ON LOVE AND THE LAW part 1

Here read II Corinthians 5:21 Matthew 12:1-14 Mark 2:23-28 Mark 3:1-5 Luke 6:1-11 Leviticus 24:5-9
I Kings 22:6-23 II Chronicles 18:1-22 Hosea 6:6 Micah 6:6-8 Numbers 28:9-10

Beyond a shadow of a doubt, the Lord Jesus Christ never sinned or broke the law of God. He could not sin because He was God in human form and had no original sin in Him that would compel Him to sin. He is Life itself, and so when Satan tempted Him, He simply overcame Satan by quoting the Word of God. Thus He proved that Life cannot be destroyed.

One day the Pharisees rebuked Jesus for allowing His disciples to glean on the Sabbath day. They were trying to accuse Jesus of violating the law so that they could gain some power over Him. Jesus ignored their misreading of the law. The law of gleaning taught nothing about not gleaning on the Sabbath, and the law of the Sabbath rest allowed eating on the Sabbath.

Instead, Jesus chose to rebuke them in another way. He reminded them of the story of how David, and they that were with him, had eaten the shewbread which, by law, only the priests were allowed to eat. Then, He reminded them how, in the law, God had ordered the priests to make a special burnt-offering sacrifice on the Sabbath day. The subtle contrast between these two stories conveyed a message to the Pharisees that Jesus knew they would miss. The priests could hardly be blamed for violating the Sabbath by following God's command to sacrifice on the Sabbath, and David could not be blamed for showing mercy to himself and his followers when they were hungry, even though he technically violated the law by eating the priests' shewbread.

Jesus then emphasized His message, which again He knew they would miss, by flatly telling them that He was greater than the temple. Jesus used the temple as a symbol for the law because the temple held the law. Jesus' subtle message to the Pharisees was that He was God, and that God alone decides when His law has been violated and when it has not.
Jesus further emphasized His message by quoting the prophets Hosea and Micah who had taught, by the inspiration of God, that mercy was better than sacrifice. Jesus' message should have been plain to the Pharisees. It is good to obey God by sacrificing animals, but it is better to practice mercy which these sacrifices symbolize even if one technically violates the law by doing so.

Jesus then further spiked the ire of the Pharisees by brazenly telling them: "For the Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath day." This message was unmistakable. Since God is Lord of the Sabbath, and therefore Lord over the whole law, then He retains the right to decide when love and mercy trumps a technical violation of the law. Thus, God held David blameless for eating the priests' shewbread because he was wholly motivated by love and mercy when he did so.

Immediately following Jesus' attempt to teach the clueless Pharisees, He entered a synagogue where He healed a man with a withered hand. This healing was a direct example of that lesson He had just been teaching.

The Pharisees asked Jesus if He wasn't violating the law when He healed this man on the Sabbath. The Pharisees considered this to be work on the Sabbath rest. The hypocritical Pharisees ignored compassion and mercy and demanded that the people observe a very strict adherence to the law as they interpreted it. They did this because they wanted to control the people themselves by making them forget that God is merciful. By putting impossible demands on the people, the Pharisees could dump guilt on them for the slightest infraction, knowing that whoever can be made to feel guilty can be controlled.
Jesus exposed their hypocrisy when He pointed out the fact that they had no problem rescuing animals on the Sabbath, but had no compassion for the rescue of people. Jesus then plainly told them the whole truth of the matter when He said: "Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days." No person ever violates the law of God in any act that is completely motivated by love and mercy even if such an act constitutes a technical violation of the law.

One caveat follows from this rule. One must be wholly motivated by love and compassion. If even the slightest amount of selfishness should enter into the motivation, then the act is ruined and that person has sinned. Remember the proverbial warning of the expert stunt performer: "Don't try this at home." Jesus is the expert. Humans are not.

Even human law recognizes this rule to a certain extent. For example, a person who commits a so-called "mercy killing" usually gets a light sentence because the judge realizes that even though that person may have been motivated by love and compassion when they killed a suffering loved one, that killer may also have been partly motivated by selfishness in wanting to rid himself of a burden. Soldiers in combat who kill their comrades who beg for death because they have been horribly maimed, usually are not punished at all. In any case, one must be extremely circumspect when contemplating an act of mercy that violates a law. Usually, one would be better off to leave these types of actions to God alone.