Post 6: Compassion Over Law Or Tradition ⚖️

 

She had suffered enough

But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.” But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?”

(New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition, via Bible Gateway)

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The Propaganda: our way or the highway.

As I pointed out in a previous series all Abrahamic faiths move from chaos, to order, to refuge, to oppression and falling, and then back to chaos. To date, this cycle is endless. 

When Jesus was born the cycle was in the oppression and falling stage. It still is. The Pope when it comes to the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church is infallible. His way or the highway.

Most, not to say all Protestant denominations squarely and firmly place the pastor, minister, priest directly between the people and God. It is their way or the highway.

I personally know of no Christian churches that believe it is possible to be saved and go to heaven without Jesus claiming you in one way or another. On a very broad scale they all believe our way or the highway.

The penultimate evil our way or the highway.

Consider the Christian Nationalism in the United States of America. They are convinced that for the second coming to arrive, Israel as a nation must be restored. And that's why they are willing to back genocide in Palestine. The Palestinians stand in the way of the return of Jesus who will take them and only them and their fellow believers to heaven. The penultimate our way or the highway.

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The truth that Jesus lived and taught.

Once again, I need to remind you, that for the most part I don't give links. If I gave links, they would just back up what I said. So, I encourage you to simply highlight whatever parts of this post you don't think are true and do your own search. 

It only takes a moment to find in the world's largest library honest, authentic, liberal and conservative theology. Some theologians will agree with what I say, and others won't I leave it to you to make up your own mind once you explore the alternatives.

When Jesus healed the lepers, he told them to go to the temple and make the proper offerings. He constantly challenged those who ran the temple and enforced what they thought were the proper laws and regulations. But he never attempted to overthrow the temple.

What Jesus tried to do was to remove the palings, the fences that the priest had put up between the people and their God. He would heal the old woman with a bent back even though it was the Sabbath, because it was the proper thing to do. He would challenge the people to accept the role of the Samaritan in the parable of the Samaritan because the Samaritan did what was the right and good thing to do.

There was one instance when he almost allowed the rules to take precedence over compassion: when the woman begged him to heal her daughter and Jesus said and I'll paraphrase here, 

" I came for the sake of the of the Jews you have no place in my ministry." "But even the dogs get to eat the crumbs from the floor under the table and that's all I'm asking for are the mere crumbs of your ministry"

Jesus thought about her answer, realized that he had fallen into the same trap that the rulers of the temple had and told the old woman that he would heal her daughter because of her wisdom and her answer.

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The takeaway.

Jesus walked and talked a radical, very dangerous to the authorities, understanding that God's compassion, mercy, nurturing and healing were available to anyone and everyone, any hour of the day, any day of the week, any week of the year.

Jesus believed in the priesthood because he believed in peace between neighbors and for there to be peace there must be a framework to live by. Without the priests or at least someone who had a position of power and authority to guide people properly along the path there could only be chaos and evil.

But Jesus did not believe that the priest or the people in authority had the right to make rules that separated the people from their God.

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Brian

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