Now[Jesus] was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.” But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?” When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.
Luke 13:10-17
My sermon from the 11th Sunday After Pentecost (August 21, 2016) on Luke 13:10-17.
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One of my favorite clothing trends is fun socks. It wasn’t that long ago when my sock options were limited to white athletic socks or black dress socks. It didn’t matter what kind of shoe I was wearing – my sock options were plain and boring. But that’s all changed. I’ve got argyle socks, red socks, blue socks, socks with foxes on them, chihuahuas riding surfboards, and even my Lutheran socks which have “Here I stand” written on the side. So today, in honor of Sunday, our sabbath day, I’m wearing my Sunday Socks. Sunday Socks is literally what it says on the ankle – and right below those words is an image of a tv set with the words “Football!” inside. For a fan like myself, they’re basically perfect with footballs, referees, and athletic stripes are all over them. My only critique is that, sadly, they don’t come in the orange and blue of my beloved Denver Broncos. But that’s okay because they’re still fun, they’re still cool, and they still make me smile because, along with the footballs, the tv sets, and the stripes is a simple phrase, written on the side that claims, when it comes to Sunday, “nothing else matters.”
Now, that’s a pretty bold claim for a pair of socks to make. I tend to chose my socks based on the bold statement they make about me rather than the bold statement written on them. But there’s an irony here that makes me laugh because these socks point to a question: what makes a holy day a holy day? And that question is at the center of our story about Jesus today.
Our story starts with Jesus making a pit stop during his long journey from Galilee to Jerusalem. As he passes through many different villages and town, he gravitates towards the centers of faith at the heart of each community. So, it’s not surprising to find him in a synagogue on the sabbath. As a Jewish teacher, that’s where he should be. In my mind, I imagine this synagogue to be one giant room, filled with disciples and the locals competing for places to sit and stand so they can listen to what Jesus has to say. And it’s in the middle of this very full space, that Jesus sees her. Now, this woman is a bit of a mystery to us. We don’t know her name, why she came to see Jesus, or even where she’s from. But there’s a sense in the text that this woman was someone this community knew. She’s one of the locals. For 18 years, she’s been unable to stand straight. For 18 years, she’s been bent over. In a crowd full of people standing to see Jesus, I wonder if she could see him. But before she can ask for healing, before she can reach out to touch his robe, before she can do all the others things we hear in the other healing stories – Jesus sees her. He makes a promise. And then, after placing his hands on her, her back straightens out. This woman who couldn’t stand straight, who couldn’t see over the crowd, is now standing like she’s one of the crowd – like she really is a part of this community – a community she’s always been a part of.
And that’s when the grumbling starts. Someone isn’t happy with what just happened. The text points to Jesus’ cure being the issue but the words that come out shifts the blame elsewhere. The leader doesn’t turn to Jesus to object to what happened but, instead, he turns to the crowd. He looks at those who might need healing and asks them to just…wait one more day. They’ve already been suffering for months or years – what could be one more day? This religious teacher has an expectation, an understanding, of what the sabbath is. This day, set apart by God, is a day for complete rest. God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh – so that’s what we’re called to do too. No food shall be cooked or fire set to warm the house on the sabbath day. The sabbath is a day of no work – and he just saw Jesus work. And since Jesus took the initiative to see this woman who needs healing, the leader tries to convince the crowd to stay away – to stay back – so Jesus won’t feel obligated to cure someone else.
And Jesus won’t have that because the sabbath isn’t a day centered for rest. It isn’t a day defined by the absence of work. The sabbath isn’t that one day of the week when we get to not set our alarm, sleep in, and wear our pjs until noon. The sabbath is about giving life so that Monday, and Tuesday, and all the other days of the week are life giving not just for ourselves, but for the people right there, in front of us, suffering, hurting, and needing healing. The sabbath is for giving life to everyone in the community. The woman in our story didn’t become part of the community after she was healed. She had been part of the community since the day she was born. She’s a daughter of Abraham before she’s healed and she’s a daughter of Abraham after. Her identity was never limited by her ailment and her identification with the community should never have been limited either. Jesus shouldn’t have had to see her first. The community should have brought her forward, not because they wanted to change her but just because they loved her – Just because they wanted her to, in all things and through all things, have all she needs for life.
And that’s the sabbath. Sabbath is more than just a day during our two day weekend. It’s a day originally set apart in a world where no one had rest. Farmers had to work or starve. Servants and slaves had to do whatever they were told. God didn’t just tell the rich or the middle class or the poor to have the day off – everyone, men, women, children, servants, slaves, and even the animals took that day off. People worked, voluntarily or involuntarily, because they couldn’t imagine any other way of existence. But being grounded down, week after week, month after month, year after year, isn’t living. And without a sabbath, without an interruption to our pattern of existence, we can’t do what Jesus did. We can’t stop, look into the crowd, and notice the one who isn’t being seen. We can’t ask the questions about what life should look like not just for us but for the people around us. Without a sabbath, there’s no way to take a breath and ask how we can give life to those around us. The sabbath, is a break in our pattern of living. The sabbath is God’s gift to recharge us, refocus us, refresh us so that we can face each day of the week as alive as we possibly can. And without a sabbath, we let others, even a pair of fun socks, make bold claims about what should define us and give us our meaning. To live in the sabbath is to do more than just rest. It’s an opportunity to reconnect, to reassert that we are more than just our job, more than just our abilities, more than just what our communities around us say we are. We are sons, we are daughters of a living God who wants us to have life and to give nothing less.
Amen.
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