URC Daily Devotion 20 February 2025

St Luke 13: 10 – 17

Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, ‘Woman, you are set free from your ailment.’ When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.  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.’  But the Lord answered him and said, ‘You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water?  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?’  When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.

Reflection

I think there are two lessons in this reading. The first is Jesus’ care for the individual. He spots a woman living in pain and hardship. Did others in the synagogue notice the woman and try to help her – look for some small thing they could do? Jesus was always busy, as we see elsewhere in the Gospels, but he saw that woman as a person suffering, and cared about her.

Secondly, we see the reaction of the leader of the synagogue. Never mind the woman and her pain, rules are rules!

Today we seem to be surrounded by mountains of laws, rules and regulations. Of course, laws are necessary, to make sure society can work and doesn’t break down, to protect vulnerable people, and so on. Sometimes, however, the huge quantity of rules and regulations, written and unwritten, seems to risk bringing everything to a shuddering halt.

The rule about keeping the Sabbath day holy is one of the Ten Commandments. No work was to be done, it was to be “a day of rest to the Lord”. But then came the question: what is work? It is for curing the woman that Jesus is criticised by the leader of the synagogue. Was that work? Jesus makes clear it is the spirit of the law we need to see, not to excuse ourselves from doing the right thing because of it.

Sometimes, it seems, we can make sure we stick to the most detailed rule or we can care and act. Do we sometimes use rules as a way of avoiding what we know to be right? When we are faced with a mountain of regulations, is it easier just to do nothing?

As Christians we look to the Bible for guidance, but sometimes we take one sentence, forget the wider message, and make a “law” out of it. Perhaps it is more healthy to ask questions about our faith and why we do things.

Prayer

Father, we ask you for the perception to notice when there are people near to us who are suffering and to understand their suffering. Help us truly to do what we can to help. We also ask you for the courage not to hide behind rules or what is the “done thing” in order to avoid doing what we know to be right. Help us to act. Amen