Luke 13:10-17 (The Message)
10-13 He (Jesus) was teaching in one of the meeting places on the Sabbath. There was a woman present, so twisted and bent over with arthritis that she couldn’t even look up. She had been afflicted with this for eighteen years. When Jesus saw her, he called her over. “Woman, you’re free!” He laid hands on her and suddenly she was standing straight and tall, giving glory to God.
14 The meeting-place president, furious because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the congregation, “Six days have been defined as work days. Come on one of the six if you want to be healed, but not on the seventh, the Sabbath.”
15-16 But Jesus shot back, “You frauds! Each Sabbath every one of you regularly unties your cow or donkey from its stall, leads it out for water, and thinks nothing of it. So why isn’t it all right for me to untie this daughter of Abraham and lead her from the stall where Satan has had her tied these eighteen years?”
17 When he put it that way, his critics were left looking quite silly and red-faced. The congregation was delighted and cheered him on.
Two haunting questions raised by this text:
First: “Do we hide behind obscure biblical passages and ancient prejudices as a way of avoiding the call to be a healing presence in the world?” Lisa W. Davison
The Bible was never meant to be a rule book. To contain a list of “do’s and don’ts” which keep us safe in God’s love. It is a book which seeks to tell us how, from the beginning of time, God has been busy loving His creation and ALL in it. To believe in the Bible should never lead us to hate, judge, or exclude those who are different from us. It is meant to lead us to be “a healing presence in our world” not a divisive one.
Second: How do we keep the Sabbath today?
Since the lock down of the Covad years, this is a crucial question.
Many got out of the habit of going to Church on Sunday (and it is a good habit). Many found it easier to listen to services on TV and not have to spend the energy to get up and go. Today many churches are
experiencing a slow return of the flock, and some are wondering it it will ever be as it was before.
Only time will tell, but one thing we all need to think about as we walk the walk of faith and seek to be “a healing presence in our world” is that we need each other! Fellowship is important to a life of faith!
It opens us up to hospitality, which leads to friendship and a bonding which is greater than our differences. We become fellow human beings who journey together in the walk of faith, in the struggle and challenge to be a “healing presence in our world.”
“When God is up to something,
prepare to be unbound: whether
from confining diseases,
or social norms about persons
with disabilities,
or even holy pieties.”
David Jacobsen
Prayer thought for the week: "Lord, unbind me from that which keeps me from being a healing presence in my world."
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