A few years ago, I had the interesting experience of travelling the Tan-Zam Highway from Iringa to Dar es Salaam. It was a busy road, but a well-made one on the whole. Double white lines ran down the centre of the road for long stretches. In the UK that would be an instruction not to overtake, and I feel sure the same must be true in the Tanzanian highway code. But you wouldn’t think so, given the way most people were driving; you’d think they were an invitation - if not an instruction - to overtake. Actually, our driver was quite law abiding; not true of most others, though.
We were at first amused at the antics of the local drivers, until a large tanker came a bit too close to us for comfort. And indeed, it is no joking matter. Road traffic accidents are a substantial cause of injury and death in the UK, but in Tanzania and indeed in much of the developing world, the statistics are truly awful. There are road safety posters everywhere in Tanzania, but no-one seems to take much notice. Then again, here in the UK we tend to think of traffic laws as somehow different from other laws; very few people drive at 30 or less where the signs tell them they should, even though not to do so is illegal.
I do try very hard to obey the rules of the road, but I have to confess to having points on my licence. For speeding. Speed is dangerous, and the rules of the road are there for our protection and for the protection of others, not just for the sake of it. Even speed cameras; they only catch you if you’re breaking the law. We shouldn’t really feel aggrieved when that happens.
Having said that, rules may be important but they’re there to serve us, not to be our masters. Most of my school rules were sensible, like not speaking in class without permission, or not running in corridors, or getting homework in on time. But not all of them were. For example, we were required to wear a green cap with a grey centre button, which could only be bought from one rather expensive shop.
And this was a silly rule, not least because in practice the centre button got removed and thrown away within an hour or so of starting as a new kid in school. Result - any green cap from the Co-op or wherever would have done just as well. So some rules are pointless. When a rule doesn’t enhance our quality of our life together, then we’re better off without it. Good laws restrict my freedom, but only so that everyone can have a share of freedom, or their safety and security is protected. If they do more than that - if, for example, they restrict the liberty of some people in order to enhance and perpetuate the dominance of others, then something has gone wrong. Laws can be unjust and immoral, and just because it’s the law doesn’t make it OK; most of the immoral actions of Nazi Germany, or apartheid South Africa (just two examples among many) were legal according to the laws of the day.
Many Christians in Nazi Germany, and indeed in apartheid South Africa, believed that it was their Christian duty to be good citizens of the state, and to obey the law. Those who didn’t, the so-called Confessing Church in Germany for example, led by people like Martin Neimoller and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, were operating very much outside their comfort zone, for obedience to the state was something of a fundamental principle within the Lutheran Church.
For the Jewish nations of the Old Testament, Israel and Judah, the law of the land and the law of God were one and the same thing. All law derived from Moses, and therefore from God himself. All law, even what we would think of as secular law, expressed the mind of God, and his desire and will for his people. But when you read the great prophets of the Old Testament, you find that things are not that simple. Justice and the law (the law as applied, anyway) are not the same thing. The prophets found people perverting justice. They hadn’t abandoned the law, they looked as though they were keeping it, but in fact they’d customised and tweaked it so that it suited their needs while in reality they cheated on others, and made themselves fat while other folk were suffering.
So you find prophets saying again and again that God is not to be fooled by fake piety. There’s no point in keeping all the pilgrim feasts, making all the right sacrifices, praying as and when you’re supposed to, when the rest of the time you’re cheating the very people God wants specially protected and looked after - widows, orphans, homeless people, visitors from elsewhere? God desires true and righteous justice, not the keeping of laws just for the sake of looking good.
In his turn, Jesus found much the same sort of thing going on. People looking good, saying prayers at the right time, keeping the rules. Pharisees especially, who were looked up to as specially holy people, great keepers of rules. But God isn’t served in the letter of the law, but in its spirit; that’s the message of Jesus. But there were always some among the Pharisees who were keen to catch him out, so they could accuse him of being against the law, and therefore against God who gave the law. They were quick to say, whenever they could, “You can’t do that, it’s against the rules!”
Jesus would seem to have made something of a habit of healing people on the Sabbath, and so he did in the reading we’ve heard this morning, in the synagogue, during divine worship. On this occasion it isn’t Jesus who got told off, by the leader of the synagogue, but the lady who was healed - and everyone else there too, it would seem - for daring to come and seek healing on God’s holy day, when everyone’s supposed to be resting! You’ve got six other days, she was told, come and be healed on one of them. If ever there was a judgement founded in jealousy, that was it, perhaps the synagogue leader felt he was losing his grip on things. How would I feel as preacher here today if somebody else got up and started to heal people during my service, I find myself wondering. The simple rule I hope I’d apply (but would I?) is surely that if it’s good and genuine, and of God, then it should happen. And, as Jesus said elsewhere, the Sabbath is made for us, not us for the Sabbath.
Jesus very clearly said that he hadn’t come to do away with law. Not one jot, not one tittle - not the slightest smallest bit of God’s law would go. But laws are supposed to be useful; laws are utilities. And wherever rules are being used to stop good things happening that need to happen, or to harm or damage or restrict the lives of people just so that other people can prosper at their expense: well, Jesus has past history - read the Gospels - of ignoring and opposing rules like that. They run counter to what God’s law is supposed to provide, they run counter to what God wants to happen. Law is given so we can live together well; Sabbaths are given because hard-working folk need a rest and a change of pace in life. Neither law nor Sabbath is given so we can beat each other over the head with strictures about what is allowed and what isn’t. Neither law nor Sabbath is given as an excuse for laziness or apathy or self-interest, or to stop good being done.
As ever with the things we see Jesus do, and the things we hear Jesus say - go and do likewise. Don’t forget that rules are important; act in a way that affirms the fact that most rules, most of the time, are there to do us good and to protect us. We may find them restrictive, but crossing double white lines or even doing 35 in a built up area really will increase the chance we could do harm to someone else. If other people do it, it increases the risk to us. But where, as can happen, the rules themselves are harmful, or where they’re administered unfairly, we need to be acting justly, and that may mean ignoring the rules; it could even mean opposing the rules. Where Jesus would do that, then we should too. We should obey the governing authorities, pay our taxes, be good citizens, but remember: our first allegiance is to God, and his call to his justice holds first importance for us. The justice of God isn’t always the same as the justice of the law courts. Put simply, rules are here to serve us, and we are here to serve God; and that’s a perspective we need to get right before anything else.
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