Mid-week reflection; Luke chapter 13

Scripture Union, The Bible in a Year Programme.

Wednesday 23 March, Day 199.

Luke chapter 13, taking verses 10-17, Jesus Heals a Crippled Woman on the Sabbath.

Consider

It is the Sabbath and Jesus is teaching in the synagogue when he notices a woman bent double by a crippling disease, a condition she has endured for eighteen years. It’s what’s not said that makes this episode so heart-breaking. All the healing miracles start with great suffering. Sometimes a blind man calls from the roadside or a woman throws herself into the dust at Jesus’ feet or a crippled man is lowered through the ceiling by his friends. People driven by desperation, reaching out for Jesus. Unlike them, the lady in this story asks for nothing and expects nothing. Because of her misshapen body she wants to go unnoticed in the background.

Imagine her situation; hiding in the shadows. Ridiculed and living off hand outs. “It is more important that a donkey or an ox should get a drink than she is healed.” [v.15]. Her world is literally at her feet: starring day after day into the dust of the village street.

Then, out of the blue, three things happen: Jesus sees her, Jesus calls her, and Jesus touches her.

In an instant her world is transformed: she is straightened out and praises God [v.13]

A happy ending were it not for the synagogue ruler. What about the story from his perspective? He takes offence at Jesus flouting the rules and healing on the Sabbath. He’s a bit hasty in reaching for the rule book and his priorities are messed up but he’s the one with the responsibility for keeping things in order. Do we feel sympathy for him? Is there a bit of him in you and me? How would we feel if a stranger rolled into St Stephens with his hippy friends and started messing with our well ordered lives?

Who are you in the story?

·         Are you like the woman who craves healing but is afraid to leave the protection of the shadows?

·         Does it seem easier to look into the dust day after day than to step forward at the call of Jesus?

·         Are you like the synagogue ruler, quick with the rule book and good at keeping order but missing seeing God at work in the lives of people?

·         Probably, like me, there is a bit of both of these characters in your life.

Pray

·         For all those known to you with twisted lives, mentally, spiritually as well as physically.

·         For those like the woman in the story who are embarrassing to be with.

·         For people living day to day, staring into the dust and never seeing the horizon.

·         Ask for the courage to break the rules or your routine for them.

·         Like Christ call them forward into your life, your home, your church.