Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

A lot of people would think religion is just about spoiling all our fun - you know, a long long list of “don’t”s: don’t sleep with your boyfriend.

don’t eat bacon.

don’t cheat.

don’t get drunk.

don’t lie.

I think that’s one of things people are afraid of when they are considering faith, one of the things that holds them back: that it would spoil their fun.

Certainly for me, that’s part of my story, part of what was keeping me back.

I didn’t want anyone else telling me what I could and couldn’t do.

People think religion is about spoiling all our fun - and perhaps they’re right.

But Jesus is all about setting people free.

We’re continuing our journey through Luke’s gospel, one of the four biographies of Jesus you’ll find in the Bible, taking it bit by bit.

Though it’s an ancient book, we’re finding each week that there are relevant things for us to learn for here and for now.

Today we’re going to watch how Jesus responds to this idea of a religion that’s all don’t’s.

So why not read with me - we’re in Luke chapter 13 - big number 13, starting at verse 10 - small 10.

That’s page ________ in these blue bibles we have here chapter 13 - big 13 - verse 10 - small 10, page _______.

And Selassi’s going to read for us today.

So what do we see here?

Jesus has the desire to set people free.

Notice with me that it’s Jesus who initiates things here.

There’s this woman who’s bent over and who just can’t straighten up, who hasn’t been able to for eighteen long years.

But there’s no indication that she approaches Jesus, or asks Jesus for help or anything like that.

She’s just there as he is teaching one day.

And then in v12 when Jesus saw her, he’s the one who takes the initiative.

Jesus wants to heal her, to deliver her from this disability that she’s lived with for so long.

But Jesus doesn’t just have the desire to set people free, he has the power to do it too.

He calls her forward and, in front of everyone he declares it’s over!

After 18 long years she’s suddenly healed.

“Woman, you are set free” he says - and as he touches her, she immediately straightens up.

With just a touch, effectively effortless, Jesus sets her free.

Jesus has the desire, and the power, to set people free - but he’s upset the authorities by doing it.

And if that sets your spidey-sense tingling, if this feels a bit like deja vu, you’re not wrong.

this isn’t the first time he’s upset the authorities through what he’s doing - particularly through what he’s doing on the Sabbath day, the Jewish people’s holy day.

He’s upset people with a healing on the Sabbath before, back in chapter six - and he’s going to do it again, just over the page in chapter 14.

And it’s no accident that we see this same issue surfacing again and again in Luke’s gospel.

It’s a signal that we should sit up and pay attention because something important is happening here.

If you’ve been with us over the past few weeks, perhaps you’ll remember Jesus speaking about signs, and the question of whether people are willing to see them or not.

About looking for fruit, and giving Israel one more chance to display it.

This healing on the Sabbath thing, this a sign.

A sign Jesus gives again - and again.

Will the people see it, grasp its significance, connect it to what it points to?

This all takes place in the synagogue which is just the place where Jewish people would meet to worship each Sabbath day.

Now the synagogue leader chips in - the head honcho, the religious authority.

Has he seen the sign?

Does he grasp what it points to?

No -

he’s indignant v14 tells us - seething; outraged at what Jesus has done in healing that woman.

Just think about that for a moment: this poor woman has been bent double for 18 years, unable to straighten up.

These were small communities back then and almost certainly everyone would have known everyone, known all their stories and every piece of gossip.

So this synagogue leader would almost certainly have known this woman, known her story, known the difficulty this ailment had caused her, known for just how long it had been that way.

And here he’s furious that she’s been healed?! Does he not care at all?

How can he be so hard-hearted?

Well, it’s worth knowing just how significant this Sabbath day was to the Jewish people.

It was one of three key marks of Jewish-ness: food laws; circumcision and Sabbath.

That was what it meant to be Jewish.

And in their context - because this is all taking place about two thousand years ago, when the Jewish people are under Roman rule, a conquered people - in that context their identity itself was under threat: would they just be absorbed into the Roman empire, another minor tribe that would ultimately end up blended into the world-spanning, all conquering Roman empire?

I think we can understand them trying to hold on to their identity, putting more and more emphasis on their key distinguishing marks as a people.

Kind of like how Scottish people are the most Scottish of all when they’re abroad - “base burn” and all that.

The Sabbath is a key part of being Jewish, this law from God that every seventh day was a special day, a day without work, a holy day.

And in that same spirit of emphasising their Jewishness, you can understand this desire to be super Sabbath keepers.

You know, like not just being a fan of some band, but a super-fan: knowing every lyric.

owning every album.

a wardrobe composed only of band tshirts.

walls totally covered in endless signed pictures.

So they started from God’s command not to do any work on the Sabbath and went a bit mad trying to make sure they did exactly that.

They drew up lists of different things which were work and weren’t work.

They classified work into 39 different forms.

They figured out exactly how much of each you could do.

They wanted to be precise, with absolutely no room for error.

So writing one letter, that was fine.

that wasn’t work.

But writing two?

Oh no.

That’s right out.

By that point it’s work.

Carrying straw for your animals?

That was fine so long as you only carried a one mouthful of straw - but you couldn’t carry two.

Rules about how far you could walk before it was work.

About how much you could lift.

About how full your cup could be.

Rules on rules on rules.

All with the intent to keep that Sabbath commandment as precisely as possible.

So with all these rules, rules that were so important to them for their identity, the guy in charge figured there was no way you could do something like healing on the Sabbath.

That was right out.

Six other days for that - come any other time and be healed - just not today.

And he thought this rule really was important enough to mean the woman could stay bent double for one more day - after all, it’d been eighteen years already.

So how does Jesus respond to this?

Is he going to applaud their precision, their desire to dot every i and cross every t?

To go above and beyond?

No.

Why not?

Because they have fundamentally misunderstood the Sabbath.

These authorities see the Sabbath as being about restriction, about not doing things.

But they’ve missed its heart.

The Ten Commandments are the fundamental laws that God gives to the Jewish nation as they first become a separate people, as they leave slavery in Egypt and make their way into the land God has promised them.

Ten basic rules for how they are to live - and one of those is the Sabbath command.

But one of the surprising things about the Ten Commandments is that they are recorded twice.

Once in the book of Exodus, as as part of the story of their escape from slavery, and once more in the book of Deuteronomy, the last of the five core books of Jewish law, almost as a reminder.

And in the two presentations of the ten commandments, the Sabbath command is framed differently.

In Exodus, where the ten commandments are first recorded, it’s rooted in God’s working and resting in creation, working for six days and then resting on the seventh.