Particularly if ever his rules (or what we suppose to be his rules) are more important than human flourishing. If keeping one of God’s rules prevents you from helping one of God’s sons or daughters, you’re missing the point.
Take the Sabbath, for example, a day in which humans are commanded to be like God by resting from work: Jesus himself frequently got in trouble for healing on the Sabbath. Sometimes those he healed got in trouble, too. The cripple at the Pool of Bethesda had kept the Sabbath for 38 years—not a lick of work! Never carried a darn thing on the Sabbath. But then, the first Sabbath that he’s able to walk, he carries his mat home. Which ruffles the feathers of the local Sabbath Police—who completely missed the wonder of the fact that this man couldn’t have broken the Sabbath if he had wanted to for 38 years was now able to break it.
Praise be to God for the gift of being able to be disobedient. Even if just once.
If this, one of the ten commandments, is able to be broken without calling down judgment, might there be others? Even if just for a moment? Perhaps God’s laws are not as ironclad as his love and mercy are. Perhaps God values his creation is more than his commandments.
