Musings on the Daily Lectionary

Today's reading from Luke 6 features two episodes where Jesus upsets people by violating the Sabbath laws. Nearly 2000 years removed from these events, it is easy to dismiss these Sabbath regulations as petty legalism, but keeping the Sabbath had helped define and preserve Judaism through some very difficult times. During the exile in Babylon, with the Temple destroyed and all religous activity associated with it impossible, the keeping of Sabbath became the primary way that these exiles maintained their Jewishness. And in a world that as yet knew nothing of weekends, Sabbath keeping was a public faith statement.

For Jews who were serious about keeping their faith such as Pharisees, Sabbath was crucial. And so the ease with which Jesus seemed willing to bend Sabbath rules was deeply troubling to them. They saw it as a threat to a foundational element of their faith.

Pharisees often come off like stock villains in the gospels. But the Pharisees constituted a serious reform movement within the Judaism of Jesus' day. They took their faith very seriously and worked diligently to live out a faith that permeated daily life rather than focusing on rituals, sacrifices, etc. On some issues they must have found Jesus quite refreshing, but on others...

People sometimes place the Pharisees on the law side of a Grace versus Law conflict. But we still wrestle with this conflict today. Presbyterians, along with others spawned by the Protestant Reformation, have long emphasized grace. And yet our denomination's big fights are usually about rules, about law, if you will.

I'm not sure there are easy answers here, but I pray God will give me wisdom to know where the law is getting in the way of the grace offered in Jesus.

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