Luke 13- Jesus heals on the Sabbath

Luke 13:10-17

In our Gospel reading Jesus is teaching in a synagogue on the Sabbath. In the congregation there was a woman who had been crippled for eighteen years. She is described as having a spirit of weakness or infirmity. She is bent over and unable to stand up straight.

St. Augustine asks us to see ourselves as this woman. She is the whole human race, bent over by the infection of sin.[1] She has been robbed of her original beauty and dignity. The human race has similarly been robbed of the dignity we were created with. We have been disfigured by the weight of sin, by enslavement to a false reality. We are crippled by our anxieties, our fears, our doubts, our despair. Our vision is constrained to the ground around our feet. Our lives become small and cramped. We are unable to raise our heads to the sky- unable to see the horizon.

The response of Christ to seeing this poor woman is to immediately heal her. He doesn’t wait until after the synagogue service is done. He doesn’t ask to see her the next day. He doesn’t say that her sins are forgiven, as we see in some other healings. He sees her, he touches her, and she is healed. His immediate disposition towards those who are suffering is compassion and a desire to heal.

This is the disposition of Christ towards humanity. Just as he saw this poor woman and reached out in compassion to heal her, so he looks on us with the same compassion. Just as he healed her, so that she could stand up straight again, her dignity having been restored, so when Christ looks at us he desires to straighten what sin has bent.

Sometimes our ideas about God can be far from this simple reality- As if God is merely a judge of our sin and not also our loving Father. Some think of God in ways that make it seem like He is trying to keep us out of His presence, or trying to keep us locked out of heaven. The saints tell us that God is doing everything He can to heal us and draw us into His presence. … The attitude of Christ towards this woman is the attitude of Christ towards you. The compassion he has for this woman is the compassion he has for you.

The healing we primarily need is a healing of our spirit, and so that is the healing God is focused on in our lives. Yes, there is physical healing, just as this woman receives, and we thank God for these beautiful gifts when we experience them. But, there is a deeper healing that is needed. We need a heart that is constantly turning towards God. … My earthly life won’t last forever. If God heals my high blood-pressure, but doesn’t heal the attitude of my spiritual heart, then it was a temporary healing. Even Lazarus died again. The physical healings God does in our lives seem to be symbols pointing to that deeper healing God wants to do.

This healing causes the woman to praise God, but the synagogue leader is indignant. This healing takes place on the Sabbath. … There were some who were creating more and more strict rules around how to keep the Law we find in the Old Testament. The idea was that the messiah would come when the people would be faithful to the Law, so groups like the Pharisees worked hard at building a way of life that was not going to violate the Law. Sometimes they would add rules and traditions to build a kind of barrier around the Law, to make it even harder to break the law. So, for example, you tell a child not to touch the hot stove. That’s the rule. But to make it even less likely that they will touch the hot stove, you tell them to not even come into the kitchen when you are cooking. So you add a rule to make it harder to break the primary rule. When the Gospels talk about Jesus not following the traditions of the elders, this is the kind of thing they are talking about.

So, you weren’t supposed to do any work on the Sabbath. … But, what counted as ‘doing work’ on the Sabbath? Jesus’ act of healing was interpreted by the synagogue leader as doing work, which violated the Sabbath. But this wasn’t the only way to interpret the Sabbath Law.

Breathing and eating are allowed on the Sabbath. Building a house, or plowing a field are not allowed on the Sabbath. There is a lot of space between those, and there was significant debate around what constituted work that was forbidden. The disciples were confronted for plucking and eating heads of grain when they were hungry on the Sabbath. Groups like the Pharisees came to count starting a fire, writing, carrying an object from one place to another, and walking over a kilometer, as work that should not be done on the Sabbath. Service at the Temple was allowed to take precedence over the Sabbath Law, so priests and others could serve at the Temple on the Sabbath. All the activities that happened at the Synagogue were allowed to take place on the Sabbath- leading prayer, reading Scripture, preaching and teaching. … And saving a human life takes precedence over most Laws. …

Jesus seemed to think of his act of healing as being in line with the action of those who served the temple, or those who were saving human life. If those who work at the Temple are exempted from the Sabbath prohibition against work, then how much more should those who are doing the work of the Kingdom of God be exempted?

The Synagogue leader wants to be seen as someone who upholds the Law strictly, in dedication to God. But Jesus seems to think that this interpretation lacks compassion and adds unnecessary burdens. … Jesus calls the synagogue leader a hypocrite because he is willing to untie his animals on the Sabbath in order to lead them to water (an activity that is allowed on the Sabbath), but Jesus is not allowed to untie this woman who was bound by Satan and has been restrained for 18 years. Care can be given for a goat on the Sabbath, but not for a daughter of Abraham.

This healing is also a comment on the Sabbath. Jesus is always returning us to the heart- the guiding principles of the Law are love for God and love for neighbour. What is God’s original intention with this this Law? This isn’t about merely following protocol. That’s not what the Law is really about. The Law is a teaching that is meant to create a certain kind of life.

Jesus hasn’t actually violated the Sabbath law. He violated a particular interpretation of how to observe the Sabbath. He violated rules that were added to the Sabbath Law, but he hasn’t violated the Sabbath. … The Ten Commandments (Deut 5; Ex 20) are given in the context of rescue from slavery in Egypt. As a part of the Sabbath command in Deuteronomy 5:15 we read, 

“Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out of there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. That is why the Lord your God has commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.” 

 The day of rest was a return to the shalom- the peace and wholeness- God originally intended for creation. So, this act of healing is a declaration of the true meaning of Sabbath. The Sabbath is the appropriate day for such a beautiful act of healing and liberation. What better way to honour the Sabbath than by setting someone free?

So, what do we learn from this story? 

First, we see the heart of Jesus. He is for us, not against us. He is full of compassion when he sees us in our weakness, and he desires to heal us. He wants that for each one of us, and he is working towards that for each one of us.

Second, we are reminded to consider ‘love’ as the heart of the commands. We should be mindful to consider the original purpose of the command. It’s not just about blind protocol. The commands are about making us into a particular kind of people- And compassion for those in need should be among the primary markers of our identity. AMEN

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[1] New Sermon 110A; “, “the whole human race is like this woman, bent over and bowed down to the ground” Sermon 162