Luke
13:10-17
“But the leader
of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the Sabbath,
kept saying to the crowd, ‘There are six days on which work ought to be
done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the Sabbath
day.’”
(Luke
13:14)
Need seldom
seeks convenience. When one is broken,
clock and calendar mean little.
For eighteen
years her view had been limited. A
crippled back made it impossible to stand up straight. She could see no further than her shuffling
feet…never the horizon before her, only the narrow parameters of a descending
perspective. Distracted by her need,
Jesus stopped teaching and asked her to come to him. Bent as she was, she most
likely couldn’t see his face, but she heard his words…“Woman, you are set free
from your ailment.” His gentle touch
made straight what had been hopelessly bowed, and her reaction was immediate.
Luke says she stood up straight and began praising God.
Incensed by
compassion’s impropriety, with shouts of praise perhaps still ringing in his
ears, the leader of the synagogue seized the moment to instruct the crowd about
the proper time and place for healing.
He tried to tell them there were six, more appropriate days for such
work. “Come on those days,” he said, “and be cured…” Jesus confronted his hypocrisy, proclaiming
freedom from bondage the greater gift of faith than the
restrictions of the law.
Need seldom
seeks convenience. Neither, it would
seem, does compassion.
Prayer: May your
compassion flow through me today, Lord, bringing freedom where there is bondage.
Amen.
Jim
Abernathy
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