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It's Showtime in the synagogue. Something incredibly important is happening
here - something that sets the tone for this whole next section of Luke's
gospel from 13:10-17:10. It's a crunch section, whose theme is about the
nature of the Kingdom of God and who will participate in it. As always,
it cuts to the heart of who God is, and how God's saving intentions as
revealed in Jesus relate both to the tradition and to how that tradition
is understood by the authoritative interpreters of Jesus' day (the Pharisees).
Jesus is teaching in the synagogue on the Sabbath. In fact Jesus' ministry
begins in the synagogue at Nazareth on the Sabbath (Luke 4: 16-30). This
is where he outlines his mission. Note how he opens his sermon with: "Today
this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing" (v21). "Today"
is the Sabbath, and in this week's text, Jesus is back in a synagogue
on the Sabbath. This week's "today" is a Sabbath, and the issue
is about whether or not it is appropriate for Jesus to heal the woman
"today", of all days in the week.
In Jesus time the synagogue is not only the place where the Law is read
and interpreted: it is the social centre of the community. For all the
fact that the story highlights the conflict between the Pharisees' (represented,
in this incident, by the leader of the synagogue) and Jesus' understanding
of Sabbath-keeping, the focus is actually on the woman, whom Jesus heals,
as much as on the fact that he heals her on the Sabbath. Let's look at
the woman and at how events unfold more closely.
The woman is plagued by a spirit. Luke presents this healing as more than
a cure of an illness or a malady: this is a liberation from an evil bondage
that is literally crippling her. This healing, in other words, is part
of the theme of Jesus as the Liberator who is rolling back Satan's power
and rule in the world. It is a "mustard seed" (as Jesus goes
on to teach): in this one woman, we see the cosmic struggle between God
and Satan being played out.
" She is "bent over and quite unable to stand up straight"
(v11). Her physical condition and appearance is illustrative of the fact
that she is "bowed" by her affliction. She appears constantly
subservient both to the demonic master and to the social mores in which
her affliction means that she is ostracised and avoided because her condition
is of demonic origin.
" "When Jesus saw her, he called her over" (v12). She has
become almost literally invisible. Being bent over, her face cannot be
seen. We can easily imagine how her stooped condition resulted in social
invisibility. The point is, Jesus sees her!
" Jesus calls her over. Jesus, remember, is sitting in the centre
of the synagogue, in the place of teaching. He represents (symbolically)
both the spiritual and social centre of the community, whose identity
is given by Torah. Jesus calls her from the side - from invisible obscurity
- into the very centre of the community and into the presence of God (in
the same way as he takes a child and places it on his lap). What Jesus
does in healing the woman is thus meant to be seen as a "test case":
all that God is and is doing somehow becomes crystallised in this moment
and in this place.
" Jesus lays hands on her - touches her - and heals her. He also
calls her "Woman", restoring to her both her communal dignity
as a full human being and divine status as a human being made in the image
of God. She is able to stand - to rise up and be all that God has made
her to be. Note how Luke is careful to present her standing straight and
praising God as one action. She becomes the exemplar of what Jesus' mission
is all about: in the moment that she becomes a healed and liberated human
being, she fulfils her dignity and calling by doing what human beings
are created to do: she immediately praises God!
This is why this particular healing, happening where, when and to whom
it does, highlights what God in Jesus is all about: God is liberating
the world from bondage to hostile powers; God sees those who are invisible
- the least, or the last - who become the first and the centrepiece of
the Kingdom; God is restoring human community and divine communion between
God and human beings; God is bringing wholeness and joy that results in
praise and full Life.
What we need to remember is just how shocking this all appeared to Jesus'
contemporaries. It was shocking in its power and wonder. But most of all,
it was shocking because it cut across the established understandings of
who God is and how everything "worked". It meant a radical reassessment
of the way in which the tradition was understood and interpreted; in how
social community worked; in what constituted faithfulness to God - or
what the Kingdom of God was actually all about!
Look at how Luke sets the story up: the woman rises up and begins praising
God, yet the leader of the synagogue is "indignant" because
Jesus had cured on the Sabbath. Reading v14, we can picture the scene
vividly: the synagogue is in an uproar, with everyone talking and shouting
in amazement and wonder. Again and again, the leader of the synagogue
shouts out, trying to make himself heard above the hubbub as he paraphrases
Deuteronomy 5:13. He makes his objection as public as Jesus has made the
healing.
