Is this a day to save life or destroy it

"Living out God's love challenges everything"
        --Terry Linhart


Jesus entered a synagogue and found a man who was suffering with a deformed hand.  The writer of the Gospel of Mark, sets up the drama-filled encounter by sharing that religious leaders of Jesus' day were specifically watching for Jesus' response to the man.

There were religious/political rules of the day that forbade any kind of work on the day of the Sabbath.  While the Sabbath was set up to establish the centrality of God in our lives, it had become a burdensome religious and political rule that made its reality significantly different than its purpose.

Jesus wastes no time in asking the Religious leaders if the law permits doing good on the Sabbath or doing evil.   He challenges their sensibilities by boldly asking:

"Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?"

Those who were listening to Jesus' challenge could not and would not respond.  Yet, in our sanctified imaginations, we can understand the rationalizations and justifications for their criticisms of Jesus.

Its against the law of the land...
Its against the traditions of our culture...
The synagogue is not the appropriate place for such activities....

All of which seek to justify their disobedience to God.  Its interesting that two millennia later, we are still wrestling with the same question in the church.  Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?

Over the past 20 years,  American churches have wrestled with this question, most often, have responded like the religious leaders of Jesus' day.  Take the crisis of immigrants at our southern border, some of who have walked 2000+ miles, fleeing violence and grinding poverty,  to seek a better life for themselves and their children.

Jesus asks his Bride: "Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?"

We respond:
Its against the law in our land...
Its against the the culture to welcome non-European immigrants
Its not the church's role to bless the immigrant

We go further, and treat the immigrants like the Religious leaders eventually treated Jesus.  We standby as some of national leaders say things like:

The Immigrant is actually a tool of evil  (Jesus was declared to be an agent of beelzebub, MT 12:24)
The Immigrants are actually criminals (Jesus was condemned as a common criminal JN 18:30)

Jesus would literally tell his disciples that what ever they did or didn't do to the least of these (the hungry, the sick, the homeless, the incarcerated) that they were doing to him (Mt 25:31-46). Jesus himself was a refugee fleeing violence.  Yet, many in the Church can not see blessing immigrants as a means to honor Jesus.

Jesus is asking you today: "Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?"

How will you respond? This is my "ouch" moment.  Jesus is asking us "What excuses or ideological frameworks will you hide behind to justify your disobedience" in the same way that he asked the same question to the pharisees and religious leaders of the day.

I pray that you will respond "Today is the day to save lives"