Saving lives and remaining obedient/faithful to God. What do you think?

Question

Mat 12:9 states After departing from that place he went into their synagogue; 10 and, look! a man with a withered hand! So they asked him, “Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath?” that they might get an accusation against him. 11 He said to them: “Who will be the man among YOU that has one sheep and, if this falls into a pit on the sabbath, will not get hold of it and lift it out? 12 All considered, of how much more worth is a man than a sheep!

Some people say that Jesus implied that you can break the laws of Jehovah if your life is in danger citing Mat 12:9 as an example.
The question now is, Is “saving the sheep on Sabbath” a violation of God’s laws? The answer is No, because Jesus said “So it is LAWFUL to do a fine thing on the sabbath.”
Saying that Jesus implied that men can break God’s laws when their lives are in danger mean that they are saying that Jesus sinned, which is not true.
Saving a life on Sabbath is NOT a violation of God, so Jesus did not sin.

You can save lives without violating God’s law and Jesus set an exemplary example in that.

Answer 1

Jesus never taught that "saving" one's life (or another's) was more important than integrity and obedience to God. The account of Matthew 12:1-12 certainly does not teach that...

What Jesus' contemporary critics (and some today apparently) forgot was that the Jewish Mosaic Law was a command of God; it did *NOT* devolve from the opinions of those Pharisaical religious leaders. As the perfect Son of God, Jesus knew better than anyone exactly what behavior did or did not demonstrate proper subjection to Jehovah and to that Law, including its provisions regarding the Sabbath.

Jesus never violated the actual sabbath law.

What do the Scriptures teach about the relative importance of integrity and the earthly life a human might now cherish?

(Matthew 10:28) And do not become fearful of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; but rather be in fear of him that can destroy both soul and body

(Matthew 16:25) For whoever wants to save his soul will lose it; but whoever loses his soul for my sake will find it.

(Luke 12:4,5) Do not fear those who kill the body and after this are not able to do anything more. But I will indicate to you whom to fear: Fear him who after killing has authority to throw into [the grave without hope of resurrection]

(Luke 17:33) Whoever seeks to keep his soul safe for himself will lose it, but whoever loses it will preserve it alive.

(Revelation 12:11) And they conquered ...because of the word of their witnessing, and they did not love their souls even in the face of death.

Answer 2

I think that is a really good question.

I agree with Grace - you need to be reasonable. When God gave the Sabbath law, I don't think he meant that people should observe it to the point that it was more important than life and limb.

On the other hand, it seems to me there are some laws of God that you should be willing to die for than to break them to save a life. It would depend on the seriousness of the law you had to break, I suppose. Apparently the Sabbath law was not one that required you to be you a martyr in order to keep it acceptably.

Good food for thought, thanks for the question.

Answer 3

I think you've got to use your brain a little on this one - the Psalmist writes that one day God would write his laws on people's hearts (ie not just people following a set of laws that make them more or less a bit like God) but that their whole being would be in Christ and increasingly filled with all the good things that are in God - so in a sense you could say we can "love God and do what we want" it's a risky thing to say but if it really is about God not us then we've been set free for freedom not more rules- have you read Galatians recently?
Often we think of christianity being like a tightrope walk accross niagra falls but in reallity its much more like a huge open plain of freedom and goodness

PS I'm training to be a vicar and I intend to work on Sundays for the rest of my life!