A Rejoicing Crowd

By

Reverend Litton Logan

August 26, 2007

SCRIPTURES: Luke 13:10--17 (NRSV)

¹⁰Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. ¹¹And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. ¹²When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” ¹³When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. ¹⁴But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.” ¹⁵But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? ¹⁶And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?” ¹⁷When 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.

SERMON:

Most of us are old enough to remember “Blue Laws.” For those of you who do not know what Blue Laws are, Blue Laws are State and municipal regulations banning various commercial activities on Sunday. It is believed that the term Blue Law refers to the color of the paper on which these laws were first printed. One might say that the first Christian Blue Laws or laws governing commercial activities on Sunday, the Christian Sabbath, were enacted in 321 C.E. by the Emperor Constantine I. Initially, these laws affected the courts and the market places but were later amended to curtail military exercises on Sunday. Constantine commanded all citizens, except farmers, to rest on Sunday. The first blue law in America was enacted in the Virginia colony in the early 1600s and required church attendance. Many states still have Blue Laws on the books but few if any are ever enforced.

Many states have even repealed the sale of alcoholic beverages on Sundays in part due to consumer pressure, but in the main because of the loss of tax revenues to state coffers from the sales of alcoholic beverages on Sundays—one of the peak days of commercial activities. Now, one’s religious observances, one’s rest, and personal health are no longer the State’s concern.

Looking back on it, Blue Laws were somewhat arbitrary and some were very silly. Hopefully, we’ve come to understand that to be truly Christian means a person is to live their life daily in the Spirit of Christ and not to be caught up in rigid adherence to ordinances, statues, or rituals, as beneficial as such things are at times. Such is the case in this morning’s text from Luke.

Luke recalls many stories and events from Jesus’ life that place him in conflict with the Jewish leadership—lay and professional—over religious practices, precedents, and interpretations. Many of these conflicts centered on distinctive aspects of Judaism such as Sabbath observances.

The Jewish Sabbath, the Day of Rest, was understood to be a holy observance decreed by God’s example and divine fiat (Gen. 2:1-3; Ex. 20:11). In addition, practically, the Sabbath was a day of rest and recuperation for humankind and beast (Ex. 23:12; Deut. 5:14-15). However, in time, questions arouse about what was “labor” or “work” and what was not. Questions arose about how one should deal with emergencies, contingencies, and the routine necessities of life for humans and beast while honoring the Sabbath. In cases of emergencies, contingencies, routine life sustaining activities, and in the ambiguities of what was work the rabbis gave specific instructions, thereby establishing interpretations and precedents, in which the Scribes and Pharisees were expert.

Throughout the Gospels, we see Jesus as a devote Jew, although not always compliant with the various rabbinical precedents and interpretations of the Mosaic laws. Nevertheless, it is interesting to note the number of times Jesus runs afoul of the Pharisees in a synagogue. It seems that Jesus often goes to the heart of Judaism—the synagogue on the Sabbath—to address and reshape people’s thinking and expectations of the coming of the Kingdom of God.

A little history and background—the institutional synagogue arose during the Babylonian exile. The Synagogue’s leaders were lay people with the Pharisees and Scribes being the most prominent group of lay leaders. The synagogue services were rather informal, consisting primarily of prayers, reading of Scripture, comments, discussion, and collecting money for the poor. It was during this time that Judaism became a “religion of the Book”, instead of a religion of the sacrificial altar exclusive to the Temple in Jerusalem. It remains so today. Synagogues arose everywhere and were not only an assembly for worship but also a school, a community center, and a place for administering justice

On this particular Sabbath in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus seems to either go out of his way to invite a controversy or to make a point in the extreme about the coming Kingdom of God. As he teaches, he spots a woman who has been afflicted with a physical condition for eighteen years. In Jesus’ day, illnesses were generally viewed as the result of demonic forces, divine punishments, or testing from God. This woman most likely had crippling arthritis or osteoporosis. Jesus has compassion on her; he touches her, and heals her.

