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Father Riley's sermon from Church of the Redeemer, Ruston (August 25, 2019)11 PENTECOST, PROPER XVI - C- 19 LUKE 13. 10-17
If Jesus were here today, would we recognize him? Would we recognize what he was doing and why he was doing it? Perhaps some of us would.
Throughout the gospels, there are those who did recognize him as the promised one, the messiah. For no one could do what he was able to do unless he was sent by God.
He gave sight to the blind. He opened the ears of the deaf and loosed the tongues of the dumb. He raised the dead all in fulfillment of the Old Testament prophets foretelling of the coming messiah. And in today’s gospel passage from Luke, Jesus frees a woman from her long time physical infirmity.
Jesus’ healing of this woman in a rural synagogue brought mixed reactions. Almost all those who witnessed his healing of the woman cheered his actions, save the ruler of the synagogue. The ruler became indignant that Jesus would chose to do such a thing on the Sabbath.
According to certain traditions that the scribes and Pharisees had built up around the Law of Moses, healing was considered work, and thus not permissible on the Sabbath, except in the case of life and death. The scribes and Pharisees believed that they served God by zealously keeping these peripheral traditions, but their legalism made them insensitive to God’s mercy.
The woman in today’s story was present in the synagogue and no doubt her presence was not a random appearance. Obviously, she is a regular attendee. In a small village, everyone knew who she was and how long she had been like this. She had a “spirit of weakness” that was beyond her control.
She was bound by it and there was nothing she or anyone else could do to free her of it. People accepted her the way she was. Over and against the ruler of the synagogue’s protest of His healing the woman on the Sabbath, Christ counters: “You do one thing on the Sabbath, untying your ox or donkey and leading them to water,” and yet want me to not do something which is no different, and even more appropriate - freeing this poor woman from Satan’s bondage. And what better day to do it than the Sabbath? "
Here Jesus is accusing the synagogue ruler of a “double standard.” What Jesus is doing for the woman is what he longs to do for all of
The ruler rebukes Jesus because he is blind to such needs because of the narrow legalism he lives by which prevents him from seeing the needs of others and the significance of the works of Jesus.
If Jesus were here today would we recognize him by the words he would speak, and or the actions he might take?
Each time I read a story from the gospels, I try to place myself in the scene. I ask myself which character would I be. How would I react to what Jesus was saying and doing? Moreover, how would my life be changed by what he said and what he did?
As he does so often throughout the gospels, Jesus raises more questions than he gives answers. For it is up to each of us to work out our own salvation based on what He said and did and who he claims to be. It is up to each of us to decide if His coming into our world, into our lives, has made a difference.
He has come to change the world, to change the way we live, think, and act. He has come to do away with the “double standard.” He has come to fulfill the promises of God found in the Old Testament prophecies, promises like those in today’s first lesson from the prophet Isaiah.
“If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness…if you call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable; if you honor it, not serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs…I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth…”
The Sabbath is not designed merely for rest or even for worship, but for humanitarian service. Each time we leave this sacred space we are charged with going back into the market place of life. Out there we are called to witness to the love and mercy of God by serving others in His name.
We serve the Lord in meeting the needs of others. Not resigning ourselves to the fact of human misery, but always in active hostility to it. However, we can only do this if we have allowed Jesus to unbind us of our spirit of weakness, whatever that may be.
It could be that “spirit” of pointing the finger and speaking of evil of others, which Isaiah warns his listeners against in our first lesson. It could be the prophet’s caution against pursuing one’s own interests on the Sabbath, rather than honoring God.
On the other hand, it could be the “spirit” of living a “double standard” which Jesus confronts the ruler of the synagogue with in this morning’s gospel. These are spirits, which in essence “cripple” us from recognizing the needs of others and thus prevents us from acting on those needs that are right before us.
Theses actions and reactions are not in accordance with God’s will, but an alien will, a will that hostile to God. Jesus sees this woman’s physical infirmity, as he does all diseases and infirmities of the world, as the works of an enemy. Satan has bound her, Jesus says.
The good news is that God in Christ has come to set us free, as he did the woman in the synagogue. Free from sin and death, free from all that binds us in a spirit of weakness. Through the merits of Christ’s death and resurrection, we have received God’s mercy, and forgiveness, and the gift of the Holy Spirit which enables us to know and do the will of God.
And through the eyes of Faith we are able to see God’s hand at work in the world around us and to recognize Christ in the face of friend and stranger. Amen+
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