I was on a bus in Jerusalem just as Sabbath was beginning. As we went through an ultraorthodox neighborhood people started throwing stones at the bus for violating Sabbath. Our Israeli tour guide sighed, “Thank God for the Palestinians. If it weren’t for them the Jews would be at each others’ throats all the time.” How to approach Sabbath was an issue in Jesus’ time as well. It was no accident that Jesus often was approached for a cure in a synagogue on the Sabbath. He was an itinerant preacher “with no where to lay his head.” Because Jesus was an observant Jew, the one place people knew they could find him was in synagogue on the Sabbath. He did not look to cure on the Sabbath, was not trying to antagonize the Pharisees, but that was when people approached him. When we go to Church on a Sunday we too must be prepared to be challenged to become compassionate as Jesus was.
