Jesus healed a man with a withered hand. The Pharisees, who were zealous that the Law be kept meticulously, pointed out that he was in violation of the Sabbath law. He had done work, a work of healing, on a day when he should have rested. Jesus pointed out to them that if it were a question of their own livestock, they would definitely have done work on the Sabbath to lift their sheep out of danger. What they were really doing was looking for fault as Jesus rescued people from misery. Their desire to control others and keep them in the wrong with God had taken over their minds and hearts!
Part of our training as Presbyterian pastors is to teach us the right way to do things. We are taught The Book of Church Order, which asks us to do things decently and in order. People should not be baptized unless they are members or our church, for example. We should not, as pastors, be running around baptizing people who have no relationship with our church. We should not admit people to membership who haven’t gone through our membership class, taken their vows of membership in front of elders and the congregation, and so forth.
But then, we run into human need and suffering. A family asks us to baptize their medically fragile baby, not in a full worship service, where the community witnesses and participates, as we are supposed to do, but in private. Or we are asked to baptize a sick baby in the hospital. The family doesn’t want to wait until the baby is well and strong. They want to have their little one baptized right away.
Or we are asked to baptize an adult, who has had a near-death experience, and faces a surgery and long recovery. He’s not a member of the church. But his one wish, whispered to a friend, is to be baptized.
Or a woman who is in hospice calls to let us know that she has always meant to become a member of Peachtree, but she put it off and put it off. Now she is at the end of her life. She wants to go out a Peachtree member.
We weigh the human need with compassion, and also keep the rules, the Law, in mind. When Jesus did this, he did not negate the law, but he ruled in favor of human need every time.
So what we do is tell a colleague or two what we are going to do, and then that pastoral act is shared with the Session. We go beyond the rules and acknowledge that before others, but we do it feeling that the Law of Love requires it. We err on the side of human compassion and the way of Jesus.
We see this in other walks of life—for example, when a police officer, instead of arresting someone for shoplifting, buys food for a hungry household or shoes for a child who has nothing. We see it when a person in line pays for groceries that someone can’t quite afford. The Jesus way is to provide, to show compassion, to turn a sorrow into a blessing.