As wonderful as this miraculous healing was, let us look closer, and see something that is equally wonderful. Jesus calls this woman a “daughter of Abraham” conferring on her great status and dignity. This is important because in Luke 4:18 Jesus says that he is in the process of releasing the captive, freeing the oppressed, and in Luke 3:8 raising up children to Abraham. The healing, the lifting up of this woman, the conferring of status and dignity upon her becomes the story of many women and other marginalized people in Luke’s Gospel.

The healing, the lifting up, the elevating of a woman by Jesus would have been a challenge to the religious community as we see by the response of the leader of the synagogue. Luke tells us that regardless of the challenge the crowd, the congregation in the synagogue, were “rejoicing at all the wonderful things that [Jesus] was doing” even though he defied religious traditions.

Let me add, that often the writers of our Gospels in defining their Christianity in opposition to Judaism frequently take a radical anti-Pharisee stance, which frequently miss-focuses the reader’s attention on Jesus’ breaking rabbinical traditions. The real problem the Pharisees in the Gospels have with Jesus’ healings was that they thought he healed by magic or by the power of the demonic not by the power of God. One of their proofs of demonic influence in his healings might have been his violations of Sabbath traditions and prohibitions. We find this accusation of demonic healing clearly in Matthew (10:25, 12:24), Mark (3:22), and in Luke (11:14). However, Luke seems to accept that the problem with Jesus’ healing in this incident as evidenced by the president of the synagogue’s words as his violating rabbinical, Sabbath interpretations by doing the “work” of healing on the Sabbath.

It would be easy at this point to indict institutional Judaism and Christianity and its leadership, then and now, with these passages from Luke by showing that the leadership of the synagogue, like many in the Christian church today, have reversed the means and ends of religion. Nevertheless, I want us to look at something that I feel is very important and often neglected when studying these passages. Too frequently, we focus on the miraculous healing and empowering of the woman as a marginalized person and miss another critical, less sensational element of this story.

The synagogue was a place of learning, a place of prayer, a place of community, and a place where people were to have compassion, justice, and concern for one another. It was also a place of spiritual and social healing.

In these passages, we see not only a woman’s body cured; we see the crippling spirit of legalism in the body of the church cast out, and put to shame; we see the demeaning spirit of social injustice confronted and judged. Finally, we see the coming of a joyous spirit to people who have come recognize and experience the kingdom of God as breaking in on their present reality in Jesus’ teachings, compassion, justice, and healing in the congregation of the faithful.

Jesus shows in this story what a person’s truest relationship to God is to be like. It is not trying to impress God or others with acts of piety, devotion, and religious zeal but with one’s concern and compassion for the sufferings and needs of one’s fellow human being no matter what humanly contrived, religious conventions one has to break to meet their needs.

In this story, we see the spirit of religious legalism run amuck; we see the compassionate and healing spirit of Jesus admonish such legalism. We find a joyous spirit among those who understand and accept the reality of the kingdom of God in the teachings and witness of Jesus the Christ. A kingdom characterized by people living in compassionate, just, and caring communities.

As Christians, we are called to live in the Spirit of the Christ—to feel it, know it as part of ourselves, and to live it out in every aspect of our being. Therefore, we must let the Spirit of the Christ lead us if necessary into defying the parameters of social convention and religious tradition to reach out to and to touch those that are sick in body, mind, and spirit as well as those who are oppressed by sin or injustice.

I invite us this morning to join in rejoicing with the crowd in Luke’s Gospel at all the wonderful things that Christ is doing and can do among us. As Luke’s audience would have done, let us take stock of what Christ is doing in our lives and in our church. Are we letting Christ transform us morally and spiritually? Are we allowing the Spirit to have more and more influence in our lives? Are we honestly caring for one another? Are we compassionate and just toward one another? Are we sensitive to the needs of one another as it relates to worship, Christian education, prayer, music, and the administrative affairs of the church? Do our checkbooks reflect our care and concern for this church, its people, and its programs as well as the afflicted and oppressed of the world? Does how we spend our time in work or leisure reflect a pervasiveness of Christ in our lives?

The answers to some of the questions I can say are in the affirmative. Answers to some questions must be answered individually. However, Christ still works on Sundays. Therefore, let us join the crowd in rejoicing as the Christ works wonders among us.