In our Gospel reading for today, Jesus performs yet another miracle. However, the thing that causes the biggest stir among many is not the fact that he performed a miracle, but rather the day of the week on which he performed it.
Jesus heals this woman on the Sabbath. Healing on the Sabbath? What’s the big deal in that, right? However for the devout Jews, it was a big deal. According to the Law, any work with the exception involving the basic care for animals was forbidden.
I remember as a child reading the Little House on the Prairie Series. In the book entitled Farmer Boy I remember Almanzo Wilder’s family spending Sunday doing as little as possible. His mother even cooked the Sunday meals the day before so she did not have to start the fire in the stove, as that would have been considered work. The only things they were allowed to do was read from the Bible and the chores.
It is this kind of mentality that the Jews prescribed to as well. However Jesus makes it clear that even though it is the Sabbath, God and his works do not stop just because it is a day of rest. Grace knows no Sabbath.
The woman in Luke was suffering, and she was looking to the Lord for help. Jesus rebukes the Pharisees with these words:
The Lord answered him, "You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?” (Luke 13:15-16 NIV)
Basically He questions their sense of humanity, He questions what they feel God finds important. He basically asks, “Doesn’t the woman deserve as much attention as an animal?” “Doesn’t she deserve a Sabbath from the pain that Satan has bound her to?” Most of all, His rebuke asks this question of the men. Doesn’t God watch over and protect us every moment of every day of the week? Does grace really take a day off?
No, grace doesn’t take a day off. In fact we often find ourselves as His instrument in lives of other people. Sometimes God calls for us at a moment that is convenient for us. More over the moment He calls us to be that instrument of grace, more often than not He is using the moment to take us to a place in our faith where we possibly have not been willing to travel before.
For example think back to Jeremiah, what was his excuse? “I said, "I do not know how to speak; I am only a child."” I am too young, I do not know how to speak in front of others. God called on Jeremiah to help the people of Israel out of their impending crisis. Israel had so turned from God, and were so caught up in their own lives and intrigues they failed to recognize the threat to them from the east, in the form of the Babylonians. Through Jeremiah, God calls his people back to Him. Even though most them especially the rulers failed to heed or utterly refused to listen to Jeremiah, God reached out to the people to give them a chance to escape their fate. Even though most did not accept God’s call to them those that did were saved. They were freed and allowed to remain in Israel.
He did the same thing with other people from the Bible, whether it was Joseph and his brothers, Moses, or Paul. He took them out of their comfort zones and allowed them to become part of His grace upon others.
So are we that much different from the Pharisees in this story? I find it interesting that today’s society has done an exact opposite when it comes to God when or when not He should perform His miracles.
Today’s secular society feels we should keep God to ourselves. The Pharisee’s felt it was not appropriate to perform healings on the Sabbath, and especially not in the synagogue, God’s House. Many peoples in today’s society says that God should only be seen and heard with in the walls of the church.
However God, does not see it that way. His works cannot be placed in a building or time of day or week. Since we are to live our lives in a Christ like manner, we should always be on watch for the opportunity to share God’s love with everyone.
In the Gospel according to Luke, we know that the woman has been tormented and suffering for nearly the last eighteen years of her life. For this whole time she has never had a day of rest from this pain. So the question posed by Jesus has a double meaning. Not only is it symbolic that Jesus released this woman from her affliction on the Sabbath, but also that her freedom from this affliction is a personal Sabbath for her.
This woman is not alone in no rest from the afflictions of life. There are many right in our own communities who find themselves suffering from a variety of pain. Whether it be physical, mental, or spiritual these people can find themselves cut off with a lost sense of any hope of relief.
In Paul’s Letter to the Romans, he tells us that; Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey--whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
In other words when we give our lives over to God to control He brings about a Sabbath in our lives as well. Moreover, we may be called to reach out to family members or strangers within our community. Those who continue to be slaves, either because they may not be aware of what God can do for them or they do feel God would ever do that for them.
These are the ones who God calls us to seek out and allow His Grace to reach them. These are the ones who are looking for a Sabbath. These are the ones who have the chance to have the shackles of sin or pain taken away and be allowed to experience a life with Him.
Like the woman, their healing should not be kept from them because it is not a good time. We need to let the Lord lead us in allowing Grace to enter their lives. This healing will allow a Sabbath to take place in their lives, as well as maybe even bring a Sabbath into areas in your life you may not be aware of that are in need.
We need to understand that grace is given freely to everyone and there is nothing you can do to earn it and there is no bad time or inconvenient time to share it.
There is a story that I want to share with you that you may have already heard. My wife, Luann, is a fan of the Gaithers and she heard Gloria Gaither tell this story one night on one of their Homecoming videos and she told it to me. This story is told as though it were happening to you, so here it goes…
You were in church on Sunday morning and you heard the pastor announce that there was going to be a picnic that afternoon at the local park and everyone is invited. Everyone should feel free to bring a picnic lunch with them and enjoy the afternoon. You rush home after church, excited about the picnic and wanting to go, so you look in your fridge to see what you have for lunch. All you find in there is one piece of bologna that must be rather old as the ends are starting to harden and curl up a little. “Oh well” you say as you take that old piece of bologna from the fridge and grab the jar of mustard. You go to the pantry and take out the bread, only to find the only bread left is the stale end pieces. “Oh well” you think, “it will have to do”. You open the mustard and there is just enough left in the bottom of the jar so that it gets all over your knuckles as you dig the spoon in, trying to scrap up the last bit from the jar. You spread the mustard on the stale bread, put on your bologna, then add the last piece of stale bread, completing your sandwich. You find some parchment paper, wrap up your sad sandwich and off to the picnic you go. You get there and find a nice shaded picnic table and you sit down and unwrap your sandwich, which seems to have lost even more appeal now that you can see it in the sunlight. Then a woman and her family come over to you and say, “May we join you?” You cordially invite them to sit with you and the woman thanks you while she is opening her picnic basket. To your amazement, she takes out fried chicken, potato salad, baked beans, homemade rolls, sliced tomatoes, homemade pickles, apple pie and then puts a cooler of ice cold, fresh-sqeezed lemonade, with slices of lemon floating to the top, to wash it all down with. And there you sit, with your sandwich. You look at your pitiful sandwich and then look at all that wonderful food and you think, “wow, I wish I had what they have”. Suddenly, the woman says, “Won’t you join us?” You are surprised and say, “Oh no, I couldn’t! And besides, I brought a sandwich with me”. The woman smiles and says, “well, why don’t we put it all together? We have plenty of food here and well, we just love bologna sandwiches. So, let’s just put it together”. You sit there for just a moment and then decide that she is right, you should just put it all together. So you slide over closer to them and fill your plate.
So there you sat, eating like a king when you had arrived like a pauper. Suddenly, you think to yourself that this moment is how grace feels. You did not deserve this wonderful food you were eating, and you had done nothing to earn it. But it was still given to you because that woman wanted to share it with you.
You think about all the times in your life when God has said, “let’s put it all together” And you would say, “Oh no, I am not doing that. God is not getting my bologna sandwich!” But today, you realized that in essence, God does not need your bologna sandwich…….. you need His fried chicken.
We need His grace and once we receive it, we should always look for the opportunity to pass that grace on to others. We need to offer to “put it all together” sometimes and invite others into God’s Grace.
Just as Jesus proved when he healed the woman on the Sabbath, there is no right and wrong time to offer peace to others. We need to be about the business of our Lord each and every day.
My challenge for us all this week is that we extend God’s grace to others and do it even if that means that we have to step out of our comfort zones. Let’s “put it all together” for God this week. His love and his grace is sufficient for us all. Amen.
