Jan 9 2019 John 5: 10

Is it the sabbath. It is not lawful for you to carry your mat.

In today’s morning prayer reading, we hear those horrible Jews who scolded the man and eventually turned on Jesus because Jesus had healed the man, and the man and taken up his mat on the sabbath. It sounds so petty, and ridiculous that anyone had cared above the miracle of healing this man. But they did care.

This is one of many circumstances from scripture where it seems clear that people who’ve encountered Jesus and later his followers miss the point. Who cares about the mat? Who cares about the sabbath rules? This man was made whole. It’s so apparently ludicrous.

But it happens here and now, all the time. And because it’s our rules and our norms, they make more sense, right? Breaking them now is far more important, right? The right color vestments, the right number of readings, the right day to worship, the right way to think about when, how Jesus heals. More importantly, the right people Jesus heals.
All of these expectations and norms and thousands others have insidiously crept in. And while many of these right ways are steeped in the best of intentions, when we, like the Jews in the story, ever say or think that ‘this is not the way things are done’, when the way it was done heals, or mends, or restores . . Who cares?

We all come to God with our understanding of what the right way to do it. But most of that I believe is rooted in my personal understanding of how I best come to God. Or how my faith tradition has historically lived out that relationship. Never should our right ways come between another human and a loving, forgiving, restoring, healing God.

It’s easy to see the Pharisees do precisely that. It isn’t so easy to see this in ourselves.