In this story, Jesus sets up a confrontation. Not with people who think the opposite. But people just like him.
For Sunday
Proper 16C
Collect
Grant, O merciful God, that your Church, being gathered together in unity by your Holy Spirit, may show forth your power among all peoples, to the glory of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
Reading
From Luke 13:10-17
“And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?”
Reflection
Essentially, Jesus is stripping the debate down to get at its fundamental purpose. What is the Sabbath for?
This, of course, doesn’t do much to actually change the debate. It just strips it of some of its obscuring rhetoric. Because it will still come down to two differing priorities: following God’s command literally or following God’s command intentionally.
Literal and intentional aren’t opposites. Or mutually exclusive.
This is something I’ve observed among almost every debate I’ve ever encountered: people almost never have opposite positions. We aren’t running around with 50% of the population arguing the sky is orange.
Even our most divisive convictions are founded, not on opposite beliefs, but different priorities, which put us moving in different directions.
We’re moving in different directions!
So when someone argues that we should have a more “high church” liturgy, with formal prayers, incense, sanctus bells, and everything gets chanted, they do so because tradition inspires them. And it has a way of connecting and uniting us.
And when someone argues that we should practice a “low church” liturgy, with spontaneous prayers, hymns that are easy to sing, and a less tradition-focused approach, they do so because they want fewer barriers to evangelism.
In one sense, we look at these approaches to church as opposites. But underneath are nearly identical values. What separates them is priority. Which yields different paths.
Identical Values
When Jesus heals someone in a synagogue on the Sabbath, he knows the leaders will see this as confrontational. But he also isn’t doing it to be contrarian jerk. He’s trying to teach—show the people what a priority of new life in compassion and love looks like.
It looks like healing a woman who has been afflicted for 18 years! And it also looks like putting her health and safety above tradition. These are most obvious.
It is also about shifting priority.
From legalism to compassion. From certainty in what we think the Law says to what the Law is clearly about.
Just as most parents find a time when “because I said so” stops being effective. Some choose to stick with it; to diminishing returns…and far more conflict. Other parents adjust how they use their priority to be heard.
What are we even doing if we aren’t trying to learn how to be more like Jesus and the God of love?