שַׁבָּת שָׁלוֹם Shabbat Shalom
Today’s passage tells of an incident that Luke locates neither in date or town. How he does locate it is in a place of teaching and worship (a synagogue) and on the day set aside for teaching and worship (the Sabbath).
The Sabbath day was the seventh day in the ancient Israelite week. Like Sunday used to be for Americans, it was a day in which all but the most important work activity shut down, so that everyone could rest and attend worship. Normal work was suspended by law, so that no one could be forced by his employer or slave owner to miss the opportunity to worship God and meditate on his Word, the Scriptures. People gladly gave up their conveniences in order to enjoy the benefits of a special day to focus on God.
Even cooking meals was illegal on the Sabbath, for this meant work for the wives and mothers. Instead, two meals were prepared on the day before the Sabbath, and one was kept for the family’s use on the Sabbath.
There were no hospitals or fire departments, but ancient equivalents of “essential services” included the Temple itself, where the priests and Levites had to perform the rituals and make the animal sacrifices, with extra work over the weekday sacrifices. As was the case in earlier times in Europe and America, the ones who work hardest on Sundays were the pastors and priests in their churches, so in ancient Israel the “clergy” worked on the Sabbath, but others did not.
Also in some way analogous to modern essential services like E.R. wards in hospitals, Jewish law in Jesus’ time allowed for what appeared to be violations of the Sabbath law when it came to saving a human life and even an animal’s life. If a man, woman or animal fell into a pit, one was allowed (indeed required) to haul the person or animal out on the Sabbath in order to save life.
In the Ten Commandments, the very essence of God’s will for Israel, the command “Remember to keep the Sabbath day holy, for in six days God created the universe, but on the seventh [the Sabbath] he ceased his work”. Israel was commanded to mimic God himself in the pattern of six days of work followed by a climactic day of ceasing from work. Since God never tires, even from creating the Universe, the point of the word “rest” is not to recover one’s strength, although in the case of work animals (donkeys, horses, cattle)—who according to the Scripture were also to be given a day off on the Sabbath—the effect indeed was to allow them to recuperate. The real focus of the verb “rest” in the Sabbath laws was simply to break from the normal activities and focus on the most important activity of all, which was worshiping the Creator.
The Scriptures and the ancient Jewish writings from the time of Jesus agree that in theory all Jews regarded the Sabbath laws not as a burden, but as “a delight”. This was one of the ways in which they were proud to be different from the surrounding nations. It showed their humaneness and their wisdom, as well as their devotion to God.
This is the setting in which we must read of the many occasions—today’s passage being one of them—in which Jesus was criticized for healing on the Sabbath. But now let’s look at the details in Luke.
The suffering person was a woman. Her age is not given. Was she in her 20s, 30s, 40s, or even older? She was at least 20, for the text indicates she had this affliction for 18 years. She was bent over and could not stand erect. This did not completely prevent her from household activities in which she could sit and work, such as milling grain, kneading dough, etc. But it was very debilitating and probably very painful. And since Jewish prayer was uttered while standing and lifting the arms heavenward, not sitting with head bowed as we do in churches today, the woman was not able to worship God in the synagogue in the way everyone else was. It was not, however, technically a life-threatening condition, and in the strict interpretation of the Jewish laws of the day, Jesus should not have attempted to heal her on the Sabbath day. He and she could wait until the following day with no loss of life.
But it was the Sabbath day! All the worshipers were rejoicing in God’s gracious gifts! All around this suffering woman were grateful and happy people. Why should she wait for God to heal her? Was not the very essence of the Sabbath being violated by making her wait? Jesus knew that to be the case. So he not only gave her reason to rejoice on God’s special day, but he used the situation to teach both his critics and his disciples a vital truth about God and about what the special day meant.
The woman did not ask Jesus to heal her: he took the initiative and calling her to himself, laid his hands on her and made her to stand and walk erect again.
Did everyone witnessing this event rejoice and praise God? Luke doesn’t say what all the worshipers did. Instead, he focuses on the synagogue ruler, who “diplomatically” does not direct his criticism against Jesus but against people like the woman. They should not come for healing outside God’s “office hours”. Jesus was available Sunday through Friday noon, but not after sundown on Friday or before sundown on Saturday night (these were the boundaries of the Sabbath).
In a sense, this synagogue ruler was within his rights, according to a strict interpretation of the Jewish laws of that day. But he went beyond the necessary interpretation of the Scripture itself, and—most important—he missed the essential meaning of the Sabbath. In the Old Testament there were not only Sabbath days (the 7th day of the week), but Sabbath years. These were special times to give relief to weary and oppressed people and to the land itself, which was to remain fallow (unsown, unplowed). The Sabbath was the proper time for God’s mercy towards suffering and overworked beings. The Jubilee Year, which was also based on the Sabbath concept, was a time for debts to be canceled and slaves set free. The Sabbath was a symbol of liberation, healing and forgiveness. There was in fact no better time for setting a crippled person free from the infirmity!
The way in which this synagogue ruler—Luke leaves him anonymous to protect him from embarrassment—interpreted and applied the Jewish laws of his day reveal a complete misunderstanding of God and indeed a misrepresentation of God to the people he was supposed to be teaching about God. Jesus’ action and his words reveal the hypocrisy of this interpretation: it allowed a ranch owner to protect his investment by watering his cattle on the Sabbath, but forbade Jesus and his disciples from allowing a godly woman to worship and pray to God, standing erect, for the first time in 18 years!
How about us? What is our concept of the one day in seven? Do we put other concerns ahead of setting aside a day in our week to worship God and help those in need? Do we doubt God’s ability to take care of our financial needs, and therefore feel we have to work on the one day of the week God has set aside for us to worship and show him our gratitude? Is the Lord's Day a day in which we focus especially on helping those in need and bringing joy out of sadness? Or is it just a day in which we pamper ourselves by sleeping late, reading the newspaper, having brunch at the favorite restaurant and watching football games on TV all afternoon? Is this what you call "rest", either for yourself or for others God cares about?
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