The Spirit of the Law

Scripture: 

9 Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, 10 and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”

11 He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out?12 How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. 14 But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.

Matthew 12:9-14

Devotional:

Can you imagine someone trying to stop Jesus from healing a man with an injured, unusable hand? Most of us would be amazed at the very thought that Jesus might heal someone, yet the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees were appalled that Jesus would dare to heal someone on the Sabbath. The Sabbath was part of the Law of Moses, which they were the custodians of, and their love of the Law was greater than their love for the person in need of healing. 

This man who came to Jesus was, no doubt, in desperate need. To put things into perspective, losing use of one of your hands was, at best, an automatic relegation to poverty, and at worst, a death sentence. Losing the ability to use your hands was losing the ability to do any work that could provide for you and your family.  

There is a saying that we have adopted into our common language: “honoring the letter of the law, but not the spirit.” Believe it or not, this is actually an idea that originates in Scripture. The Apostle Paul wrote in Second Corinthians that we have been made ministers of a new covenant, "not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life". And even in legal circles, we have accepted the idea that there is a difference between what is specifically written and what the writing means. 

In our passage today, we see Jesus highlighting this principle. He shares that it is right and lawful to do good on the Sabbath. He shows that the intent of the Sabbath is not to restrict acts of good or kindness, but rather to provide rest from toil and struggle. He draws a line between what the letter of the law says and what it means. 

Here is where the scripture comes alive for us. Often we get into a place of confusion over what God’s word says, without examining the context and intent that God has placed into it. Many people have identified that the wages of sin is death, and they believe that that means they must live lives that are tormented because of their sin. But the intent of God is that you would be released from the penalty of sin that Jesus Christ took on the cross for you. This is just one of the ways that we tend to mishandle God’s Word. 

If I could leave you with one thing today, it would be this. Don’t choose the letter of the Law over the spirit of the Law. Don’t cherry-pick what parts of God’s Word you obey without understanding that the overall message of the Bible is that there is a Heavenly Father who loves you and wants a relationship with you. If your reading of Scripture tells you anything else, you might be reading the “letter of the law”, but ignoring the “spirit of the law.“

Prayer: 

Father, please correct the wrong ways we have seen ourselves and chosen the letter of the law over the spirit of the law. Show us what patterns of thinking have distorted our view of you. Help us to walk in a correct view of you and of ourselves. Most of all, let us have a close, personal relationship with you, our Father. Amen.