Sunday 25 August 2019

The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost ---- 25 August 2019

(Now that I've returned from my holiday...)


Isaiah 58:9b-14
9b If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, 10 if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday. 11 The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. 12 Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in. 13 If you refrain from trampling the sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call the sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs; 14 then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

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.

When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, "Woman, you are set free from your ailment."
·       Jesus always seems to be getting himself in trouble with people in authority, whether it is the Scribes and Pharisees, the leadership of a synagogue, or ultimately the Romans and their Empire. He challenges all these different people over their ideas of Law of Moses, its interpretation, and finally what life is to be about.
·       The pivot of the story today is the woman who had been stooped over for eighteen years. Jesus lays the blame on a painful bondage to the devil, which could be a way of saying that what she suffered from was not according to God’s will. She herself is not possessed, but she has surely suffered a tragic brokenness.
·       When he heals her – on the Sabbath- the synagogue leader takes him to task for working on the Sabbath (although oddly he talks to the crowd and not to Jesus.) To the leader of the synagogue, the holiness of the Sabbath consists of a legal stricture against “work” and not the holy work of the liberation and healing of one of God’s children from what the person has been suffering… for 18 years (which is 936 Sabbaths if you’re keeping count.) In the face of this criticism, Jesus notes that work has always been done on the Sabbath, since farm animals can’t feed themselves and rely on their people to feed and water them, even on the Sabbath.
·       So Jesus healed on the Sabbath. So Jesus was criticized for doing this. So Jesus was seen as a person who did not keep the Law.
·       This healing was part of Jesus’ mission to proclaim the Kingdom of God in word and deed. Even the prophet Isaiah said it: If you refrain from trampling the sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day… then you shall take delight in the Lord… Where does God’s interest and concern lie? It is in the healing of God’s people and their welfare. Once again, the prophet tells us this: If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted…
·       I find it interesting that Jesus does not “spiritualize” this healing. He doesn’t say it is part of a heavenly future for the woman or for any who heard him. The healing is of the body and it takes place in the woman’s here- and-now. It is a healing of the whole person and a tangible sign of the Kingdom of God present to those people. It is not some hint of a “better place” or of a heaven where all will be made right. It doesn’t make a separation of body and spirit with the spirit seemingly more important. When Jesus heals, he heals the entire person.
·       It is the entire person, and through that focus, the entire world that Jesus is intent on healing. That has been and continues to be his mission. That is our mission as well, because we are his disciples. We may not be able to heal with a touch, but we can touch people’s lives with our words and our deeds. Through that, we too have the Kingdom as our mission as well.
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?