Another healing on the Sabbath
Third Sunday in Lent – Luke 13:10-17
10 Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. 11 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. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” 13 When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. 14 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.” 15 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? 16 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?” 17 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.
It is worth noting that in vs. 15 Luke as the narrator lets his readers in on a truth that he as the author knows but that some of the people in the gospel have not yet figured out. Luke refers to Jesus as “the Lord”. This is not the first time that Luke has done this – Luke 7:13, 10:38, 41. It is a subtle way Luke is telling readers Jesus is both fully human and fully divine, and more than that Jesus is the Messiah.
The story follows a narrative line we have heard before. In a synagogue on the Sabbath Jesus encounters someone in physical need, Jesus heals them, and this creates a crisis because healing is work and no work should happen on the Sabbath.
Two things are a bit different this time. The healing is of woman who is bent over and is now able to stand up straight. Not only is the healing dramatic but the image of the woman’s body being bound (bent) and then freed (vs. 12) speaks to all situations in which Jesus frees people from being bent/bound by disease, sin, the forces of evil.
Second, the debate with the leader of the synagogue is sharper, more focused, then in some of the previous debates about Sabbath. Here Jesus offers a stark comparison. All of the people saying “no work on Sabbath” would make sure water their animals so they could drink – that was work. Why then, Jesus asks, should not a daughter of Abraham, a human being, not find healing on the Sabbath? Jesus invites consideration of the purpose of the law – what was the law seeking to accomplish. If I might venture an answer – the command to not work on Sabbath, among other things, was so human beings would have the opportunity to thank God for his blessing of creation and salvation – the healing of the woman brought praise to God for freeing the woman (a form of salvation). The rejoicing of the crowd fits the purpose of Sabbath.
PRAYER:
Lord God, you have given us Sabbath, for our good and for your glory. We have filled Sabbath with shopping and work. Help us to recover one day a week to praise you, one day a week to rest. Help us to recapture the purpose of Sabbath. In Jesus’ name. Amen.