Good Deeds
Read Mark 3:1-19.
For six years, Pastor Rick Wood drove the streets of Birmingham, Alabama, twice a month to hand out hot dogs and bottles of water to the city's homeless population. He was doing so in response to the Bible's command to feed the hungry. He wasn't preaching to them. He wasn't harassing them. The closest he got to sharing the reason for his mission was having Matthew 25:35-40 on the side of his truck. Most people, regardless of religious affiliation (or lack thereof), would have thought Pastor Wood was doing a good thing.
But not the city. The city council passed an ordinance requiring food trucks to have a $500 permit, and when the local police determined that Pastor Wood was in fact operating a "food truck," they shut him down. Similar scenarios have happened over and over again in various cities, reminding us once again of the truth spoken first by Clara Boothe Luce: "No good deed goes unpunished."
Luce may have made the statement, but it's been proven true throughout history, especially in the life of Jesus. In the start of the third chapter of Mark's Gospel, we have Jesus performing an act of compassion, healing a man with a shriveled hand. Jesus knows it's a Sabbath; he knows that "healing" is considered work and therefore is illegal on such a day. (The religious council had so determined.) And worse yet, Jesus is in the synagogue where everyone would be on the Sabbath. He's very, very public at this point. He asks the man to stand up and then he asks all those gathered there a very pointed question: "Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” (3:4). Did Jesus know they wouldn't answer when he asked? To answer would have put anyone in a difficult position, no matter what the answer was! So Jesus chooses to heal the man. He's living out what he said in the prior chapter: the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath (2:27).
Could he have waited a day to heal the man? Certainly. But Jesus' point is this: do good as soon as you have the opportunity. Is there anything more glorifying to God than one of his children being set free? Interestingly, no one remembers the sermon preached on that Sabbath day, but they remember Jesus' action.
And it's that action that does not go unpunished. Mark says immediately, plans begin to be laid to kill Jesus. (Apparently it's not "work" to plot to kill someone on the Sabbath.) This early on in his ministry, Jesus' life is already in danger—all because he gave a man back the use of his hand against the wishes of the religious council.
Certainly, Pastor Wood would not put his punishment on the level of Jesus, but it's certainly in the same vein. He sought to follow Jesus' mandate, to do good in Jesus' name, and the powers that be used an ordinance not written for charities to shut him down, to keep the homeless unfed. No good deed goes unpunished. Which begs the question: for what good deed are you being punished? If we're following Jesus, we should expect such treatment and if we're not being punished, maybe we're not doing the good Jesus actually calls us to do, Maybe we're not following him closely enough. It's something to ponder anyway.
 |
| Pastor Rick Wood; Photo from ABC 33/40 |
But not the city. The city council passed an ordinance requiring food trucks to have a $500 permit, and when the local police determined that Pastor Wood was in fact operating a "food truck," they shut him down. Similar scenarios have happened over and over again in various cities, reminding us once again of the truth spoken first by Clara Boothe Luce: "No good deed goes unpunished."
Luce may have made the statement, but it's been proven true throughout history, especially in the life of Jesus. In the start of the third chapter of Mark's Gospel, we have Jesus performing an act of compassion, healing a man with a shriveled hand. Jesus knows it's a Sabbath; he knows that "healing" is considered work and therefore is illegal on such a day. (The religious council had so determined.) And worse yet, Jesus is in the synagogue where everyone would be on the Sabbath. He's very, very public at this point. He asks the man to stand up and then he asks all those gathered there a very pointed question: "Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” (3:4). Did Jesus know they wouldn't answer when he asked? To answer would have put anyone in a difficult position, no matter what the answer was! So Jesus chooses to heal the man. He's living out what he said in the prior chapter: the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath (2:27).
Could he have waited a day to heal the man? Certainly. But Jesus' point is this: do good as soon as you have the opportunity. Is there anything more glorifying to God than one of his children being set free? Interestingly, no one remembers the sermon preached on that Sabbath day, but they remember Jesus' action.
And it's that action that does not go unpunished. Mark says immediately, plans begin to be laid to kill Jesus. (Apparently it's not "work" to plot to kill someone on the Sabbath.) This early on in his ministry, Jesus' life is already in danger—all because he gave a man back the use of his hand against the wishes of the religious council.
Certainly, Pastor Wood would not put his punishment on the level of Jesus, but it's certainly in the same vein. He sought to follow Jesus' mandate, to do good in Jesus' name, and the powers that be used an ordinance not written for charities to shut him down, to keep the homeless unfed. No good deed goes unpunished. Which begs the question: for what good deed are you being punished? If we're following Jesus, we should expect such treatment and if we're not being punished, maybe we're not doing the good Jesus actually calls us to do, Maybe we're not following him closely enough. It's something to ponder anyway.
Good post!
ReplyDelete