Choose the Obvious Good

Pick People Over Rules, Every Time

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I like the Gospel of Mark. I like it for its alacrity. It moves along, like a TikTok feed, from one short scene to another. And most of the vignettes have something important to say about the human condition, especially as it relates to God’s nature and values.

A great example, and one particularly relevant for our moment in time, is when Jesus heals the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath…

Jesus Breaks the Sabbath Law

3 ^1-3 Then he [Jesus] went back in the meeting place where he found a man with a crippled hand. The Pharisees had their eyes on Jesus to see if he would heal him, hoping to catch him in a Sabbath violation. He said to the man with the crippled hand, “Stand here where we can see you.”

⁴ Then he spoke to the people: “What kind of action suits the Sabbath best? Doing good or doing evil? Helping people or leaving them helpless?” No one said a word.

^5-6 He looked them in the eye, one after another, angry now, furious at their hard-nosed religion. He said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” He held it out—it was as good as new! The Pharisees got out as fast as they could, sputtering about how they would join forces with Herod’s followers and ruin him. (Mark 3:1-6, The Message)

Faced with the choice of obeying or disobeying a religious law—Jesus chose disobedience. This doesn’t seem like the obvious choice for a rabbi, one who is meant to teach—and of course, keep—the law.

But Jesus was being an example for others to follow. He was modeling a core value of God: people over rules. And though it wasn’t the obvious choice for everyone present—including the Pharisees and whomever else was gathered at the synagogue that Saturday—it was the obvious choice for Jesus.

Choosing the Obvious Good (C.O.G.)

Jesus Chose the Obvious Good. He had moral clarity. He knew and believed that the health of a person is more important than keeping the Sabbath. But how could this be? ‘Keep the Sabbath holy’ is not just a rule, it’s one of the Ten Commandments!¹

Even so, Jesus understood that the “day of rest” was only created for the health of humans.² And when the Sabbath was potentially going to interfere with someone’s well-being, it took a backseat to the work of making that someone physically whole again.

Choosing the Less Obvious Good (C.L.O.G.)

The Pharisees, on the other hand, did not have clarity on this point.³ They saw the religious law as supreme, no matter what. Perhaps they were thinking: Maybe this man has a withered hand for a good reason? Maybe he’s a sinner, and God caused this disfiguration as a punishment? Maybe God intends to heal the man himself at a later date, on a day that is not restricted?

They were blinded by their legalism. Likely with good intentions, they sought to follow God’s law, in an effort to guide their community to a future of wholeness. But this is the irony. When an opportunity for real, tangible wholeness presented itself right in front of them, they did not take it! The obvious good was not so obvious to them. They chose the rules. They chose the less obvious good.

And here we can pause to note a serious problem inherent in Jesus’ example of choosing the obvious good: What if the good is not so obvious? What if what is good is obvious to some, and completely obscured for others? In fact, this is the situation in which we find ourselves in America today.

Hard-Nosed Religion

In the Synagogue that day, Jesus looked the people in the eye and asked them point blank: What’s better… Doing good or doing evil? Helping people or leaving them helpless? From our perspective, his words seem so rhetorical, one imagines him speaking with an almost mocking tone. I think he was mocking. In the story, the narrator also says that Jesus was “furious at their hard-nosed religion.”

Reading the news every day, I see a whole lot of hard-nosed religion. Even worse, it is often hard-nosed religion in the service of power. Together, religion and power make for a poisonous elixir that, when drunk, causes moral blindness, not unlike the blindness of the Pharisees.

If Jesus were incarnate in America today, he might confront us the same way he confronted the Pharisees in the Synagogue. Looking us directly in the eye, he might ask:

• Which is better? Treating all immigrants as criminals, or sorting out the good and bad apples, treating each according to their actions?

• Which is better? Terrorizing American citizens for exercising their Constitutional right to peacefully protest, or allowing the them to speak and act out when their neighbors’ civil liberties are threatened?

• Which is better? Promoting racist tropes about the ones with whom we disagree politically, or engaging in thoughtful, reasoned arguments in our politics?

• Which is better? Demonizing those who are different than us (like Trans folks), or taking their needs seriously, as equal citizens in society?

• Which is better? Obfuscating investigations that might harm the powerful, or doggedly pursuing justice for child victims of sexual abuse?

