Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?

 Now it happened that He went through the grainfields on the Sabbath; and as they went His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain.  And the Pharisees said to Him, "Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?  But He said to them, "Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him:  how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him?"  And He said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.  Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath."

And He entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand.  So they watched Him closely, whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him.  And he said to the man who had the withered hand, "Step forward."  Then He said to them, "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?"  But they kept silent.  And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand."  And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other.  Then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him.

- Mark 2:23-3:6

Yesterday we read that Jesus went out again by the sea; and all the multitude came to Him, and He taught them.  As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office.  And He said to him, "Follow Me."  So he arose and followed Him.  Now it happened, as He was dining in Levi's house, that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many, and they followed Him.   And when the scribes and Pharisees saw Him eating with the tax collectors and sinners, they said to His disciples, "How is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?"  When Jesus heard it, He said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."   The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were fasting.  Then they came and said to Him, "Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?"  And Jesus said to them, "Can the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them?  As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.  But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.  No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; or else the new piece pulls away from the old, and the tear is made worse.  And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined.  But new wine must be put into new wineskins."

 Now it happened that He went through the grainfields on the Sabbath; and as they went His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain.  And the Pharisees said to Him, "Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?  But He said to them, "Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him:  how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him?"  And He said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.  Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath."  In yesterday's reading (above), Jesus spoke of the "new wine" for which it was necessary to have "new wineskins," indicating the new covenant and His physician's action of redemption in the forgiveness of sins and healing.  Here Jesus refers back to David his ancestor, who ate of the showbread when he and his men were in need.  Moreover, Christ declares that the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath, further enforcing His own role as physician and healer.  Moreover He links this doctrine to His divinity and His identity as Christ, when He declares that the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.

And He entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand.  So they watched Him closely, whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him.  And he said to the man who had the withered hand, "Step forward."  Then He said to them, "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?"  But they kept silent.  And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand."  And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other.  Then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him.  The Pharisees had built up certain traditions around the Mosaic Law.  In accordance with those traditions, healing was considered work and therefore not permissible on the Sabbath.  There were exceptions to this, however, which included the effort to save life, even that of an animal in need (see Luke 13:15).  But Jesus has already had His conflicts with the religious authorities, who have questioned His authority to forgive sins (see this reading), and also His association with tax collectors and other known sinners (see yesterday's reading, above).   Jesus defies their hard-heartedness in performing a healing which is not strictly interpreted as saving a life, but restores a man's hand.  Ironically, as is so often the case in the Gospels, by doing so He is at least figuratively (and most likely literally) restoring this man's full capacity to work. 

Jesus asks the question, "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?"  In certain ways, Jesus is extending our understanding of what life is all about and what it means to save a life or to kill.  Moreover, in the phrasing of His question He links either choice with doing good or doing evil.  In the restoration of this man's hand, we can see full capacity restored to this man, most certainly his own capacity for work, especially in the economic context of the time period.  This is a subtle detail to notice, but it appears elsewhere in the first healing of the Gospel, that of Peter's mother-in-law (see this reading).  There, her fever is rebuked, and she immediately resumes her place in the household, that of serving Christ and His followers, a position considered to be one of honor.  Her capacity for her own work, her place in life, is restored to her.  Emphasis on believers as those whose capabilities may be fulfilled through "good work" is further expressed in Jesus' Parable of the Talents, and also His admonition to think of ourselves as those who serve by fulfilling Christ's commands as duty (Luke 17:10).  These restorations of capacity for one's work and the fullness of fruitfulness in life are not-so-subtle hints of what Jesus is all about, and what His Incarnation means for human beings.  St. Athanasius (whose memory was commemorated yesterday), prominent in the history of the Church, is known for defending the doctrine of Christ's full divinity and full humanity.  He wrote, "For the Son of God became man so that we might become God."   What this means is that the Incarnation serves as transfiguring power for all of us, so that we as human beings could be restored to the fullness of communion with Creator -- and thereby all of our capacities for God-likeness, including creativity and spiritual fruit-bearing.  In this sense, to restore people to places of productivity and fullness of capacity is an act of Creator restoring creature to the image and likeness in which we are created.  However, the most important factor in this restoration is not Christ's power and authority, but rather the very nature of that power and authority, which is love.  The real conflict here is not so much between notions of authority and power, as it is between the hard-heartedness in the legalism of the Pharisees, and Jesus' grief at their lack of compassion.  This conveys to us a true and deeper notion of what it is to be "God-like," for this is the character and even essence of God (1 John 4:7-21).  Indeed, if we understand these events reported in the reading as we ought to, everything depends upon our own response to this compassionate love and our capacity for mirroring its likeness in our own lives.  In this reading is the one place where we are told that Jesus responded with anger or wrath; it is the word used also in the New Testament when referring to God's judgment.  Here is the place where Jesus leaves us with the open question of our own response to God's love, and what we do with the capabilities with which we've been endowed.

Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near

"But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near.  Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her.  For these are the days  of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.  But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days!  For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people.  And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations.  And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

"And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars, and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring, men's hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.  Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.  Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near."

