Bound

Luke 13:10-17 (The Message)

On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, 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.

When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, "Woman, you are set free from your infirmity." Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.

Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue ruler said to the people, "There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath."

The Lord answered him, "You hypocrites! Doesn't each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water?

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?"

When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.

Imagine, a woman who had been physically crippled for eighteen years, healed on the spot.

Now imagine someone complaining about that healing.

That's the picture of the Pharisees that we get from this scripture. They are just so obviously wrong, it's hard for us to do anything but condemn them.

But, somehow, they felt justified in their opinion.

How can someone get that confused...and do so in the name of God?

We should ask ourselves that question. There might be a log in our own lie that need to be removed before we go looking for specks in the eyes of others...even the Pharisees who attacked Jesus.

I have known Christian people who could miss the point. And each of us certainly has that ability for ourselves.

After all, in their own minds, the Pharisees were doing the right things. They were defending the true faith from this threatening agent of change named Jesus.

They were enforcing God's law.

The problem, of course, is that they don't allow space for God to do new things. They aren't willing to open themselves to the possibility that God might teach them new and expansive ways of understanding.

They overlook a healing in favor of the letter of Sabbath law.

All of this makes me think about what Jay Baaker's church (Yes, that's former televangelist Jim Baaker's son) did around Atlanta, a few years ago. They plastered the city with flyers advertising the start of the very "alternative" Revolution Church.

The tag line?

"Dear World: As Christians, we're sorry for being self-righteous, judgmental @#$%!#'s."

Not bad.

Years ago, when I was a child, I learned a lesson about how confused our own "Christian" thinking can become.

Members of the church where my father was the pastor came to him, upset because the children's ministry leaders were sticking push-pins directly into the walls of the church's classrooms.

"They're making holes, and damaging the building," they said.

They were also doing the only ministry with children that the church offered.

Ultimately, the hole-making stopped...and so did the ministry.

My prayer is that God will always inspire us to messy, rule-breaking, hole-making ministry that honors the first and most important law: Love of God and love of people.

Prayer: We pray that you would teach us to see real goodness, wherever it may be found. May we honor that goodness, protect it and seek to see it grow larger in our world. Forgive us for hair-splitting and help us when we're confused about what is really right.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. World without end. Amen.