Our first reading comes from the prophet Isaiah, reading from chapter 58, verses 9 through 14:
If you remove the yoke from among you,
the finger-pointing, the wicked speech;
if you open your heart to the hungry,
and provide abundantly for those who are afflicted,
your light will shine in the darkness,
and your gloom will be like the noon.
The Lord will guide you continually
and provide for you, even in parched places.
He will rescue your bones.
You will be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water that won’t run dry.
They will rebuild ancient ruins on your account;
the foundations of generations past you will restore.
You will be called Mender of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Livable Streets.
If you stop trampling the Sabbath,
stop doing whatever you want on my holy day,
and consider the Sabbath a delight,
sacred to the Lord, honored,
and honor it instead of doing things your way,
seeking what you want and doing business as usual,
then you will take delight in the Lord.
I will let you ride on the heights of the earth;
I will sustain you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob.
The mouth of the Lord has spoken.
Our second reading comes from the Gospel according to Luke, reading from chapter 13, verses 10 – 17.
Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11 A woman was there who had been disabled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and couldn’t stand up straight. 12 When he saw her, Jesus called her to him and said, “Woman, you are set free from your sickness.” 13 He placed his hands on her and she straightened up at once and praised God. The synagogue leader, incensed that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, responded, “There are six days during which work is permitted. Come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath day.” The Lord replied, “Hypocrites! Don’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from its stall and lead it out to get a drink? 16 Then isn’t it necessary that this woman, a daughter of Abraham, bound by Satan for eighteen long years, be set free from her bondage on the Sabbath day?” 17 When he said these things, all his opponents were put to shame, but all those in the crowd rejoiced at all the extraordinary things he was doing.
The word of God for the People of God.
Thanks be To God.
I am pretty sure that at some point in our lives, we have all heard the phrase “We’ve never done that before” or its close companion “we don’t do it like that”. Maybe when we were on the receiving end of that phrase we were bold enough to ask why – it is very likely that the answer we received back was some variation of “well, that’s just the way it is.”
In my life, I know I have been bold enough to follow up that response with a push to enact change, because why wouldn’t we try it another way? Why wouldn’t we be willing or interested in change?
Maybe the answer we heard was intended as “why are you pushing? Why can’t you wait? Or Change will happen if you just give it time.”
Sometimes, we get so tied up in the way things are, or the way things have always been done, that we can’t see a different way to accomplish them. Or even if we can see it, it doesn’t feel right or it impacts what we expect to happen and we are unsure of the outcome. I get it – change is hard. It can make us feel like the world is descending into chaos as it upends our rhythms of life and our sense of order. Change, even small changes, reset our expectations and understandings about the order of things. It might feel easier and less chaotic to wait for change because small incremental changes are less noticeable and that’s just the way it is. The thing to remember is that while it might feel easier if we wait, we are not the only people impacted by the story.
I find it fascinating that in today’s scripture reading, the woman is described as having been disabled by a spirit for 18 years. It appears that she comes to the synagogue faithfully, and is a known presence and person to the leadership. Jesus was teaching in the synagogue that day when she arrived and noticed her – coming into the courtyard, bent over, not able to look up. For eighteen years this unnamed woman must have strained to see the sun, the sky, and the stars. For eighteen years she would have been accustomed to looking down or just slightly ahead but never upward, at least not without difficulty. For eighteen years her world has been one of turning from side to side to see what those who stand upright can see with just a glance. She is used to this, and no one questions her fate – because that’s just the way it is.
Jesus sees her and calls her to him and says to her “Woman, you are set free from your sickness.” He lays hands on her and suddenly – her back is straightened. For the first time in 18 years she is able to stand up straight and look at the sky – In response she begins to praise God. It is interesting to note that the Synagogue leader seems angry about this miracle – and responds by saying “There are six days during which work is permitted. Come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath day.” He is not blown away by the fact that a woman who has been held by a spirit for 18 years is set free, or that something we might rightly understand as a miracle just happened in front of him, but rather that Jesus would do this work on the sabbath – a day that is consecrated to the Lord God and to be kept Holy.
Jesus lights into the Leader saying – “Hypocrites! Don’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from its stall and lead it out to get a drink? Then isn’t it necessary that this woman, a daughter of Abraham, bound by Satan for eighteen long years, be set free from her bondage on the Sabbath day?”
Scripture tells us that this encounter in the synagogue ended when Jesus said these things, that his opponents were put to shame, and that all those in the crowd rejoiced at all the extraordinary things he was doing.
I think this interaction between Jesus and the synagogue leader requires a bit more of a nuanced reading than a simple read through reveals. Upon closer observation you notice that the leader was not upset about the healing itself, but rather when the healing occurred. There is no objection to the change that is enacted by Jesus’ work in that moment, just its timing. It’s like the leader was fine with the healing happening in concept, as long as it happens in a predescribed timeline, on a day that he understood it to be acceptable. In his mind waiting a day would not change anything. I mean, it’s been 18 years, what is one more day? Why couldn’t it wait?
