Written by Richelle Thompson
Luke 13:14 (NRSV) 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.”
The policeman stood at the door, talking quietly with my husband, a priest. Our friends, there to celebrate his birthday, quieted. The officer asked my husband to come and offer last rites to an older gentleman who had been found dead.
A year later the church organist took her final breaths as her family wept, their priest prayed, and a child lost her mother. Four years in a row, on my husband’s birthday, someone died, and the families needed pastoral care.
Sabbath time doesn’t always come when we want it, on our convenient schedules. This is not to undermine the importance of sabbath, of following God’s example and instruction to set aside time for prayer, reflection, and refreshment.
But the needs of people must come before law and tradition. Jesus models this time and again by healing on the sabbath and breaking bread with sinners. When law butts against the deepest needs of the human spirit, love and mercy should always win.
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