Neighbor or Religion

Sometimes there’s a tension between our morality and the people living right in front of us. It can feel easier to choose our religious values because we then walk away smug and satisfied we did the right thing. But Jesus is always looking underneath the hood, always getting at the question, “What does love look like here?” And even when that love costs, Jesus always chooses it.

As you read through this section of scripture today, see if you can find yourself in it. Have you been the one excluded by others’ religion? Have you been the one to exclude?

After you’ve read it, ponder the quote at the end and have a heart to heart with Jesus.

Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”

He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus. - Matthew 10:9-14

The only clear line I draw these days is this: when my religion tries to come between me and my neighbor, I will choose my neighbor… Jesus never commanded me to love my religion.- Barbara Brown Taylor