Yesterday Jesus said "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath" today he asks the pharisees "is it against the law on the sabbath day to do good or to do evil" - the Pharisees have lost sight of the purpose of the Sabbath, they do not understand it as a gift of love: their souls are withered. Am I walking around today with a withered soul?
Homily on Mark 3:1-6, St Thomas' Church (Jersey) 18 January 2023
Imagine a path surrounded by houses where children like to play. Unfortunately the path also joins two roads, and a car turns too quickly around the bend onto the path and knocks over one of the children. As a result, the local people put up a fence and a gate at either end of the path. Many years later, when everyone who remembers why the fence was put there has moved away, and new children are playing in the street, the fence has become a bit of a nuisance: people wanting to cross from one side to another either have to climb the fence or open the gate. Cars are blocked and you can't just turn from one road to another. Some people want to clear it away.
G.K. Chesterton used this example to demonstrate the two different kinds of reformers:
The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to [the fence] and says, “I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.” To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: “If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.”
G.K. Chesterton, 'The Thing' (1929)
The moral of the story is quite simple; if you don’t know why something was done in the first place, don’t undo it until you do know.
Yesterday and today we have read two passages from St Mark’s Gospel on the same theme: the Pharisees and the Sabbath. In yesterday’s Gospel, Jesus’ disciples pick corn on the sabbath, forbidden work, because they are hungry. Today, the Pharisees watch to see if Jesus will heal on the Sabbath. Jesus never criticises the pharisees for teaching the Law, or for teaching others to follow the Law, instead for the last two days, he has criticised them for misunderstanding what the Law was for.
If we go back to the analogy of the fence around the path, we might think of the Pharisees as new owners of a home on the fenced-off path, telling the children off for playing on their quiet path. Jesus is saying “you’ve forgotten what the fence was for” – not because they want to tear it down, but because they want to misuse it.
Yesterday, Jesus says “The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath” – we were given the day of rest as a gift from God, to use it so that we might know Him better, through prayer and through time with our family and friends. He forbade work on the sabbath so we could not be forced to deprive ourselves of that rest time. So that we wouldn’t lose out.
Today, the Lord of the Sabbath comes into conflict with the Pharisees again. He tries to make them understand, he brings a man with a withered hand into their midst and asks: is it against the law on the sabbath day to do good or to do evil? But the Pharisees say nothing.
St Athanasius, one of the Church Fathers, reads a deep symbol in this. The man with the withered hand is brought to the Pharisees by Jesus because he wants to move them to mercy. He wants them to see suffering and want to relieve it. Instead they say nothing, they are cold, unmoved by his pain. St Athanasius draws the contrast; the man who is visibly sick, with a withered hand, reaches out to Christ and is healed. Symbolically, he is saved. The Pharisees on the other hand are physically well, but have a withered mind; they do not love, they do not have mercy, they do not reach out to Christ. They have forgotten that the Sabbath laws, the fence built around the day of rest, were put there to allow us to rest, to pray, to do good works, and to see our loved ones. Their withered souls, closed off to love, saw only the Law, the fence, and not the reason behind it; the love of a Father for his children.[1]
For us today, the question is this; Am I walking around with a withered mind, or a withered soul?
The Law of the Gospel is very simple, so simple it can be boiled down to six words; love God and love your neighbour. Every commandment, every moral principle, every rule, every parable, points back in that direction.
When Fr Dominic presents the host before communion, and says those words we heard from St John the Baptist in Sunday’s Gospel “behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world” we are given another chance to call to mind those times we have failed to love God and failed to love our neighbour, and like the man with the withered hand, stretch out our own withered souls to the Lord and ask to be healed; Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word, and my soul shall be healed.
[1] Cf. Commentary of St Athanasius the Apostolic on Mark 3:1-6 via the Catena App
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