Daily Lesson for July 15, 2021

 Today's Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapters 2 and 3:

23 One sabbath he was going through the cornfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. 24The Pharisees said to him, ‘Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?’ 25And he said to them, ‘Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food? 26He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions.’ 27Then he said to them, ‘The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; 28so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.’

3Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. 2They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him. 3And he said to the man who had the withered hand, ‘Come forward.’ 4Then he said to them, ‘Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?’ But they were silent. 5He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. 6The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

The Law was given to protect and to serve. Specifically, the sabbath law was given to preserve the humanity of all people -- most especially the working class. Sabbath was their protectorate from abusive work requirements. It gave them the opportunity to rest, even the slaves.

But like many laws, the application of the sabbath laws could be used to disempower and control. By fixing the distance one could walk on the sabbath, it was assured that people could continue to be socially monitored and managed. Upholding the law became a pretext for all kinds of social surveillance and control, all of which is in the text today.

So too in the text, we can see that while those surveilling Jesus make a big deal of him feeding a few folks on the sabbath, they have no compunction about plotting to destroy him on the same day. This so-called preservation of the sanctity of the sabbath is all pretext.

We Christians were often taught a huge and, frankly supremacist, fallacy when we were taught that Jews believed in laws like sabbath and not in grace. Though "grace" is an English and not Hebrew word, for Jews the Law of sabbath was a gift or "grace" given by God in creation for the preservation of people and the earth. But people misused the grace of sabbath for their own purposes. This happens all the time.

If we wonder how a law could be put in place that further subjects a disabled person like the one in the text with the withered hand, we need only look at some of the laws being put forward down here in Texas -- laws that disempower disabled persons from accessing the ballot. Yet, they are being done in the name of election integrity, or "law and order".

Jesus was not against the law. He was not against the sabbath. But Jesus will not obey laws which further subject himself or others to further social subjugation. Law, for Jesus, is less than humanity. And, as he said, "the sabbath was given for humanity, not humanity for the sabbath."

And an unjust law -- like the ones being employed against Jesus, and his disciples, and even his disabled disciples -- is, as Augustine said and Dr. King quoted, "no law at all." In fact, it's actually unlawful.

It's also ungodly; and Jesus dared to say so.

Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist in Fort Worth, Texas.