Stand up straight and bless the Lord

The Gospel this week (Luke 13.10-17) recounts the last time that Jesus is seen and heard inside a Synagogue before he goes to the Temple in Jerusalem and all that happens around Holy Week, and his death and resurrection. He was there to teach and preach as was his custom but there was a difference. This was not the North (Galilee), this was by Jewish standards, the South. And trouble was brewing. The forth right preaching of the young rabbi from the north was turning heads and not all of them were happy.

Luke shows Jesus in the middle of the Sabbath service teaching something and then spots this woman who was clearly deformed. She suffered from what is identified as Spondylitis defomans which is the spine being fused into one rigid mass. This left the woman hunched over and crippled. And Luke makes two other things really clear. This woman, in spite of the pain and the struggle to be at worship, was at worship and that this thing that had happened to her was done by the prince of evil, Satan himself. This woman did not come to worship looking for Jesus, she came to worship God. She had not sought healing or made even a request for prayer. Luke asks us to “behold, the woman”. She came to worship and to heard the word though she could not fully participating because she could not stand up and bless the Lord. She had been crippled by evil in spite of her pious life and had been this way for 18 years. (This by the way, should be connected with those poor folks who died in the collapse of the Tower at Siloam.)

Jesus sees this woman and everything that she is and has been through. He calls her to come up front from the back and he says to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” He lays hands on her. This is not for prayer but to acknowledge her as in relationship with him. She straightens up and begins to praise God: celebrating, praising and leaping about in a way few seldom do because she is finally free of the evil and the pain.

This action, this healing, irritated the president of the synagogue. Irritated? He was afflicted with much grief and so displeased that the Sabbath Law was broken. So much so the castigated the congregation for breaking the laws of the Sabbath, rather than directly confront Jesus and possibly risk dismerit and embarrassment for challenging the healing, a work of God, on the Sabbath.

Jesus points out to those who are angered by this, the fact that they have oxen and donkeys that they untie from the hitching post and lead to water so that the animal can drink. That is a double breech of the Sabbath law and yet if they do not do the animals die.  Why then, does a daughter of Abraham have to remain tied p and unable to worship God as she needs to? Why can’t healing happen on the Sabbath? Is it not wrong to allow a child of God to continue suffering from evil and pain when we as the community of faith have the power to stop it.

It is interesting that has those who opposed this find themselves humiliated, they continue as time goes on, to oppose this teaching only to discover that they are further humiliated. In contrast, the crowd, is amazed by everything that Jesus is saying and doing and glorified God for what was happening – God is visiting and redeeming his people. But there is clearly trouble ahead.

Where does this leave us? Let’s face it: we live in a sinful and dying world. We live in a world that is still vexed by evil. The Good News is that God comes to visit and to redeem his people. This is the central theme of Luke’s Gospel. And more to the point, healing, rescue and salvation need to be an everyday not just a work day matter like getting your license or paying your taxes. There must be celebration of what God is amongst his people. This is the purpose of worship: that we would get rid of our idols, our agendas and begin to turn our eyes on the Author and Perfecter of our Faith. We need to turn our eyes upon Jesus and keep them there. In doing so we are more likely to be found doing the things that God calls us to do and doing less of the things that take us away from God and distance us from one other. It is why we need God to come to us and we need to work at abiding in Christ.

Jason+