I believe that there is an additional piece of scripture we need to hear that will give more context to the argument between Jesus and the leader of the synagogue. This additional scripture comes from the book of Deuteronomy chapter 5. In this passage Moses is speaking to the gathered people of Israel. They have been delivered from bondage in Egypt, traveled to mount Horeb and have crossed the Jordan river to head toward the land that will be their home. Moses starts out by reminding the people that The LORD didn’t make this covenant with our ancestors but with us—all of us who are here and alive right now. The LORD spoke with you face-to-face on the mountain from the very fire itself. The reminder to everyone hearing those words when they were spoken then and when they are read aloud later and again throughout time is that the covenant between God and God’s people is an active living covenant. It is not something that was written down years ago to be ignored or forgotten. Moses continues with a recitation of the covenant saying:
Keep the Sabbath day and treat it as holy, exactly as the LORD your God commanded:
Six days you may work and do all your tasks,
but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. Don’t do any work on it—not you, your sons or daughters, your male or female servants, your oxen or donkeys or any of your animals, or the immigrant who is living among you—so that your male and female servants can rest just like you.
Remember that you were a slave in Egypt, but the LORD your God brought you out of there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. That’s why the LORD your God commands you to keep the Sabbath day.
These words are relevant because of how Jesus and the leader of the synagogue each interpret these words from Deuteronomy. The leader of the synagogue is following a traditional understanding of the sabbath – as taught in Genesis and again in Exodus – the Lord God worked for 6 days and on the 7th day, God rested. Following that model of work and rest, humanity should rest and refrain from work. But there is some argument on the definition of work. For example, is it work to make sure that life will continue? For example it was not considered work to untie livestock and lead it out to get a drink. But for the leaders of the synagogue, healing seemed to cross the line of what might be considered work.
Read with this passage in mind we can see that it’s not that the leader is opposed to the change – just the timeline. He would prefer that they wait until an acceptable time to bring change and disorder. Because for 18 years, that’s just the way it was. It was accepted that this was the way of things. We’ve never done it that way. Change will come, eventually – in time – when it is proper and in order.
Another argument that comes out of the synagogue leader’s response to Jesus’ healing – is once again not about the healing itself, but rather about interpretation of the sabbath laws. That is, when is it legal to do these things? For example, if there is to be no work on the sabbath, and healing is work, then how can it be legal?
In his letter from a Birmingham jail, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr takes issue with this particular line of thought. He writes “How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?” The answer is found in the fact that there are two types of laws: there are just laws, and there are unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that “An unjust law is no law at all.” Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine when a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with moral law, or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas, an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.”
Jesus seems to understand the sabbath commandments in a related – but I feel, a more expansive way. He argues that the Sabbath commandment – commands the people of the covenant – to observe the day and keep it holy in recognition of their deliverance from slavery in Egypt. With this particular emphasis on Sabbath observance and the practice of holiness, the people undertake a holy work. They are engaging in work – just a different sort of work, but work nonetheless.
I believe that Jesus is acting in line with the sabbath understanding from Deuteronomy – With that understanding – the work he did was the holy work of liberation and freedom – such as that work which was done when taking the people out of Egypt. In that way, any work that continues that holy work of liberation and freedom is not only acceptable, but it is work that is expected of God’s people. That work is sabbath work – any work that frees people to experience sabbath – that is, any work that frees people to experience liberation and freedom is work that honors the sabbath and honors the work that God has done and keeps the sabbath Holy.
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. writes that the greatest stumbling block to liberation and freedom is the person who is more devoted to order than to justice; the person who prefers a negative peace, which is the absence of tension, to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; the person who constantly says, “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can’t agree with your methods of direct action”; the person who paternalistically feels that they can set the timetable for another person’s freedom; the person who lives by the myth of time; and who constantly advises the people to wait until a “more convenient season.”
Convenient for whom? For the one seeking liberation and freedom, or for the one who may have to accept that the current order of things – the existing social order – is not one that engenders liberation and freedom for all of God’s children? So, If not now, then when?
Change, as we have noted many times before, can be and often is a scary thing – but that change, the one that may be scary for us as it upends the social order we know, the one that changes the way ‘that it has always been’ may bring about liberation and freedom for someone else. Our calling is to follow Jesus – to do the work that honors the sabbath – to do the hard work that honors the walk toward liberation and freedom that God did when taking the people out of Egypt. The work that God did setting them on the path toward home – a home where all of God’s children are free.
The kin-dom of God is a place where there is no need to wait – a place where the words “we’ve never done it that way’, “because that’s the way we have always done it’ or ‘we’ve never used that’ no longer have the power to restrain us because we are actively doing God’s work – working for liberation and freedom. We are choosing to move into a place where sometimes we work, so that others, who have waited for liberation, have the chance to rest.
Sam Cooke sang, It’s been a long time coming, But I know, a change gonna come
Oh, yes it will – a change is gonna come. I believe that he was speaking, not just a hope, but a prophetic word. Change is inexorable. Change comes when we least expect it and it does not obey timelines that we might understand. But it comes. It comes in the form of healing on the sabbath. It comes in the form of setting someone free from 18 years of bondage. It comes in the form of liberation for captives. Change comes when unjust and incorrect prison sentences are overturned. Change comes in the form of laws that respect others’ personhood. Change comes in overturning unjust laws that hurt God’s children. Change comes in work that is holy and liberating – work that honors the work of God that sets God’s people free.
Friends – A change has come and will continue to come. That is just the way it is.
Amen.
Matthew Messenger 