“If The Law Supposes That,” Said Mr. Bumble, Squeezing His Hat Emphatically In Both Hands, “The Law Is A Ass – A Idiot”

As a practicing lawyer for almost 30 years, I have come to fully appreciate the power and the impact of words.

Terms in a contract are, usually, carefully defined.

Precise meanings are assigned to certain words so that the parties thoroughly understand both their legal rights and obligations arising from their voluntary agreement.

When contracts are left unclear, and often even when they are not, lawsuits naturally arise.

Laws passed by federal, state, and local legislatures, on the other hand, sometimes purposefully allow for some ambiguity – whether because political compromise demanded it, or because of an expectation that the executive branch (through appropriate administrative regulation and enforcement) will better address those situations not directly contemplated by the statute itself.

Vague statutes or regulations, ones which overreach, and ones which violate some higher law, may well be struck down and voided as they make their way through the governing legal process.

Sometimes, even well-intentioned laws are applied in irrational, disproportionate, and harmful ways, contrary to the spirit, if not the letter, of the words and meanings behind them.

Sometimes, as Dickens’ character in Oliver Twist humorously and pointedly observed, The Law Is a Ass.

Today’s reading, once again, reminds us that Christ came to not to abolish the law or the prophets but to fulfill it:

 On a sabbath Jesus went to dine
at the home of one of the leading Pharisees,
and the people there were observing him carefully.
In front of him there was a man suffering from dropsy.
Jesus spoke to the scholars of the law and Pharisees in reply, asking,
“Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath or not?”
But they kept silent; so he took the man and,
after he had healed him, dismissed him.
Then he said to them
“Who among you, if your son or ox falls into a cistern,
would not immediately pull him out on the sabbath day?”
But they were unable to answer his question.

Rejecting the misapplication of the sabbath law – and, perhaps more importantly, man’s selfish and cruel hardheartedness – Christ healed the man.

The law is, of course, important, essential, and an ever-present source of our protection and growth.

Christ did not in any way reject or change it.

But He wants us to understand that the law does not exist in a vacuum.

Mercy, love, charity, and kindness must exist side-by-side with the law.

In fact, they are an integral part of the moral law.

We all too often forget that.

And when we do, it’s not so much that the law is a ass.

It’s all the more likely that we are.

Peace

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons