When Jesus Broke the Law

Mark 3:1-6
Another time Jesus went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there.  Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath.  Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Stan up in front of the everyone."

Then Jesus asked them, "Which is lawful on the Sabbath:  to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" Buy they remained silent.

He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, Stretch out your hand.  He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored.  Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus."


In this story, Jesus breaks the law.  Did that mean that Jesus did a bad thing?  Did that mean that the law was bad?

I don't have much commentary on this story except that I think it's good to remember sometimes doing the right thing might not be what is technically lawful.  Just like doing something that is lawful might not be the right thing.  "Good" and "Evil" aren't determined by "Lawful" and "Unlawful."  But if it's a good thing, like healing someone, or setting someone free, or lifting a burden from someone, or giving someone mercy, or pardoning a sin, or really doing any of the things that Jesus commands us to do, then we should do it.

Jesus does the right thing by healing someone on the Sabbath and the Pharisees (the people in the story we don't want to emulate) are the ones accusing him of breaking the law.  I imagine that if this story was taking place now, they might tweet about Jesus shouldn't have healed the man with the shriveled hand in the first place because it wasn't lawful.  #ReligionOfLaws might start trending and Pharisee followers might get all in a tizzy over the lawfulness of what Jesus did that they entirely miss the kingdom of God breaking in among the least of these.  Maybe what Jesus knew, is that every human is made in his image, and that maybe, perhaps, humans are more important  than the letter of the law.

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