Healing on the Sabbath

Today's gospel (Luke 13:10-17) gives us the account of the woman healed on the sabbath. We are told that she had been ill for 18 years, and when Jesus saw her, he immediately healed her. Jesus always seems to have been moved when he saw people in pain, but I wonder if on this occasion if he was, as well as offering healing, deliberately setting up a conflict with the synagogue leader.

Here he seems to have acted quickly- he didn't wait to be asked to offer healing, he didn't wait to see anything about her faith, he didn't look at her background, although he may of course have known something about her anyway... But he healed her.

And he knew that in this act, he would upset some. The sabbath was and is a tremendously important day and the rules about what can be done are very strict. But as with so many rules and laws they were put in place to make things better for people, not to stifle people. And that is what Jesus was challenging here, and that is really what all of our readings are about today.

In the Old Testament reading from Jeremiah (1:4-8) the prophet expresses his reluctance to serve God as he was called to do, and that's not really surprising. He was being called to move into a minefield of laws and political fighting, and speak God's words into those situations. It was a tough call, but God reminded him that he would always be with him - doing God's will we will always be empowered by God.

And then in the letter to the Hebrews (12:18-25) we are given the rather frightening picture of that earthly mountain - a mountain of laws which can never be fully followed. A mountain which has become unapproachable and terrifying. As long as we keep making more and more rules to do things the more distant the hopes of achieving those things become.

In the church we can be guilty of making rituals and practices which were well intentioned to begin with but can often get in the way of what we are trying to achieve. Lighting candles can be a good aid to worship, but it doesn't matter if there aren't any candles. Following Liturgical colours is a good idea, but it's not that important really. These are just a couple of small examples...

Laws follow a similar pattern - when laws exist to benefit people they are invaluable, however when they exist just to preserve laws then they become rather less so... Laws point us to things that are wrong but they don't provide the remedy.

The Evangelist Fred Brown used three images to describe the purpose of the law. First he likened it to a dentist's little mirror, which he sticks into the patient's mouth. With the mirror he can detect any cavities. But he doesn't drill with it or use it to pull teeth. It can show him the decayed area or other abnormality, but it can't provide the solution.
Brown then drew another analogy. He said that the law is also like a torch. If suddenly at night the lights go out, you use it to guide you down the darkened basement stairs to the fuse box. When you point it toward the fuses, it helps you see the one that is burned out. But after you've removed the bad fuse, you don't try to insert the torch in its place. You put in a new fuse to restore the electricity.
In his third image, Brown likened the law to a plumbline. When a builder wants to check his work, he uses a weighted string to see if it's true to the vertical. But if he finds that he has made a mistake, he doesn't use the plumbline to correct it. He gets out his hammer and saw. The law points out the problem of sin; it doesn't provide a solution.

That solution and the solution to pain and suffering in general is revealed in our gospel reading in the form of Jesus. Into a situation where the woman had been in pain for 18 years, Jesus brought compassion and healing. I'm very pleased to say I haven't suffered greatly from any prolonged periods of pain - perhaps the worst would have been a very bad migraine attack nearly 10 years ago. I don't think I had ever known such pain, and I just wanted someone or something to make it better. I didn't really care too much what it was and I didn't care when it came as long as it was soon !

There really is no wrong time to ease someone's pain, and Jesus knew that. The boundaries of the law about the sabbath were irrelevant to him. And as important as the sabbath is, the technical points of the law should always be secondary to doing what is right and good and compassionate...

Jesus' command to love God and love one another superseded all others....

Jesus had set up a situation or used a situation to ensure that he could point people to the stupidity of some of the laws that people were keeping. And of course this seriously undermined the leader of the synagogue and he was angry. His position of superiority was completely upstaged.

He could talk about laws, he could discuss scripture, he could rule on all kinds of things in the community, but what he hadn't done was provide healing for this woman. And that's what she needed and that's what people saw was needed.

And so often what is crucial in the world and in our own lives is not a reliance on the law or ritual or tradition but a dependence on God who is sufficient to supply all our needs. God is love and into situations of pain or darkness, into our struggles in life, into our worries or disappointments, God offers comfort and peace.

When times are difficult in our lives, we can trust God. It almost seems glib but I love the saying by, I think, Billy Graham, who said something like, 'don't worry, it's all going to be ok - I've read the end of the book'...

Going back to the  letter to the Hebrews there we are painted that dreadful and terrifying picture of the consequences of failing to draw near to God, but we are also given that wonderful picture of what is described as Mount Zion and the city of the living God.

There we have innumerable angels praising God and celebrating; there we have people made perfect in God's kingdom - there we have Jesus the mediator or bringer of the new covenant - a new world created by love, full of grace and mercy and peace... Available for us all to enjoy...

Life takes us on many journeys - some good and some bad, but in those situations we develop and learn... We have a choice of how to handle our situations - whether to think everything is against us and let our lives fall apart, or whether to trust God and recognise that whilst we may not understand why we end up in some situations, we are there with God at our side...

A Catholic writer, F H Drinkwater, wrote about a persecution in China of a young Christian called Paul Moy. The local authorities arrested him and tried to get him to renounce his Christian faith. Eventually they tried bribery. They offered a purse of silver which was declined as Paul Moy said that is not enough. So gold was offered and again the authorities were told it was not enough.

And so he was asked what he did want in order to renounce his faith - and he replied, 'in order to ask me to renounce my faith, you will have to give me enough to buy a new soul.'
Paul Moy was executed, but he went to his death as a glorious witness to the reality of a new and better life, a life lived even more closely with God...

This life has much for us to achieve - as Jesus offered us the example of doing right in all situations so we are reminded of the need to put love and compassion above anything else in all that we do.... Mark Twain wrote, 'always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest...'

We've heard today of the strength of God, and the fact he never leaves us. We've heard of the invitation to draw close to him and feel his welcoming, cleansing and healing presence and we've seen Jesus at work, challenging wrongdoing and bringing comfort and healing from pain...

That's what Jesus can do... NT Wright, the former Bishop of Durham, wrote about this gospel reading, 'ponder what you have seen and heard. Would you go up to Jerusalem  following this man? It might be risky... It might be unpredictable... But where else would you go ?' Amen