A homily on Luke 13: 10 - 17. Jesus cures a woman on the Sabbath.
In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
The most striking thing about today's Gospel is the remark by the leader of the synagogue in verse 14, when he says, "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the Sabbath day." The leader sounds like he is taking a number of things for granted, and apparently he believes that his hearers do too. The first thing he takes for granted is: curing apparently goes on all the time. The second is: curing is a form of work. The third thing he takes for granted is: six days a week are enough time for it.
There is no hint in the Gospel that there is anything unusual about such a cure. Nowadays, in the heyday of scientific medicine, we are liable to be skeptical, and perhaps more than skeptical, of reports of cures by religious teachers. But our time is also the heyday of great Christian shrines like Lourdes and Saint Anne de Beaupre and many others, where people go to pray for a cure, and where many receive healing from God. And the Roman Church, as we know, has a rigorous procedure for verifying miraculous cures in the process for confirming the holiness of those thought to be saints. So, even in our age, although we may not take cures for granted in quite the same way as the leader of the synagogue does in today's Gospel, we are aware that such events apparently do occur, and we don't necessarily dismiss stories of such events without examining them. So we can appreciate somewhat the attitude of the leader of the synagogue in today's story, for whom such a cure is not out of the ordinary.
Curing is also work. It's a job, and of course it is, as any medical doctor or nurse or anyone working in a hospital would say. And like any job, there are rules and expectations around it. And one of those expectations is that the worker, Jesus the healer in this case, takes one day off a week like everybody else. Surely, six days out of seven are enough to work cures! The leader of the synagogue takes this for granted, as I said, and reminds his hearers of it, just in case they have forgotten.
Notice how he does this. The leader says, "Come on those days and be cured, and not on the Sabbath." "Come on those days and be cured." He is actually addressing the cured woman, as well as the crowd. He doesn't speak directly to Jesus. The leader is saying that the woman has broken the rule by accepting the cure, not Jesus by performing it. Note that the woman does not ask for a cure either; she simply appears in the synagogue, and Jesus calls her to him and lays hands on her. Jesus takes the initiative here, not the woman. I'm willing to speculate that the woman takes her condition for granted, as an unchangeable part of her life, just as the leader of the synagogue takes the conditions of his life and society for granted as well.
The next sentence is equally interesting: "But the Lord answered him and said, 'You hypocrites!' " "The Lord answered him," singular, and said, "You hypocrites!" plural. In contrast to the leader, who evades expressing his indignation at Jesus by speaking instead to the crowd, and to the woman as part of the crowd, so Jesus makes sure that he addresses everybody: the leader and the crowd.
Jesus accepts the leader's understanding that the cure is work. But he upends the prohibition against it, by pointing out that some activities not thought to be work actually are, and they occur on the Sabbath, and so curing the sick can occur on the Sabbath as well. In other words, an exception for some other forms of work on the Sabbath allows an exception for this particular form of work, and so people can be cured on the Sabbath. "And ought not this woman...be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?" Jesus does not seek to overturn the Sabbath law, but he does point out that it is not as exclusive as the leader of the synagogue believes it to be. The Sabbath is about freedom from bondage, and is not about submitting to the bondage of exclusive rules.
Then Luke writes, "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." This sentence introduces an element, or rather elements, into the story, who haven't been there up until now. "All his opponents were put to shame," it says. Where do these opponents come from? They aren't there at the beginning of the reading, and they aren't anywhere else in it either. All of a sudden, they appear. "And the entire crowd was rejoicing." The opponents aren't part of the crowd?
We don't actually know what the opponents oppose. Presumably they oppose the cure, as the leader does, but the text doesn't actually say that. But there is no need, however, to worry about this curious, vague interruption of the text, because there is always an element that opposes good, that seeks to undermine it, that seeks to restrict freedom, and that resents the rejoicing of people freed from bondage. So Luke reminds us of this presence, this opposition, without having to be too specific about it.
And therein lies a lesson that we can take from this story. Into a situation where the woman does not question her condition or seek to do anything about it, a situation where the leader of the synagogue assumes that almost anything anyone does on the Sabbath is forbidden, and a situation in which there is very little face-to-face communication among the participants, and where there is an opposition ready to object no matter what, into these assumptions and routines and conventional and traditional understandings, comes Jesus. And what happens? A woman's life is transformed, the leader's understanding is changed, Jesus's opponents are stopped, for a time, and, as the Gospel says, "the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things he was doing." The free act of God in Jesus shakes everyone, or almost everyone, loose from what they take for granted, from what they think they know, and a new thing, freedom in God, comes into their lives. And the crowd, and the woman, respond in the only way, the best way, they can. They rejoice.
In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
Notice how he does this. The leader says, "Come on those days and be cured, and not on the Sabbath." "Come on those days and be cured." He is actually addressing the cured woman, as well as the crowd. He doesn't speak directly to Jesus. The leader is saying that the woman has broken the rule by accepting the cure, not Jesus by performing it. Note that the woman does not ask for a cure either; she simply appears in the synagogue, and Jesus calls her to him and lays hands on her. Jesus takes the initiative here, not the woman. I'm willing to speculate that the woman takes her condition for granted, as an unchangeable part of her life, just as the leader of the synagogue takes the conditions of his life and society for granted as well.
The next sentence is equally interesting: "But the Lord answered him and said, 'You hypocrites!' " "The Lord answered him," singular, and said, "You hypocrites!" plural. In contrast to the leader, who evades expressing his indignation at Jesus by speaking instead to the crowd, and to the woman as part of the crowd, so Jesus makes sure that he addresses everybody: the leader and the crowd.
Jesus accepts the leader's understanding that the cure is work. But he upends the prohibition against it, by pointing out that some activities not thought to be work actually are, and they occur on the Sabbath, and so curing the sick can occur on the Sabbath as well. In other words, an exception for some other forms of work on the Sabbath allows an exception for this particular form of work, and so people can be cured on the Sabbath. "And ought not this woman...be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?" Jesus does not seek to overturn the Sabbath law, but he does point out that it is not as exclusive as the leader of the synagogue believes it to be. The Sabbath is about freedom from bondage, and is not about submitting to the bondage of exclusive rules.
Then Luke writes, "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." This sentence introduces an element, or rather elements, into the story, who haven't been there up until now. "All his opponents were put to shame," it says. Where do these opponents come from? They aren't there at the beginning of the reading, and they aren't anywhere else in it either. All of a sudden, they appear. "And the entire crowd was rejoicing." The opponents aren't part of the crowd?
We don't actually know what the opponents oppose. Presumably they oppose the cure, as the leader does, but the text doesn't actually say that. But there is no need, however, to worry about this curious, vague interruption of the text, because there is always an element that opposes good, that seeks to undermine it, that seeks to restrict freedom, and that resents the rejoicing of people freed from bondage. So Luke reminds us of this presence, this opposition, without having to be too specific about it.
And therein lies a lesson that we can take from this story. Into a situation where the woman does not question her condition or seek to do anything about it, a situation where the leader of the synagogue assumes that almost anything anyone does on the Sabbath is forbidden, and a situation in which there is very little face-to-face communication among the participants, and where there is an opposition ready to object no matter what, into these assumptions and routines and conventional and traditional understandings, comes Jesus. And what happens? A woman's life is transformed, the leader's understanding is changed, Jesus's opponents are stopped, for a time, and, as the Gospel says, "the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things he was doing." The free act of God in Jesus shakes everyone, or almost everyone, loose from what they take for granted, from what they think they know, and a new thing, freedom in God, comes into their lives. And the crowd, and the woman, respond in the only way, the best way, they can. They rejoice.
In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment