Then he said to them “Who among you, if your son or ox falls into a cistern, would not immediately pull him out on the sabbath day?” But they were unable to answer his question.
I read several years ago of a young Dutchman who went to Japan to study Zen within a Buddhist monastery. It took him many months to settle into the silent, slow ways of the old monks. He often fell asleep during their meditations and stumbled incoherently through their unfamiliar songs and chants. They didn't seem to ride herd on him as he lived among them; he sometimes fell through their paper walls as he returned from a local tavern late at night. They might have laughed at his European foolishness but chose patience over every other impulse.
On one occasion, during their early morning chants, he noticed that something was amiss. Another student should have lit a certain candle but had failed to do it. Immediately the Dutchman got up, went into the backroom -- we'd call it the sacristy -- and returned with a taper to light the candle.
Later that day, his mentor praised him to the skies for what he'd done! "You're finally getting it!" he said.
But what was he getting? Rather than anxiously worrying about what was supposed to be done, and who had failed to do it, and what might come of this unfortunate incident, he got up and lit the candle. As simple as that.
“Who among you, if your son or ox falls into a cistern, would not immediately pull him out on the sabbath day?”
In healing the man with dropsy in the synagogue on the sabbath Jesus did the immediate, the obvious, and the natural. That could be a problem only for those who were looking for a way to trap him.
In our present predicament, people are searching desperately for ways to stick it to their opponents. They don't need to be reasonable, compassionate, or understanding. They don't want to tolerate ordinary missteps, misstatements, and misunderstandings. If they cannot find an actual faux pas, they'll create one with a malicious misinterpretation.
A Texas teacher in a quiet discussion among her colleagues warned them that someone might demand "an alternative opinion" to the story of the Nazi murder of six million Jews. And the Washington Post jumped on the story. Someone in the room had surreptitiously recorded the conversation without her knowledge or consent.
The Bible is familiar with our situation. The Lord teaches us how to respond to it.
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I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.