Beyond the norm
Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Gospel: John 5:1-16
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/040125.cfm
It’s easy for us to judge and condemn those that don’t fit our social norms and expectations. These norms don’t hold any weight with God. We all have these norms though if we like it or not. We teach our kids these norms as if they are the right thing to do, but it doesn’t take much experience in the world to see that other people live differently than us and that’s okay.
As a child of the 80s, I watched my share of TV. And for some reason, the bad guys fit certain demographics. I remember that bad guys had mustaches and facial hair. I went to a town fair in my grandparents’ town and there was a group of men with mustaches. I had to keep my eye on them because I didn’t know what they were going to do. They were highly suspect of being criminals. I felt the same way about people who smoked cigarettes and used profanity.
Now as an adult of over 27 years, I’ve had a beard over most of those years. In my twenties, I smoked a lot. I too have used my share of profanity, maybe too much in fact. God sees beyond all these surface things to the heart of it. In today’s gospel, Jesus heals a man on the Sabbath. Not only was Jesus in violation of working on the Sabbath, but he also instructed another person to break the rules. He told the man who he healed to pick up his mat and walk.
These things to us may sound ridiculous to us today, but in Jesus’s time there was a belief that the Jewish people needed to strictly follow the law. The Sabbath was a day of rest, and Jesus and the healed man were in violation. But Jesus sees beyond this. Jesus’s mission is not bound by a day. God’s work should be done regardless of the day and time. How often do we mix the message? It’s easy to see these norms within our place and time as if they are God’s truth, but they’re not. They may point us in the right direction, but they aren’t the core of God’s message especially when it drives us to look down on others and their differences in practice.
Jesus’s message ultimately is to love without limit and love without ceasing. The traditions of the Sabbath weren’t going to stop him from doing that. The love he shared wasn’t for attention, but was driven by seeing someone in need. He didn’t need to assess that it was the Sabbath when he saw someone who needed his attention and love. Given the tradition, what better day is there for him to show it! God’s love transcends our limits, even the limits we think are from him. God is always challenging us to see beyond such surface things and learn to love those who exist outside of our made-up limits.
