Luke 13:10-17

Rules are crucial to an ordered, fair, safe existence for everyone. But in this Sunday’s passage in Luke, Jesus seems to challenge an important religious rule, one of the Ten Commandments. A woman with a debilitating spinal condition shows up on a Sabbath while Jesus is teaching. Jesus sees her, touches her, heals her. “There are six days on which work ought to be done,” fumes one of the religious leaders to the crowd. He’s referring to the fourth commandment: “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.” Jesus doesn’t say this rule is wrong; he intends to keep the Sabbath. Where he differs with the authorities is on how to do that. I assume the religious leader isn’t against healing; he just wants Jesus to wait until tomorrow. The woman’s condition isn’t life-threatening. What’s one more day?

In a biting response, Jesus says the Sabbath is the perfect day to set someone free from eighteen years of a crippling condition. Jesus refers to Deuteronomy’s version of the Ten Commandments, which adds (I’m paraphrasing), “Remember when you were slaves in Egypt? Remember when you had no day off at all? That’s why you get a day off. It’s about freedom.” It’s radical; you even had to give your animals the day off. One day of freedom for everyone. 

There’s a very good reason for keeping the Sabbath, and Jesus agrees with this. Following rules for the sake of following rules, however, is not “holy.”  

To be perfectly fair to the religious leader, many of us have a lot in common with him. He’s probably thinking, “Once you start making exceptions, all hell breaks loose.” Maybe keeping the Sabbath isn’t at the top of your list but most of us have rules we think are important, and we get nervous if we see people disrespecting them. Maybe it’s small-ish things like eating only organic foods, children’s bedtimes, or answering cell phones at the dinner table. Maybe it’s a much larger issue, like traditional gender roles, how to interpret the Second Amendment, or whether a former president should be held accountable for violations of the Espionage Act. Whatever it is, there are some rules we feel you just should follow. And if you don’t, who knows what will unravel next?      

Jesus doesn’t say the rules don’t matter. He’s saying that sometimes a reasonable rule or a good law that works well for some people causes suffering for others, or just plain leaves people out. Take eating organic, for example. In a class on environmental ethics, a fellow seminary student reported on how much better organic food is for the planet and people. No argument there, right? They gave us all a taste test with organic and non-organic carrots, and sure enough, the organic carrots were tastier. And then another student, a person of color, asked, “How much more do the organic carrots cost?” At the time (mid-1990’s), it was a considerable difference, which isn’t the case today for carrots; although, still, organic produce costs about 50% more on average. Then the student pointed out, with some impatience, that eating organic was a luxury not everyone could afford. That whole communities of people were left out of the health benefits of eating organic, not to mention that good feeling of knowing they were doing the right thing for the planet.

The religious leader is sticking up for the principle of law and order, and I think most of us can support that. But it’s easy for him to maintain his principles without suffering. The woman didn’t have that freedom. 

Jesus isn’t saying do away with the Sabbath. He’s pointing to a systemic barrier. The authorities demand rigid observance of the law without empathy for how it impacts others. The religious leader doesn’t see it, and that’s exactly what privilege is. It’s being able to ignore things that confront other people every day. Jesus is saying the point of the Sabbath is to serve people and draw them more deeply into the abundant life God offers – not just to some people, not just the to people who don’t have to think twice about the rules, but to all people. God is a God of love, mercy, compassion, and justice. Focusing on that keeps the Sabbath holy. But sometimes holiness means rocking the boat.  

How does this impact walking the path of faith? Where in your life do you see rules that create barriers that don’t impact you, but impact others? Especially the systemic barriers. For example, healthcare should be accessible to everyone, but it isn’t. Even more troubling is that the means to maintain a healthy lifestyle isn’t accessible to everyone. It’s tragic not to be able to afford insulin if you’re diabetic. It’s perhaps more tragic not to be able to afford highly nutritious [organic!] foods, a gym, and the time and flexibility to use it in order to avoid diabetes in the first place.

   My favorite part of this story is at the end. “The entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things he was doing.” They got it. Ordinary people, living their lives, doing the best they could, working hard, caring for their families, trying to make the best of every day. And once a week being reminded of what it’s all about, that there’s a purpose to all of this, that each small life matters, that human life – all of it, the rule-abiding religious leader, the crippled woman – all of it matters, all of it is precious to a God who loves passionately and whose love simply will not be confined or restricted by any rules, but will finally find and embrace each one of us.