Gospel LK 13:10-17
Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the sabbath.
And a woman was there who for eighteen years
had been crippled by a spirit;
she was bent over, completely incapable of standing erect.
When Jesus saw her, he called to her and said,
“Woman, you are set free of your infirmity.”
He laid his hands on her,
and she at once stood up straight and glorified God.
But the leader of the synagogue,
indignant that Jesus had cured on the sabbath,
said to the crowd in reply,
“There are six days when work should be done.
Come on those days to be cured, not on the sabbath day.”
The Lord said to him in reply, “Hypocrites!
Does not each one of you on the sabbath
untie his ox or his ass from the manger
and lead it out for watering?
This daughter of Abraham,
whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now,
ought she not to have been set free on the sabbath day
from this bondage?”
When he said this, all his adversaries were humiliated;
and the whole crowd rejoiced at all the splendid deeds done by him.
Reflection:
“Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the sabbath.
And a woman was there who for eighteen years
had been crippled by a spirit;
she was bent over, completely incapable of standing erect.
When Jesus saw her, he called to her and said,
“Woman, you are set free of your infirmity.”
He laid his hands on her,
and she at once stood up straight and glorified God.”
Jesus Christ was not a rebel but he certainly was a nonconformist; He never hesitated to challenge the status quo.
Today’s gospel is only one of several examples in scripture where Jesus cured a suffering person in the synagogue on the sabbath, in violation of religious law.
“But the leader of the synagogue,
indignant that Jesus had cured on the sabbath,
said to the crowd in reply,
“There are six days when work should be done.
Come on those days to be cured, not on the sabbath day.”
I too, at times, can take my sense of belonging to the church from my conformity to mechanical religious rules.
But, do I have the courage to be like Jesus?
When I see a wrong, do I have the moral strength to step forward and set it right, regardless of what others may think?
Or, does the fear of being ridiculed for “breaking the rules” keep me from doing what I know is right in the eyes of God?
“It take nothing to join the crowd. It takes everything to stand alone.” Hans F. Hansen