Jesus teaches that love (doing good) trumps a bunch of religious rules every time.
Matthew 12:9-13 9 He left that place and entered their synagogue; 10 a man was there with a withered hand, and they asked him, "Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath?" so that they might accuse him. 11 He said to them, "Suppose one of you has only one sheep and it falls into a pit on the sabbath; will you not lay hold of it and lift it out? 12 How much more valuable is a human being than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the sabbath." 13 Then he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and it was restored, as sound as the other.
Imagine a bunch of religious people sitting around diligently trying to decide what people should and should not do on the Sabbath. Meanwhile, there are people outside their meeting needing their help... needing food, needing hope, needing love. Jesus said, "Get over your stupid religious rules and do good."
Likewise, I went to a meeting recently where instead of talking about where to use the talents and passion of interested people in the service of Jesus, they spent their time talking about who was good enough and who wasn't good enough to be used in Jesus' service. I wanted to say, "Let us get over our stupid religious rules and let these willing people do good."
So Jesus heals the hand - but he doesn't heal the hearts of the people with the stupid religious rules. Why not? This is where real change needs to happen in our world (espeically in the religion of Christianity) so we can get on with the business of doing good.
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