Musings on the Daily Lectionary

In today's gospel reading, Jesus heals a man who has been an invalid for 38 years. Surely this is something to celebrate, but Jesus has healed him on the Sabbath, and some of the religious authorities are fit to be tied. Run ins over the Sabbath are featured in all the gospels, so clearly Jesus has something of a reputation for being a religious rule-breaker.

But while it is easy to smugly laugh at the wooden, rigid adherence to rules by Jesus' opponents, rules are essential for any sort of society. And Jesus never speaks against keeping the Sabbath, on having a day focused on God and rest. Jesus' conflict is not with keeping Sabbath, it is with a faith that worries more about Sabbath than about honoring God, that makes an idol out of Sabbath keeping.

Sabbath keeping was a central part of Jewish identity in Jesus' day. It allowed them to maintain an identity distinct from the Roman, pagan world around them. For the devout, it was central to what it meant to be God's people.

Being over zealous about Sabbath keeping is not much of a problem for American Christians, but we have others things that help us stake out our identity as people of faith. For some, going to church on Sunday is the end all and be all of faith. For others, having a "personal relationship with Jesus" is essential, the thing without which their identity is impossible. For still others, if someone has not been "born again," he is deemed not to be a genuine Christian. The more serious people are about their faith the more likely they are to have some essential element of Christian identity that is non-negotiable. But such elements can easily turn into our own idols.

I think that most American Christians would do well to embrace a few more rules and religious disciplines. Our unwillingness to do so often lets us fashion our own personal religion constructed to fit our preferences and tastes, with little there to shape us into the sort of people God wants us to be. Yet religious disciplines and rules must always serve God. No rule, no spiritual practice, no religious experience can become the things we love and serve, for when it does, it then stands between us and God.

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