This morning I am reading from Luke 13:10-17 NIV:
[10] "On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, [11] and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. [12] When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” [13] Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.
[14] Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”
[15] The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? [16] Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”
[17] When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing."
This is a great story about the compassion of the Lord, free of any trappings of discussion around whose faith resulted in the miracles, or other stuff. This is simply Jesus loving and having compassion on a woman who was bound. He doesn't mention her faith, the faith of anyone else, or her sin or forgiveness or anything else that we often try to use to describe why Jesus heals, creating some sort of formula. Rather Jesus heals her because His heart is moved to heal her. He recognizes the fact that she is bound by a demonic force and breaks it's bonds and sets the woman free. Amen!
It is also such an interesting response from the religious leaders, who associated healing with work, and thus thought it should banned on the Sabbath. They didn't have room in their narrow perspective of what worship was supposed to look like to allow for God to move in their midst. They were so worried about the program and making sure that people followed the rules that they completely lost sight of the fact that it was all supposed to bring Glory to God. Here was Jesus bringing Glory to God by setting this woman free and they were upset. They wanted people to come any other day for healing, just not the Lord's day! Crazy!
I see in this reaction a similar focus on program and flow in our churches today. One wonders how many of our churches and leaders would get bent out of shape by someone breaking the rules or interrupting the flow of the service to heal someone? How many churches conduct prayer for people in another room so as not to interrupt the flow of the service, if they even pray at all? How many of us would get angry if someone raised their voice out of turn, or interrupted the song, by yelling praises to God? How many of us would judge the woman as crazy, or just having another emotional outburst? How many of us would be embarrassed by such unsettling behavior?
Lord, let our hearts be burdened to see You move, to see You glorified, to see You magnified in our churches and in our lives! We want to make Your day about You and give You freedom to be Yourself, doing what You want to do on every Sunday and every other day of the week. We want to see the outflowing of the river of life, rather than worship by the stream bed of a stream long dried up! We want to honor You as the Living God active now, rather than the one who used to walk on the earth. Lord set us free from the chains that bind us and bind our thinking!
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