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Pentecost 12

22 August 2004

Luke 13:10-17 Set free.
Background
This story needs to be read against the background of tension in the synagogue. There is a twisting of the truth - the woman appears to have come to worship, yet the synagogue leader speaks to the crowd about coming to be healed. His attack on Jesus is indirect, but his reprimand of the people is strong.

The woman asks nothing of Jesus, her faith is not mentioned. Jesus takes the initiative (as he does in the healings in John 5 and 9) and the healing becomes a witness to, or sign of, a larger truth – the fulfilment of the very purpose of the Sabbath, to promote healing and wholeness.

In contrast with the indirect attack on him, Jesus responds directly and in the plural – “hypocrites” implies all synagogue leaders who hold such an attitude and all who agree with them. Jesus points up the hypocrisy in talking to the crowds when the rebuke is really aimed at Jesus, and even more the synagogue leader’s professional zeal for the law in objecting to a deed which fulfilled the spirit and purpose of the law.

Note the play on the words “bound” and “loosed”. Jesus loosed the woman from Satan’s bonds. (Jesus attributes disorders to Satan – they are in conflict with God’s purposes of salvation under the Abrahamic covenant and are the concern of Jesus’ saving activity.) Rabbis were greatly concerned with the welfare of animals. Human life is cheap, livestock precious! If Jewish law permitted loosing a bound (tethered) animal how much more a freeborn daughter of Abraham, bound not for hours but 18 years! The peace of the way things have always been is shattered by Jesus’ words and deeds – a sign of God’s triumph over those things which are in conflict with the wholeness God offers.

The result is that Jesus’ adversaries are put to shame and public opinion rests solidly on Jesus’ side. Jesus has healed on the Sabbath – technically healing was work, therefore he has broken the Sabbath. But he has answered them from their own law.

In preaching
The leader of the synagogue and others like him were lovers of systems more than people. More concerned that their petty little laws should be observed than that a crippled woman should be healed. In a “civilised” society the relationship of the individual to the system becomes problematical – in conflict (war?) the individual is lost in the system. (In economic systems too.)

This attitude to systems invades the church also – people can become more concerned with church government than the worship of God and the welfare of God’s people, becoming obsessed with legalistic details of procedure. Jesus makes it clear the individual is more important than systems or regulations. Systems, laws are important, but not at the expense of individual suffering. Concern for the full humanity of persons is at the centre of Jesus’ message. Jesus spoke out directly, not allowing the synagogue leaders to duck the issue.

Where in your context (and mine) might such forthrightness be appropriate?

Jeremiah 1:4-10
Here we find words of encouragement as we struggle to follow Jesus’ example and respond to his call. Before we were born we were a “thought in the mind of God”. To “know” = affect, almost equivalent to love – knowing intimately – God formed Jeremiah, knew him, sanctified him before birth and appointed him to the task of prophet. Jeremiah shrinks from the responsibility he is given. “Too young” he says. But empowered by God he will carry out his calling to speak the difficult word.

As in the Gospel passage, there is a “call” to action, there is no ducking the issue.

Psalm 71:1-6
Contains similar words of encouragement.

Hebrews 12:18-29
The picture of Mt.Sinai at the giving of the law depicts inaccessibility – a scene which makes Moses tremble with fear. But now through Jesus the Christ God is really approachable and in God we can have confidence to act. Mt. Zion, the mountain of the Lord is a place of welcome – it is not a terrifying mountain, it is the place where God is – a place of grace not fear.

What is the relationship between the manner of our meeting with God and our response to the call to action?

Prayer suggestions:
God whose holy name defies our definition, but whose will is known in freeing the oppressed, make us to be one with all who cry for justice; that we who speak your praise may struggle for your truth, through Jesus Christ, Amen.
(Janet Morley in ‘All Desires Known’ Women’s Resource Centre, 1988 p.8)

In you we live and move.
In you we have our being.
We are in your love
Enfolded in your peace
Surrounded by your might.

Open our eyes, Lord,
Enlarge our vision.
Open our hearts, Lord,
Increase our faith.
Open our minds, Lord,
Deepen our knowing.

We are in your love
Enfolded in your peace.
Surrounded by your might.
In you we live and move
In you we have our being.
(David Adam in “The Open Gate” SPCK, 1999 p.18)