Going to bore some of you now.
The offside rule – it’s a rule in the game of football – women aren’t supposed to know it, traditionally, but then women aren’t supposed to be in a world cup final, win the Euros twice in a row or, indeed, become priests, But, thankfully, those ships have sailed.
So…we’re talking football. The offside rule. If an attacking player (a player whose job it is to score goals) just loitered on the opposition goal-line, it would be too easy to score and too boring to watch. The game would not be interesting! It would be dire. So you have the offside rule. This rule says that when an attacking player receives the ball, or as it is forwarded to her, she must have the goalkeeper and one defender between her and the goal. It’s less easy to score and therefore a more interesting game to play and to watch.
The offside rule, as fascinating as you will all agree it really is, isn’t for its own sake. It’s to make the game better. Less easy – therefore more fulfilling. More enjoyable.
All games have rules – we know that – imagine playing chess, and instead of moving the bishop diagonally, you could just decide to stick it anywhere, anytime, which is what chess without rules would look like.
So rules serve a purpose, and the purpose is the flourishing of those who play the game. And for the pleasure of those who watch.
But what about laws – well, they are for the flourishing of those who are part of any community or country.
We drive on the left? That’s the law.
So I decide I don’t like that – I’m a free spirit, no one tells me what to do – blah de blah – and today I will drive on the right. My car, my choice. Mayhem. If I didn’t get myself or someone else killed I would certainly be arrested and breathalysed. And rightly so. Laws serve a purpose – the purpose is to keep us safe and enable us to flourish.
But there are bad rules and bad laws, for sure. A bad rule would be one that made the game boring, or nonsensical, or impossible to win…or lose. A bad law would be one that created a sense of danger, or injustice, or preferential treatment or impeded the flourishing of communities and individuals.
And there are bad laws – the law in the 1950s in the US was based on apartheid – black people sat apart from white people on a bus. Rosa Parks disobeyed that law. She was right to – that law was not for the flourishing of human beings. It was a bad law. And some countries have many bad laws because self-perpetuation of ‘their’ system has become more important than the people and their wellbeing.
Now, if we go back to Moses and the commandments – the Jewish nation had just been set free and were wondering through the desert. They did not know how to live as free people – the commandments God sent to Moses were to enable them to flourish, to live as free people, not to diminish or reduce their humanity. Stephen Fry is simply wrong on this.
The Commandments served a purpose and the purpose was the flourishing of God’s people the way God longs for us to flourish.
Now we come to first century Palestine.
The commandments to us are a series of rules because that is how we think of the commandments now don’t we – a set of rules we can follow, but many choose not to – but in the time of Jesus they were laws, they were Mosaic law, and they defined every aspect of a Jew’s life.
But the commandments had become an end in themselves – not the means to human flourishing – The sign of a good Jew was simply their observation of the law.
So I decide I don’t like that – I’m a free spirit, no one tells me what to do – and today I will drive on the right. My car, my choice. Mayhem.
Don’t pick corn on the Sabbath; don’t heal on the sabbath; don’t allow a woman of ill repute to talk to you; be careful what you eat – or you will be unclean. And more…don’t be with a woman who is menstruating; don’t talk in public to women you are not related to; an eye for an eye.
Wash your hands ritually before you eat, or you will be unclean. There were good reasons for these laws – at their most fundamental they came to the people from the Commandments given to Moses – they were to enable a once-enslaved people to live freely. They were meant to liberate, not to oppress. You can hear Jesus sigh – this is not why God gave you these laws. And he goes on – what goes into your mouth, cannot defile you, but what comes out of your mouth can. What comes out of the mouth comes out of the heart. That was radical. I suspect it still is. We still judge very much by appearances, I think.
This statement demonstrates Jesus’ deity. He sets aside the Law of Moses when it comes to clean and unclean foods; only God could have done that. But in doing so he offended the Pharisees and the Pharisees were not people you really wanted to cross. They didn’t have any political power in the days of Jesus, but because they were so respected by the people, offending them could make life very difficult. Jesus, however, is far more concerned with truth than keeping the peace..
Our behaviour tells us the status of our heart – the opposite of dirty is pure.
Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
The beatitudes do not say blessed are those who have a fancy wardrobe, or blessed are those who follow the rules slavishly, or enforce them regardless of the impact they have on lives lived, but blessed are the pure in heart. For they shall see God.
The beatitudes do not say blessed are those who speak nicely, or blessed are those who speak the King’s English, or blessed are those with nice shiny houses, and nice shiny cars in the drive, – but blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the pure in heart – those who are clean on the inside.
Rules are good, a great good; laws are a great good but not for their own sake. Human Beings are ends; laws and rules are only means – we damage ourselves and others if we mix up ends and means. Laws are the means whereby we achieve the God-given end which is the flourishing of the whole individual, of communities, of countries. And then we live abundantly. Then we live life to the full to the glory of God.
The offside rule is great, and not remotely as mysterious as generations of men have told us, but it is only great because it makes footie more fun.
Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
Mark 2: 27-28
Mark 2:23-28 NIV – Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath – One – Bible Gateway
Thank you for reading – I look forward to hearing your thoughts!