New Sheriff in Town

Allowing Jesus to rule and reign in our hearts

Mark 3:1-6 

Jesus entered the synagogue. There was a man there who had a withered hand. They watched Jesus closely to see if he would cure him on the sabbath so that they might accuse him. He said to the man with the withered hand, "Come up here before us." Then he said to the Pharisees, "Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?" But they remained silent. Looking around at them with anger and grieved at their hardness of heart, Jesus said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately took counsel with the Herodians against him to put him to death.

          “There’s a new sheriff in town.” Have you ever heard that expression before? In the United States, county sheriffs are elected positions, and I’m glad Bill Hollenbeck, a good Catholic from St. Boniface, is now Sebastian County Sheriff. The role and responsibility of a sheriff is to be the chief law enforcement official in a given county, and to make arrests, when that’s warranted. But the expression, “there’s a new sheriff in town” goes a lot further than that. It expands and even exaggerates the authority of the sheriff to be virtually a dictator or despot, “the judge, jury and executioner,” the final arbiter of right and wrong. Sometimes, when I am assigned to a new parish, I’ll walk into the church office and announce sternly to the secretary, “There’s a new sheriff in town.” And the secretary smiles and says, “That’s nice, Father, you have a call from the hospital.” She’s not impressed.

          Now, my favorite sheriff of all time is Andy Griffith, the sheriff of the imaginary town of Mayberry. I love watching the Andy Griffith Show, and seeing how Andy kept the peace without a gun, and only using his sweet southern charm, a lot of common sense, and a touch of good humor. That reminds me of another reason why there was peace in Mayberry. Some joked: “It just occurred to me why Mayberry was so peaceful and quiet…nobody was married. Here are the single people that come to mind: Andy, Barney, Aunt Bea, Floyd, Howard, Goober, Gomer, Sam, Ernest T. Bass, the Darlin family, Helen, Thelma Lou, Clara, just to name a few. In fact, the only one married was Otis…and he stayed drunk.” What is the secret to Mayberry’s peace: Andy being the sheriff or everyone being single? Maybe a little of both.

          In the gospel today, we see Jesus acting as “the new sheriff in town.” Indeed, it is helpful to visualize all of Jesus’ behavior in throughout the gospels as that of a new authority figure, who takes upon himself the role of judge, jury and executioner, the final arbiter of right and wrong. And that’s not an exaggeration. Today, Jesus cures a man with a withered hand, and he performs this miracle in plain sight, and on the Sabbath, when no work was allowed. Notice what Jesus asks the Pharisees: “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?” (italics mine). The question is a legal question, and if the Pharisees were true authority figures, they should know the answer easily. But they remain silent. It becomes clear to everyone watching – and painfully clear to the Pharisees – that “there’s a new sheriff in town,” who’s enforcing the law now like Andy in Mayberry: with personal charm, common sense, and a touch of good humor. The Pharisees understood precisely what was at stake in the arrival of this new sheriff: they were about to lose their jobs as the ultimate authority in Israel, and so they sought to kill Jesus.

          My friends, Jesus did not come just to replace the Pharisees as the new sheriff of Israel. He came to oust all illegitimate authority figures everywhere, most especially in our own hearts. Ask yourself: who is the “sheriff” who is calling the shots and telling you what to do? Who is your own judge, jury and executioner; who plays the role of final arbiter of right and wrong in your own life? Surprisingly, sometimes, we are our own sheriff and we don’t let anyone else tell us what to do, and that’s especially true among young people today, and Catholic youth are no exception: excusing themselves from Sunday Mass, living together before marriage, who’d rather marry on a beach or wedding chapel rather than in a church, who believe all religions are essentially the same. They have become a “sheriff” unto themselves; their own arbiters of authority and truth. But Jesus has come to replace that authority figure no less than he came to dethrone the Pharisees. He has come to be the new sheriff in the only “town” that ultimately matters, namely, your heart.

          Bishop Robert Barron aptly assesses this new authority of Christ in these words: “Jesus Christ is Lord...Jesus Christ, the God-man risen from the dead, the one who gathered the tribes, cleansed the Temple, and fought with the enemies of the human race - he is the one to whom final allegiance is due.  Christians are those who submit to this Lordship” (Catholicism, 35)  That’s what a Christian should mean when he or she says, “There’s a new sheriff in town.”

          Praised be Jesus Christ!