Jesus healed out of compassion, but he grounded his arguments for healing in liberation.
Here’s a transcript:
I’m thinking about the thirteenth chapter of Luke’s Gospel (Luke 13:10-17), in which Jesus healed a woman in a synagogue on the Sabbath day. The healing itself is reasonably straightforward. Luke described the woman as having been afflicted by a spirit that had bent her over for eighteen years. Jesus called her over, laid a hand upon her, and she stood up straight.
Often these stories appear in the gospels because somebody objects, and that’s the case here. The leader of the synagogue said to Jesus that there are six days in the week in which to do work, and one day in which to rest and to honor God. That is, indeed, one of the Ten Commandments.
now let it be understood that in first century Judaism there was a clear understanding that care and compassion, works of care and compassion, were consistent with the Sabbath day. In particular, acts which saved human life were not just allowed but encouraged, whatever day of the week it might happen to be.
Jesus could have argued from that that healing this woman on the Sabbath day was consistent with the understanding that doing good for human beings was allowed, was permitted, was encouraged on the Sabbath. Jesus approached it from a very different angle, however.
Another thing that was permitted on the Sabbath was to untie domestic animals so that they could get to their food and their water. To leave animals tied up for the twenty-four hours of the Sabbath, that would have been cruel. It would have been inhumane.
Jesus said this woman has been bound by this spirit for eighteen years. Is it not consistent with the Sabbath, is it not consistent with the grace of God, to free her from what has confined her, whatever day of the week it might be? Is not the Sabbath a time to set people free?
And everybody, including the leader of the synagogue, approved of his words.
it is always time to provide deliverance to people.
It is important to understand what deliverance looks like to them. Not everybody who is bent over considers themselves bound; not everybody who has a disability wants to be “freed” from it. Oh, yes, they would like to be liberated from pain, and I’m sure they would like to be liberated from the casual disregard so many people show to disabled people.
But it’s not just folks with disabilities. It’s folks who are oppressed for one reason or another: whether it be out of poverty, whether it be because of a mental illness, whether it be because they’re homeless, whether it be because they have the wrong gender, or the wrong affections, whether they have the wrong skin color, or the wrong heritage.
We need to free people — we need to make sure all people are free from these kinds of bonds. There is no need to retain the shackles of prejudice for any time or any space, especially our houses of worship.
That’s what I’m thinking. I’m curious to hear what you’re thinking. Leave me comment section below. I’d love to hear from you.