What is the significance of his objection? It sounds ridiculous, doesn't
it? Indeed, Jesus will go on to demonstrate just how ridiculous it is.
But we need to remember: it's only ridiculous if we operate by Jesus'
interpretation of the Law, and not by the tradition!
The weight of the leader's objection is this: if Jesus has indeed broken
one of the most important Commandments (which are the foundation of the
Law), then it cannot be God who is at work through him, and the woman
is wrong to praise God as the author of Jesus' power. The Kingdom is ruled
by God - that much is obvious - and God has already given the Law. If
God is at work through Jesus, God will not break that Law. From the leader's
point of view, there is a real problem!
Note that the leader does not get involved in some technical debate here.
He quotes what he (rightly) assumes will be obvious to everyone: Jesus,
for all the wonder of his actions, has broken the Law. It's like one of
those courtroom dramas in which dramatic, last-minute evidence comes to
light that an apparently guilty person is innocent, only for the prosecutor
to stand up and (rightly) point out that, for some technical reason, the
evidence is inadmissible.
Jesus refers to the leader and his followers (presumably those who are
swayed by his argument as "hypocrites". That's a harsh term!
It's a prophetic term. Jesus, at this point, places himself in the line
of the prophets who have criticised Israel and Judah for "trampling
the Sabbath".
Jesus, then, says to the leader and his followers, "You've got it
all wrong! Which is proper worship of God - slavish observance of the
Sabbath that leaves a woman who has been afflicted for 18 years still
bound, or healing her on God's Day?" He goes on to comment on Deuteronomy
5:14b: "Don't you untie your ox or donkey on the Sabbath in order
to lead it to water? How much more, then, does this woman, this child
of God deserve to be untied from 18 years of bondage to Satan and set
free on the Sabbath?"
Jesus' argument with the leader is not so much on the finer points of
the Law as it is on the heart of the Law. They are hypocrites because
they have lost sight of the woman as a human being - which is what God
created her to be. Yet how could this be? How could the leader have been
so blind?
The answer is lack of compassion. Jesus "sees" the woman because
he is compassionate. "Compassion" literally means, "to
suffer with". Jesus is alive to human suffering - because God is.
The parable of the Good Samaritan is, as we have seen, about the centrality
of compassion. Compassion is at the heart of understanding the Law of
God because compassion is at the heart of God.
It's interesting, isn't it, how easy it is to lose compassion. We talk
of "compassion fatigue" in relation to disaster appeals. Like
the leader and his followers, it's ironic that the very people who can
be blind to human suffering can become distraught at the suffering of
animals. The anger and campaigning energy of many animal liberationists
is often nowhere matched by their concern for the sufferings of the Palestinians,
the Zimbabweans, or for Africa's AIDS victims. Animal-lovers who will
give a home and a plate of food to starving strays will shut their eyes,
hearts and their doors to homeless people on their streets, people who
are mentally ill or who are lonely and forgotten.
Jesus is doing more than healing a woman. He is taking on the causes of
her suffering. The healing takes place in the synagogue on the Sabbath
- against the wider backdrop of his vision of the Kingdom of God. Seen
in this light, what happens in this tiny, rural community is immensely
significant. It is a mustard seed - tiny, but set to grow into a plant
out of all proportion to its size. It crystallises Jesus' vision of the
Kingdom and of who will participate in it: it is for those who see the
world as God does - through the eyes of compassion.
We may be tempted to think that the things we do that are destructive
of community are "little things". We may be tempted to pass
them off as insignificant. After all, whom do they affect? How wrong we
are! The Church - the community of faith - is already part of heaven.
We're a part of a heavenly community that is affected by what we do and
think and say. We are part of the community who see things as they really
are - who see the significance of what appear to us to be mustard-seed-small.
They see the absence of compassion. The things we do are not just part
of the here-and-now - they are part of the future because they are part
of "a kingdom that cannot be shaken". For that reason, we, like
the upright, tall woman, ought to give thanks, by which we offer to God
an acceptable service with reverence and awe.
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