He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’
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This is not your average Sunday School Jesus. He looked around with anger. I don’t like the thought that God-made-man was angry. I’d prefer saddened. But here it is, Jesus looked around with anger.
He’s just been chastised by the Pharisees, the ultra Orthodox Jews, for doing something on the sabbath.To this day, there are Orthodox Jews who keep a very holy Sabbath, without lightbulbs, or cars, or work. In our overly busy world, there is something appealing about truly keeping sabbath. And of course, Moses called for a holy sabbath, so the Pharisees were living by what they believed was the law of Moses.
So why was Jesus first chastised, and then angered? Was he just demonstrating relativism, where rules count. . . until they don’t? As someone who’s great at making, remembering, keeping and enforcing rules, I’d probably make a great Pharisee, and would probably do something that would anger God-man.
Maybe it’s not a sense of relativism, as much as it is simplification, and priorities. Instead of the Ten Commandments or the resulting dozens of rules in Leviticus, Jesus is again boiling God’s law down to the simplest, purest form. Love God. Love your Neighbor. Maybe the rules of the Pharisees were initially created to absolutely help them Love God. But over time, keeping the sabbath holy became an ends, not a means. It had turned into the destination, as opposed to the journey. The Pharisees were keeping the sabbath holy, at the expense of Loving God and Loving Neighbor.
As someone who’s good at rule making and rule keeping, I need to always keep my eye on the true destination, Love God and Love Neighbor.
I’m spending about a week with a group of lovely people, who function in their ministry as coordinators and administrators and advisors for deacons in their communities, as I do in mine. One of the things about Loving your Neighbor is that sometimes I’m the neighbor being loved. That is definitely happening this week. And although it’s humbling, and not my normal stance, I am so grateful to be carried through this week by these people, loving me. Things at my home are complicated and challenging, so I nearly didn’t come to this archdeacon conference. But I’m glad I did.
This morning I’m thinking about the reciprocity of Love your Neighbor. I normally get a great deal of joy, perhaps more than anything else, from Loving my Neighbor, from actively helping, empathizing, sitting with a fellow child of God. This week, I am feeling the object of that love from my peers.
Today, I pray to be able to keep Jesus’ simple commandment front and center. Love God. Love my neighbor. I want to strip my days from the rules and practices that don’t serve that. I want to think about adding things to my life that would help me. And especially this week, I want to bathe in the love from my neighbors.
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