Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?” – Luke 6:9

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 18, 2014): Luke 6

I have some people in my life that like to ask me trick questions. You know the kind. How many of each animal did Moses take on the Ark? Answer – None. Moses wasn’t on the Ark, Noah was. Or maybe what do Henry the Eighth and Kermit the Frog have in common? Answer – The same middle name. Or one of my favorites, why did Cinderella get kicked off of the Football team? Answer – because she ran away from the ball. The questions all have one thing in common. They are a confusion in either terms or people, and they all depend on language to make them funny. One more - I met a man on London Bridge. He tipped his hat and drew his cane. in this lymric I've said his name. Okay, on the surface is this a little harder. And it might be easier to hear than to see. But the answer is that the man’s name is Andrew, coming from the combination of the words ‘and’ and ‘drew’ in the line “and drew his cane.” Admittedly, you have to have a bit of a warped mind to even find the jokes funny.

But before we get too critical it might be important to realize that Jesus may have had that kind of a sense of humor. It comes through a few times in his teachings. And one of the places is here. Jesus asks the question - is it lawful to do good or do evil on the Sabbath? Is it lawful to save and give live on the Sabbath, or is it more right to take away and destroy life on that sacred day. To understand Jesus correctly we have to ask the same question without the word ‘Sabbath.’ Is it lawful to do good or do evil? Is it lawful to save life or destroy it? The word Sabbath is ultimately unnecessary – except that Jesus was trying to make a point. It is always lawful to do good, and on the other side of the coin it is never lawful to do evil.

The point that Jesus was trying to make is that if it is always lawful to do good, then it is even more so on a day dedicated to the worship of God. The day actually heightens the purpose, it does not lessen in. For our culture we could ask if it is okay to pay attention to God or to ignore him on the Sabbath. And again, it is never okay to ignore God, but even more so on the Sabbath. It is the reason why churches meet every Sunday, and the reason why Christians make the sacrifice to gather every week – it is the observable result of a community that is committed to following God. But the community is committed to follow all of the time – not just on the Sabbath.

God is our priority – and the reality that Jesus was trying to get across is that God and good must always our priority. And our commitment to worship God should never lower our commitment to do good. Never!    

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Matthew 5