Loved enough to be set free?

     So for Sunday’s texts we have a beautiful story of Jesus healing on the Sabbath from Luke 13.  The Sabbath, according to Jewish law (Exodus20.9) is a day for resting on which no work is to be done.  Yet here is Jesus, in the synagogue no less, healing a woman who had been crippled 18 years, which the leaders of the synagogue considered work.  And so the leader (not addressing Jesus directly, but speaking to the crowds) indignantly stand up and tries to correct Jesus’ healing, pointing out that it is work and that really ought not be done on the Sabbath.

     And in typical Jesus fashion, he takes the words of the leader and turns them around on him, pointing out that even they unbind their oxen and donkeys on the Sabbath, making a clear connection from this unbinding of animals and the woman’s figurative bondage to her ailment for 18 years.  Now here is where the Greek comes in handy – and we see something unnoticeable in the English.  The word for ‘untie’ in verse 15 is the same word for ‘be set free’ in verse 16.  The Greek word is actually ‘loose’ and is used only here and two other places in the New Testament in this figurative manner of ‘be set free,’ a literary tool the author chose to force us to see the connection between the two examples.

     Now, what is the point of this connection?  I believe it is to emphasize that Christ came to set free – period.  The Sabbath, the day set aside for praising God (which the woman does in verse 13) is always and only about being set free: the act of God for us, to us, and with us.  If the being set free involves a little work on the Sabbath, it is only for the sake of the gospel and bringing about God’s kingdom.

     Unfortunately we won’t get to hear the verses that follow our text for Sunday, as the lectionary skips ahead next week to chapter 14.  However, right after our story ends Jesus goes on to tell about the kingdom of God.  This story, along with the two parables in 13.18-21, gets at the heart of God’s kingdom, which is freedom from bondage.

     As I look back on my own life and my own experiences of being set free, more often than not it is in worship – maybe not on the Sabbath – but in a worship setting, surrounded by other people, singing songs, hearing Scripture, and receiving Christ’s promise of freedom in Word, water, bread, and wine.  One of the most clear moments I have of being set free was at a women's retreat in college.  I have written about the experience before, but it has been so impactful I will write about it again.   It was just one overnight, and there were about 8 of us ladies gathered.  While I can't remember the theme exactly, I remember that it centered around baptism.  We talked, we read the Bible, we worshiped, we remembered what God had done for us.  And it was in those 18 or so hours that God's promises freed me from the huge weight I had been carrying around.

     You see, I was a hopeless people-pleaser, always saying what I thought you wanted to hear but never sharing my own thoughts.  This was true about religion, politics, food, sports, school; you name it and I could tell you what everyone else in the planet thought - except me.  Meeting God again in that time of rest and worship, I was reminded that God created me - and my thoughts - and that they were good.  And that I didn't need the approval of others by watering down who I was so they liked me better.  Saying this now sounds silly - because I have been freed from those bonds and can't believe I let them contain me for so long.  (Close to the 18 years the woman in our gospel text experienced.)

     So I ponder the mystery of God’s love today.  That God would meet me, free me, and then allow me to tell it to others is the greatest gift I can give the world.  How has God’s love set you free?