What to Do: The Law or Good?


Mark 2:23-3:6

When I was in grade school, there was a brain games competition. The activities usually involved some sort of out-of-the-box thinking. The event that I remember was a table with dimes and toothpicks on it. We scored points for how long of a line we could form with the toothpicks, but we lost points for each toothpick that touched the table. If dimes touched the table, there was no penalty. What did we do? We tried to space out the dimes underneath our line of toothpicks, but there were not enough dimes to make a very long line. It turns out, the best choice was to ignore the dimes and string all of the toothpicks together. The scoring of that line would be greater than the offsetting penalties of the toothpicks touching the table.
In these two stories, Jesus is in conflict with the Pharisees over what is best given the constraints that we have. The competing points are helping people and the law. On the Pharisees’ side, they are saying that the law is the boundary. Anything within the law is fair game. Certainly they want to help people, but if it would violate the law then it should not be done. (Their toothpicks only would have touched the dimes.) On Jesus’ side, he says that doing good is the boundary. If helping people would violate the law, then that is what you have to do. Doing good is more important than the law.
The difference between them is a matter of priorities; and the Pharisees miserably failed at getting their priorities straight. The Law was not made to constrain humanity; it was made to guide humanity in the way it should go. Of course, it could not answer for every scenario, and Jesus points out that some scenarios supersede the teaching of the Law. If you keep yourself bound by the Law for the sake of following the Law, then you have missed the point entirely. You have to consider what is good for yourself and others. We might say that the higher consideration is what is the best service to God. Tune into our sermon to learn more. -TL

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