Ik wil vriendelijkheid en hulpvaardigheid en geen
offers
Je désire la bonté et non les sacrifices
For I
desire mercy, not sacrifice
(Hosea
6.6a)
We
can empathise surely with the Pharisees here who are puzzled that Jesus seems
to be riding roughshod over the rules governing Sabbath observance. By doing so
he is undermining the structure that orders their lives, the framework that
offers them clarity and control. No one likes to feel adrift. We like order and
are comfortable around people who play the game of life according to rules we
understand. We too are guilty sometimes of citing Scripture to exclude those
who are different. Of course rules and regulations are important and no one
wants chaos, but, as Jesus demonstrates when he heals the man with the withered
hand, mercy is the only standard that counts. Mercy trumps all other suits and,
just as the man’s withered hand ‘was restored, as sound as the other’ so, when
we show mercy we are not creating further disorder, we are restoring things to
their proper order. The Pharisees’ response to Jesus’ appeal to their merciful
sides is to conspire against him and to seek to destroy him. Jesus counters by
moving on. Thus mercy leaves the Pharisees behind, and they miss the outpouring
of mercy that follows as Jesus cures everyone who comes across his path. Our
rules and regulations can only take us so far if they are not imbued with the
transcendent mercy that can gather up all before it in an embrace of healing and
restoration.
Jane
McBride
Figures
representing 'Justice' and 'Mercy' by Alexander Mylne (1637) which formerly
stood above the main entrance to Parliament House, Edinburgh
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