Power Play

Wow, Jesus was throwing his weight around in the temple that morning!  He got a little hot under the collar, and when the Pharisees tried to blow the whistle and tell Jesus he was icing, he told them in no uncertain terms that what he did fell within the regulations, then skated off and scored a winning goal!  Except that the Pharisees decided to eject him from the league for unsportsmanlike conduct but recognized that they would need to get more people to back their decision.  Everyone to the Penalty Box!

There are three things going on in this gospel story.  First there’s the issue of leadership and who is following whom.  Then there’s the conversation around why the 7^th day is special, the Sabbath.  And lastly, there’s the decision point that is made by the person who the fuss is about.

First, what’s happening with leadership in this story?  Jesus is leading his disciples into the sanctuary where he sees a man with a withered hand.  The Pharisees react to his interest and see it as a threat to their authority.  Now it’s important that we acknowledge that this is not all the Pharisees as there were Pharisees like Nicodemus who are recorded as hosting Jesus for dinner, or having conversations with him.  In light of what is going on in the Middle East, we have to remember that these were some of the leaders, and make sure we do not encourage or imply any kind of antisemitism that could be used to fuel attacks like the one we saw at a Toronto Jewish school this week.  That being said, the leaders are confronting Jesus during a worship service like hockey players getting ready for a face off.  They are determined to control the play and get the puck away from Jesus.  They are calling him out in front of his disciples in a blatant attempt to shift the momentum away from Jesus and back onto themselves where they feel it belongs.  How dare this upstart disrupt worship? How dare he take on the authority that is rightfully theirs?  How dare he defy and defile the Sabbath? 

Then we have the theological debate.  This is the lens through which everyone is looking at the Sabbath.  It’s like if one team has helmets with yellow plexiglass visors, and the other one has helmets with pink visors.  What colors are the referee’s stripes? What color is the ice?  Those visors will shape how the players look at their rink and the other people on it. These particular Pharisees see the Sabbath as something that is honored by abstaining from work.  It is a reminder that no one is to be treated like a slave.  The Sabbath is a gift from God and is kept by following many laws to the letter to show respect to God. That’s something Jesus agrees with, it’s a gift from God to the people of God, but he also sees it as a time to experience God’s presence.  One of the highest principles of the laws protecting the Sabbath as a sacred time, that even these particular Pharisees would agree with, is that the laws can be suspended in order to save a life.  That the sacredness of the Sabbath is not as important as helping someone survive whatever ordeal they are facing. It’s a pragmatic and sensible boundary to the powers of temple regulations.  No high sticking allowed in your attempt to get control of the puck. 

Lastly, we have the person who is at the centre of this debate.  Poor guy must have felt like he was the puck about to be dropped into the face off.  I wouldn’t have envied him for the world.  Can you see it?  The Pharisees staring at him, Jesus looking at him too, and then all the spectators in the stands following the play, wondering where he will end up.

But here’s an interesting thing.  Jesus doesn’t touch the man or pray over him or forgive his sins or tell a parable.  Jesus simply invites the man to stretch out his hand.  The man has to make a choice of how to react to that invitation.  How will he keep the Sabbath?  Will he honor it in the narrow legalistic way that the Pharisees define it?  Or will he see it in the focus Jesus highlights? Not as a tool of oppression but a freedom from oppression, and an invitation to full and generous life.  He chooses life.

There are people who still feel oppressed by prejudice, discrimination, and hatred.  They feel crippled by fear and conspiracies.  They wither under the stated and unstated expectations that the world has of them.  There are people who will hate them in the abstract who might not hate them as long as they live their withered lives.  As long as they stay quiet.  As long as they follow the rules that they may be neither seen nor heard, as long as they hide their differences and pretend to be something they’re not.  But Jesus invites them to stretch out their withered hands to receive the love God has for them.  They are fearfully and wonderfully made.  Who are we to judge?  If we stick to rules for their own sake, we may block people from the healing they need.  If we, like the disciples, can wait to see what happens, we may see the miraculous happen right in front of us.  If we, like the Pharisees, find ourselves challenged, can we let go of what we know should happen to see what God is making happen?  And what is happening is as sweet and simple and beautiful as a team working smoothly to pass the puck and shoot a winning goal, or a rainbow shining in the sky after a storm, a sign that we are to make space for God’s healing love.  That is a great goal to have for our sabbath days together.  May we make space for all to experience God’s healing love!