"Of course I'm right," I thought as I looked at our washing machine. He tried to convince me that the button meant SPEED: 500 rotations a minute vs. 1200. But I knew better.
"No, that stands for QUANTITY, in other words, total rotations. This machine isn't a two-speed."
"How did I know?" I continued thinking. "Well, easy, I've known this for so long."
During 3 years I was in charge of washing clothes - the longer it spun, the dryer the clothes. I had already based thousands of earlier decisions on that fact.
And then he challenged me: "And what would happen if you were wrong?"
*****
A few days later it happened again. "After falling 2 seconds, you have traveled under 20 meters," I claimed firmly. We wanted to know how high the cliff was we jumped from. Once again I was challenged, but this time I was humble enough and willing to "reconsider".
As it turned out, in the first case I was wrong, in the second I was right.
The scribes and pharisees from today's Gospel were, however, unwilling to reconsider. Jesus challenged them that love was more important than their rules and regulations, and they become enraged. In the end, they even killed him because of it.
Often the only reason we think we are right, is because of our past traditions and thinking habits - sometimes it is a good thing, even when you might still be right, to stop and think things through.
It takes real humility to accept the fact, that you could possibly be wrong.
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