When is it right for you to disobey the law for the sake of a more important purpose? Would you ever refuse to pray taxes because the government uses part of its revenue to fund activities with which you disagree? Would you drive through a red light in the middle of the night when there are no other cars around and no-one is watching? Would you walk across an intersection against the red pedestrian lights when all the other pedestrians around you are doing the same?
Disobeying the law seems awkward for a Christian. We’re so used to “doing good” and “doing the right thing” that it feels uncomfortable when we are urged to do something which involves breaking a law. We even feel really bad about breaking a social convention by, for example, bringing up a religious subject at a party. So the account from Mark chapter 3 of Jesus breaking the Sabbath law by healing a man has an uncomfortable and unsettling ring to it: Jesus sometimes broke the law – should we?
To put things in context, Jesus did not just break laws randomly, and he did not do it to suit any selfish purpose of his own. Whenever he did break a law, he did so as a deliberate demonstration that the law in question was wrong. So we can’t use the example of Jesus as a predecent for us to avoid paying taxes or obeying traffic lights. But maybe Jesus does provide us with an example for disobeying laws which result in oppression of the poor, or injustice to the underprivileged.