Last year a couple near Twin Falls, Idaho was boating on the Snake River in a small fishing boat.  As they were preparing to cast off, tragically, a man committed suicide by leaping to his death hundreds of feet from a nearby bridge.  The couple rowed out to him as fast as they could to retrieve his body from being swept downstream in the strong current.  As they brought his body back to the shore, a local state park ranger's only response was to give them a ticket for not having life jackets on.  Technically the officer was in the right, but did he do the right thing?  Was his response appropriate to the situation?

Often, being right is more important to us than doing the right thing.  While he might have admonished the couple about not having lifejackets on, he nevertheless should have thanked them for their heroism-and let the ticket go.  In fact, when the story leaked out to the general public, there was a huge outcry against the ranger's action, technically right though he was: How could he be so heartless?  Because of this, the ticket was dropped.

At times, doing the right thing means stepping outside the box of "being right" and being better than being right.  For Jesus, being right always entailed doing the right thing, even though at times it meant going against the priest's view of the law.  Doing the right thing always preserves, lifts up, and sanctifies life and relationships, whether doing such involves being right or not.

How often is "being right" more important to us than doing the right thing?  Often, they're the same, but sometimes they're not, and those are the times when we are called to do the better thing by doing the right thing to the cost of "being right."  Because sometimes when we think we're right, we're wrong.

Now the word of the Lord came to me saying,

‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.’

Then I said, ‘Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.’

But the Lord said to me,
‘Do not say, “I am only a boy”;
for you shall go to all to whom I send you,
and you shall speak whatever I command you.

Do not be afraid of them,
for I am with you to deliver you,

says the Lord.’

Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said to me,
‘Now I have put my words in your mouth.

See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to pull down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant.’

 

Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath.

And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight.

When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, ‘Woman, you are set free from your ailment.’

When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.

But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, ‘There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.’

But the Lord answered him and said, ‘You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water?

And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?’

When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.