Made Straight to Glorify

                                          Luke 13: 10-17

 

 

          At the local deed registry, it became necessary to make a rule about filing deeds. Before the recession, so many deeds were being filed that the registry couldn’t close on time. They had to process every deed that came in before 5PM. To do so kept the staff working well past closing time. In order to alleviate the problem, a rule was made. After 4:30, nothing would be clocked in. Deeds could be examined for recordability and left there to be recorded, but nothing would be done until the next morning. The rule helped the staff accommodate the volume and still go home on time. Then the recession came and the volume went to nothing. But still the rule stayed in effect. You could be the only person standing at the window at 4:30 and still, your deed would not be recorded until the next day. The rule is still there today, even though the need for it has completely disappeared.

          If you think that’s silly, listen to this: In Quitman, Georgia, chickens are not allowed to cross the road. In the state of North Carolina, it’s illegal to sing off-key. And in Rhode Island, you are not allowed to sell toothpaste and a toothbrush to the same customer on a Sunday.

          What do these and many other such laws and rules have in common? For one thing, I suspect that at the time they were made, there was a somewhat legitimate reason for them.  For another, there is now no question that such laws are just plain silly.

          The Jews had silly laws in Jesus’ time as well. They had laws for purity, laws for sacrifices, laws for the Sabbath. The Mishnah is a piece of Jewish rabbinical literature. It is the first major writing of the Jewish law carried over from oral tradition. The Mishnah lists 39 different laws concerning the Sabbath. Those laws could be extreme. For instance, to pluck a gray hair from your head was considered work and violated the Sabbath. You could spit on a rock but not on the ground. Spitting on the ground made mud and mud was mortar. Making mortar is work. That violates the Sabbath.

          Get the picture? What started out as a conscientious effort to keep the law of God turned into a silly demonstration of over-zealous rule-making. In today’s story from Luke, Jesus takes aim at one of those rule-makers.

Jesus is in the synagogue teaching on the Sabbath. A woman is there in the audience. She has what Luke described as a “disabling spirit.” She had had it for 18 years. It caused her to be bent over. We don’t really know what this disabling spirit was, but obviously it manifested as a physical disability. Now we all know that next, we’re going to hear about Jesus working a miracle.  This woman is going to be healed. There is power in just knowing that, but to pay attention to only the miracle and not to the lesson taught around it is to miss the blessing that Jesus has not just for that woman in the synagogue, but for you and me as well.

While Jesus is teaching, he sees this woman. She is bent over and cannot straighten up. Jesus stops what he is doing. He calls the woman over to him. First, he pronounces her free of her disability. Then, he lays hands on her. Luke says “she was made straight, and she glorified God.”

Now, the ruler of the synagogue is indignant. Jesus has violated the Sabbath. That is, according to the ruler of the synagogue, Jesus has violated the Sabbath by working. He laid hands on the woman. He healed her. Jesus is the healer so that is his job, and you can’t work on the Sabbath. The synagogue ruler actually proposed that Jesus confine his healing to the other six days of the week. But he didn’t have the nerve to say it directly to Jesus, so instead he said it to the people.

Do you know people like that? They don’t accuse you directly, but they turn to others and say their criticism and accusations, as if that were any less hurtful. Well, Jesus is not one to be accused, directly or indirectly. Jesus turns on the synagogue ruler and anyone else that may be siding with him and calls them hypocrites to their faces.  The way Luke tells it, Jesus’ explanation is a sort of word play on the terms “loose” and “bound.” Jesus says you loose a tethered animal from its bonds on the Sabbath and take it to water. And yet, you can’t do the same for a human being, a woman who is one of you, who is bound to Satan? And that because of a rule about not working on the Sabbath? Is a woman of God’s people worth less to you and your silly rules than an animal?

There is a story about a man who went bird hunting with a friend. The friend brought along his new hunting dog. Now this man was known to have a pretty critical nature.  He took a look at his friend’s new dog and said “that doesn’t look like much of a dog.” They walked through the forest until they came to a clearing by the lake.  A flock of birds was flying over and the hunters began to shoot. One of the birds fell into the lake. The little dog bounded forward and ran across the lake, his little frame barely touching the surface. He retrieved the bird and came back, still running over the top of the water. The friend looked to the man and said “What do you think of my dog now?” The man replied “Dumb dog. He doesn’t even know how to swim.”

Have you ever met someone like that man? Someone like the ruler of that synagogue where Jesus was teaching that day? They’re all around us. They are great at obeying rules or criticizing, but they aren’t very good at seeing the truth in front of their face.  The truth is that Jesus never broke the Sabbath. Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. What Jesus broke were some silly rules, rituals made by men who never really saw the reason for the rules to begin with. Jesus never put ritual requirements above human need.

Don’t mistake the importance of this story. Jesus confronted small minded people with the big picture. That’s huge. If the church does not look at the opportunities for Christian service in this life in that way, the time will come when there is no mission to which to attend.  We have to see the big picture. That’s the long view that Jesus reminds of here.

But there is more. Jesus performed a miracle. In spite of the small minds with which he was surrounded, he rose to the task. He saw the woman, singled her out, and gave her the miracle she had probably thought could never happen to her. But it did, because Jesus saw her. And he didn’t wait, either. The synagogue ruler said in effect: “What’s one more day?” Jesus said: “It’s one day too many. Let’s loose her burden right now.”

The story is about a woman, but the narrative is about you…and me…and everyone who lets God see them. We may not feel it, but if we are not in line with Jesus, then we too are bent. We too are unable to fully straighten ourselves for the work to which God has called us.

Will you let God see you? Will you ignore all those silly rules from all those small thinking people and let Jesus pick you out? He will if you will just let him. Jesus called that woman over and said to her: “Woman, you are healed.” And she was. Luke tells us that she was made straight. Think beyond the physical disability of that woman in the synagogue. Think about all the ways you are bent over. There is nothing---nothing, that Jesus cannot heal. He can make you straight too. You just need to let go of the pride that holds you in place. It might have been going on for 18 years or even longer. Jesus doesn’t care.  He can loose you from yourself and whatever demons are in your life, and he can do it right now. There is no need to wait until tomorrow.

When that happens for you, don’t forget to do exactly what the woman did. Glorify God, for it is Jesus who can give you that peace you can’t find on your own, that healing which cuts to the heart of what ails you. Unfortunately, there are people who are never going to get that. Jesus even said that we have to have eyes to see and ears to hear. The gospel is not for everyone. But make sure that it is for you. Let him make you straight!