up, take your mat and walk.’ At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.
Now that day was a sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, ‘It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.’ But he answered them, ‘The man who made me well said to me, “Take up your mat and walk.” ’ They asked him, ‘Who is the man who said to you, “Take it up and walk”?’ Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in* the crowd that was there. Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, ‘See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.’ The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. Therefore the Jews started persecuting Jesus, because he was doing such things on the sabbath. But Jesus answered them, ‘My Father is still working, and I also am working.’ For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God.
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