Jesus heals a woman on the Sabbath Luke 13:10-17

Luke 13:10-17  Gospel reflections for Sunday 22nd August 2010

This appears to be another routine story from Jesus, but one which follows a number of growing trends in his ministry. He continues to ignore the customs and rules of the day through this "inappropriate" association with a woman (with a debilitating  and socially isolating illness) and further, he carries out this healing on the Sabbath! This is just another example of the fact that he came to bring division (v17) which we reflected on in last week's reading. It is no wonder that Jesus got himself into strife.

I suspect that this is really much more than just a healing/miracle, with a far deeper imagery attached to this story. Key words here? (v12) "you are free". This reminds me of the fact that the LCA SA District synod will convene this coming weekend under the theme of "Free: forgiven and forgiving". We are indeed free - free for all time. Just a thought ... maybe the order of the words in that logo as Dennis Obst has suggested, could be reorganized - perhaps forgiven should come first, noting that not only has that forgiveness set us free, but it was (past tense) totally free of any strings attached.

When Jesus enters the scene big things happen. With Jesus in our life big things happen. What then can we anticipate with Jesus at the centre of proceedings in our Lutheran Schools?

Nev