- Luke 21:20-28

At this point in Luke's gospel, Jesus is in Jerusalem, and it is Passion Week.  He has entered the city in His  Triumphal Entry, and wept over the city, lamenting its lack of peace.  He has cleansed the temple, and already run into confrontations with the leadership, as they asked Him, "Who is he who gave You this authority?".  He told a parable against them, warning them of the times of the Gentiles and of Judgement.   The leadership has tested Him regarding payment of taxes to the Romans, and life in the Resurrection.  He has spoken against the hypocrisy of the scribes and tested them, asking "How can they say that the Christ is the Son of David?"  He pointed out the poor widow, who gave all she had to the treasury, saying of her, "Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had."  On Saturday, we read that as some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and donations, He said, "These things which you see -- the days will come in which not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down."  So they asked Him, saying, "Teacher, but when will these things be?  And what sign will there be when these things are about to take place?"  And He said:  "Take heed that you not be deceived.  For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am He,' and 'The time has drawn near.'  Therefore do not go after them.  But when you hear of wars and commotions, do not be terrified, for these things must come to pass first, but the end will not come immediately."  Then He said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  And there will be great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences, and there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven.  But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons.  You will be brought before kings and rulers for My name's sake.  But it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony.  Therefore settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand or what you will answer; for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist.  You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death.  And you will be hated by all for My name's sake.  But not a hair of your head shall be lost.  By your patience possess your souls."

 "But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near.  Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her.  For these are the days  of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.  But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days!  For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people.  And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations.  And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled."  Jesus speaks here directly of the Siege of Jerusalem.  My study bible notes, "A prediction of the siege and capture of Jerusalem by Titus, son of the emperor Vespasian, in A.D. 70.  Damage included the total destruction of the temple."  The "times of the Gentiles" seems to be the initiation of the time period in which we now live.  We note something remarkable that is important to us:  this time is not eternal.  It will be "fulfilled."  Because of His warnings, the early Church survived, leaving the city to escape the worst of the destruction.

"And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars, and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring, men's hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.  Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.  Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near."  In these verses we shift to the end of the age and the "fulfillment of the times of the Gentiles."  Jesus speaks of His return.  My study bible says that "cosmic as well as historical upheavals will precede the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.  The expectation of Christ's return sums up the Christian hope and constitutes an important doctrine of the Church."

It's interesting to consider the return of Christ in the light of what He has to say about the different "ages" or "generations" (in upcoming verses in tomorrow's reading).  We get a sense from the Gospels of the nature of time as we know it and understand it.  This is a sense in which modern science, especially physics and theoretical physics, confirms what Christians have understood from Scripture.  Time is something we experience in a particular way, and we understand it through our experience.  But it is a God-created reality within which we live, and one in which we are to understand our own nature as finite in this sense that our notion of time will end.  When the "times of the Gentiles are fulfilled" it is the time of the initiation of the Kingdom and of His return.  Jesus has also spoken about life in the Resurrection in recent readings, when He addressed a question about marriage from the Sadducees.  The important thing that we learned -- and it is truly a transcendent statement, giving us understanding of a cosmic significance -- from Jesus' reply is that "He is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live to Him."  In this place at the end of what we know as time, we live and so do those who have gone before us; there is a communion of saints, and this is the nature of what is inaugurated at His return.  In the initiation of this time that is the end of our understanding of time, Jesus says, "the powers of the heavens will be shaken."  Perhaps we may speculate that time, which twentieth century scientists have called the fourth dimension within which we are bound in our lives, will be one of the "powers of the heavens" that will be shaken in the inauguration of this new time, the eternal time of the Kingdom, in which all live to Him.  At any rate, I am not a scientist, and perhaps I speak generally about things I do not unfortunately completely understand.  But it's important that we note that while popular presentation would have us believe that religion and science don't mix, I would beg to disagree, and I point to the Church Fathers' understanding about this "temporal" or "temporary" nature of time and its shift in order to point out that the Gospels give us insights which modern theoretical physics would tend to bear out.  We can speculate all we would like, and this is quite interesting, but as we read on we will see the nature of Christ's emphasis despite His predictions.  As in Saturday's reading, His emphasis is on the choices we make, our constant need for alertness and preparation for His return in the here and now -- as indeed it has remained true through twenty centuries since His Incarnation that Judgment, or Resurrection will happen for all of us.  And so, in reality, every moment counts, to each moment we are to live as if He returns imminently, "like a thief in the night."  Jesus has promised that His return will be "at an hour you do not expect."  Time, in this respect, created for us in our nature, gives us opportunity:  for choices, for repentance, for thinking about who we are in relatedness to God, for moving forward on that journey to Christ, to the place in which we all live to Him.  St. Athanasius, among other Church Fathers, has expressed the thought that, "God became man so that man might become a god."  In other words -- and it is important that we are talking about the created nature of time in which we live -- we return to the Beginning, to Genesis and read that we are to grow in God's likeness.  We are created "in the image and likeness of God."  Created in God's image, time as we understand it gives us constant opportunity to grow in that likeness, to cooperate with grace, to say "yes" to the Spirit, to our baptism.  How do we take advantage of each moment?  Can we consider its importance as He would have us do?  On Saturday, Jesus spoke of the overwhelming preciousness of our souls.  Each moment must be valued for what it truly is:  a gift.