Rules! Regulations! They are all around us. They govern almost every aspect of our lives. Breaking them often has dramatic consequences for us. It can begin to feel as if the rules are controlling us: as if we are here to serve the rules. That feeling can blind us. It can make us forget that the rules exist for humanity, humanity does not exist for rules. Rules are here to allow for human flourishing, not to create human suffering. The Gospel speaks to our relationship with rules.
Jesus Heals a Crippled Woman
Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And there was a woman who had had a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years; she was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your infirmity.” And he laid his hands upon her, and immediately she was made straight, and she praised God. But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be healed, and not on the sabbath day.” Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his ass from the manger, and lead it away to water it? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?” As he said this, all his adversaries were put to shame; and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him. Luke 13 : 10-17
Scriptural Analysis
Jesus moves to a familiar setting for this teaching, a synagogue. The teaching will once again put him at odds with the religious leaders of the day.
This particular miracle starts with a woman crippled by a spirit. She has suffered for a long time, eighteen years. One should see a parallel with the woman who suffered for twelves years from hemorrhages. Jesus addresses her as woman and tells her that she is set free. In the original Greek the passive voice is used here indicating that it was God who freed her. Jesus lays hands on her which is a gesture often used for healing. The woman was healed and stood up straight. Recognizing what has happened to her, the woman glorifies God.
However, the leader of the synagogue protested because work was done on the sabbath. He views that as a direct violation of the prohibition of work on the sabbath. Upset and thinking he has God on his side, he instructs the people to come on any other day to look for healing. The irony is that it was God who healed the woman. Note also now the leader does not address Jesus but rather the crowd deflecting his anger toward them.
In response to the leader’s protest Jesus again makes an argument from the lesser to the greater. The provision against work on the Sabbath also prohibits work involving animals. Nevertheless, everyone leads out their animals for water. If that is OK then how much more is it acceptable to heal a woman on the sabbath. Notice the title he gives the woman, daughter of Abraham. We will see him use a parallel title, son of Abraham, when referring to Zacchaeus, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham.” (Luke 19:9) Jesus calls the leaders hypocrites, a charge we have seen him level before, because they are so focussed on the external observance off the sabbath that they forget its interior meaning. Again, this theme of exterior vs. interior continues to come up in Jesus’s teachings. The main reason he labels them hypocrites is because they have forgotten why the sabbath exists.
The Sabbath was created for two reason. First, it is to commemorate the six days that God used to create the universe, “for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it.” (Exodus 20:11) Jesus healing the woman on the Sabbath recognizes the new creation that comes through Christ. Second, the Sabbath recalls Israel’s exodus from Egypt, “You shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out thence with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.” (Deuteronomy 5:15) Jesus as the Messiah was leading the people on a new Exodus, this time from the bondage of sin.
Jesus humiliated all his adversaries and leaders. This fulfills the prophecy from Isaiah, “All of them are put to shame and confounded, the makers of idols go in confusion together.” (Isaiah 45:16) In the end the crowd sides with Jesus and rejoices at the miracle they witnessed.
Daily Application
Rules are important. To suggest otherwise is foolish. We need to have rules in place to ensure that we have a fair and just society, to ensure that we know what is expected of us so that we can live a decent and moral life. Rules are here to serve us, to allow us to flourish and protect the conditions for happiness. However, our relationship with rules can get out of balance. We can becomes so obsessed with observing the rules that we forget why they exist: to serve us. It can begin to feel as if we are here to serve the rules.
This is the message Jesus is trying to convey in this interaction with the leader of the synagogue. Jesus is not rejecting the commandment to keep holy the sabbath: far from it, “Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them.” (Matthew 5:17) However, the religious leaders of the time were so zealous in their observation of the law, that they forgot why that law was given to man to begin with. More than that, they no longer saw the beloved daughter of God who was standing in front of them, suffering and in need of healing. That didn’t matter: the rule was the rule and this woman must follow it precisely.
Are we much different from these leader?s Are there not times when we get so caught up in the rules that we fail to see the person to whom we are applying the rule? Consider, for example, immigration. There are many of us who are quick to point out that an illegal immigrant broke the law but not so quick to look past that to see the person, to ask the question why? Why would they leave everything they knew and risk jail or death to come to the United States. Now I am not excusing breaking the law, however, to vigorously shake a fist without seeing the person, that is a temptation we have to resist. We have to be able to have mercy as well, to see the humanity and the suffering. Without that, we have become slaves to the rules.
Rules are good. We need rules for human flourishing. However, we must always remember that rules exist for humanity. We can never become so enamored with the rule, with following the rule under all situations, that we can no longer see the person the rule is being applied to: no longer see their suffering and pain. If that happens then we too will be called hypocrites by our Lord.
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