Is it lawful to do good?

“Jesus said to them, ‘I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to destroy it?”

Luke 6:9 (NRSV)

In the Christian Bible, Jesus spoke this after being questioned why he was healing a man on the day of rest. Those questioning him were the religious leaders of the day, so caught up in their rules and their dictates that they had become blinded to the struggles of the people they were supposed to be serving. And Jesus, after uttering these words, did exactly what they balked against. He healed the man in question. And those in charge, instead of taking to heart the words that Jesus spoke and being in awe for the miracle they just witnessed, start to plot how they might get even with Jesus.

There’s a story here, just as there are many stories in the words of Jesus. The takeaway, at least to me, is this – the law may be the law, but there is something that is often greater than the law, be it magic, love, light, joy, peace, hope or some other ideal that makes life fair or equal for all. There are stories of those we don’t know, perspectives we can’t understand, because like the Pharisees we can be so wrapped up in the fact that the law is the law no matter what that we don’t see the magic that is being done in the name of the greater good. As a result, sometimes there are shades of gray that we must come to accept that form around these black and white laws.

Is it better to obey the law or to help someone who needs help, regardless of what the law may say? Which is greater, doing nothing and cause harm, or reaching out and offering some sort of “magic” to another being that might save a life but break a rule?

Let’s look at history for a moment, shall we? For my international readers, this is merely a practice of United States history, since that is my strongest area of expertise.

Before 26 August 1920 when the Nineteenth Amendment was formally certified, most women could not vote in national elections. Yet, women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Carrie Chapman Catt, Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony, Anna Howard Shaw, Alice Paul, Antoinette Brown Blackwell and countless others worked for years to gain the act of suffrage for all women. Was what they were doing lawful? No. But they were working to make a difference and make it as fair as they could. Even then, some women still could not vote in some states, notably women of color, until the mid 1960s (and some still have trouble voting even in this century!). Those that worked to make this possible knew that they were going against the law, but to them there was a higher ideal that needed to be achieved and they were determined to make it happen.

They worked to do more good than harm.

The laws of segregation were also black and white. But there were people who wanted to change that. Rosa Park’s famous “I don’t think I should have to stand up” was only one part of the tireless, but unlawful, effort to make things equal for all. Barbara Rose Johns organized a walkout to protest the inadequacies of her Virginia high school as a teenager. Linda Carol Brown’s case went all the way to the Supreme Court where it was determined that separate isn’t equal and that all children should have the right to enroll at the school closest to them. In 1967, interracial marriages were declared constitutional in the case Loving v. Virginia. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibited racial discriminatory practices. While it’s still not perfect, the higher ideals persist and people still push against the black and white of the laws to make things fair for all.

They are still working to do more good than harm.

As others shout about closing borders and only helping “our own” (yet seemingly taking away measures that would indeed help those “own” to increase their own gains), there are people still working tirelessly to welcome the poor, the migrant, the asylum seekers, the marginalized in society that have become the scapegoats. Whether it is Christian churches across the nation coming under fire from law enforcement for trying to help the homeless populations, those fined for providing food and water and safety to those crossing borders, denominational fighting over what stance to take for or against LGTBQIA+ people, there are those working to do more good than harm wherever they can. They find ways to increase the pie, rather about worrying who might or might not take away from it, since there can be plenty to go around. They are working to change hearts, open minds, and create new laws that make life fair and just for all.

Is it better to do good in the face of unjustness? Or is it easier to just remain silent and let the laws continue to be? That is the story we each must come to decide. That is the magic we must find.

Work to do more good than harm. Be love, bring joy, find peace, share hope, create magic.

For that is part of the story.

Stay magical.

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