When Good is Obscured

Here’s good news: Jesus is incarnate in America today. Jesus is you and me—and anyone else who follows his example of choosing the obvious good. We must advocate for those with withered hands on the Sabbath—willing to break the “rules” of our hard-nosed religion and corrupted politics, in order to ensure that people do not end up getting broken.

But what if the obvious good isn’t so obvious? There are many reasons why the good might be obscured. Here are some specific cases, with corresponding ways to promote moral clarity in each situation…

1. IGNORANCE OF FACTS
   Problem: When the facts are hidden, or when people willfully ignore the facts, the good is obscured.

   Solution: Promote the facts in every way, all the time, and loudly; through conversation, social media, writing, example… so that the good becomes obvious.

2. FAILURE TO REASON
   Problem: When facts are known, but emotion upstages reason, the good is obscured.

   Solution: Relentlessly engage in well-reasoned, cohesive logic to battle against false premises and bad-faith arguments for bad behavior, so that the good becomes obvious.

3. SELF OVER OTHERS
   Problem: When individuals put their own well being over the well-being of others, the good is obscured.

   Solution: Set an example by placing the needs of others above your own, so that the good becomes obvious.

4. IRRATIONAL FEARS
   Problem: When people promote fear-mongering, or entertain fears that have no basis, the good is obscured.

   Solution: Challenge fears with clear and comforting words that quell anxiety and promote peace, so that the good becomes obvious.

5. RELIGIOUS CERTAINTY
   Problem: When strongly held religious beliefs emphasize rules over people, the good is obscured.

   Solution: Expose hard-nosed religion by modeling God’s love and grace, so that the good becomes obvious.

6. XENOPHOBIA
   Problem: When bigotry and racism are encouraged, the good is obscured.

   Solution: Introduce xenophobes to actual people who are targets of hatred, in order to dispel the myths that advance “otherism,” and so that the good becomes obvious.

7. LACK OF EDUCATION
   Problem: When people are not taught how to think for themselves, the good is obscured.

   Solution: Model and encourage education, though classes, webinars, videos, mentoring… so that the good becomes obvious.

COG or CLOG?

It’s perfectly normal for anger to rise up when we see people choosing rules over people. Jesus himself was “angry,” in fact, “furious” at the hard-nosed religious types. Unfortunately, with so many contemporary examples of bad choices in this regard—by people who would otherwise claim to be righteous and wise—we could easily become angry all the time! But that’s not a solution.

The solution is this: We need more COGS. People who Choose the Obvious Good are like wheels with a series of projections around their edges that are part of a machine. With every obvious good they choose, they transfer positive motion from COG to COG to COG, reducing friction, increasing the forward motion, and keeping the whole system spinning in sync, with an output that is manifestly and undeniably good.

The trouble comes when people who Choose the Less Obvious Good are introduced into the system. One CLOG slows things down. Another CLOG or two can make the whole machine freeze up completely, effectively putting an end to any good that could ultimately come of it.

If we want a society that hums, in which people of all cultures and creeds are working together in harmony toward a better future, then Choosing the Obvious Good must become our default modus operandi.

On the other hand, if we normalize choosing of rules over people, then our society will assuredly grind to a halt—if it doesn’t catch fire, and completely incinerate first.

Choose the obvious good, every time. Do your best to help others choose it, too.

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1. The Sabbath originally derives from the Genesis story, where it says that God rested on the seventh day. The idea of a weekly day of rest became a religious law when it was codified in the Ten Commandments: Remember that Sabbath day, and keep it holy (i.e. ‘set apart’ from the rest of your week). In Judaism, the Sabbath is from sundown on Friday, to sundown on Saturday. Christians shifted the Sabbath to Sunday, in symbolic connection with the Resurrection of Jesus. During Jesus lifetime, keeping the Sabbath holy (including doing no ‘work’) was a strict religious practice, as it is for Orthodox Jews today.

2. Jesus spells this out precisely in the previous chapter, when he says, “The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27)

3. The Pharisees were the prominent Jewish religious leaders of Jesus’ day. They were not priests, but they were recognized as respected interpreters of religious law. The Jewish community looked to them for guidance on how to remain faithful to God, especially during times of exile or occupation (as with the Romans, during Jesus’ time). Jesus respected their role and is shown interacting favorably with some Pharisees, like Nicodemus. But Jesus clashed with Pharisees often, especially over beliefs that placed rules over people.