Abundant and inconvenient grace

In the Luke 13:10-17, we see a woman who has suffered for eighteen years from a “spirit of infirmity”. The story begins by describing Jesus as teaching in a synagogue on the Sabbath, among teachers of the law, listening and interpreting scripture.

In walks this woman who appears to have both a physical ailment as well as a spiritual problem – what the text describes as a “spirit of infirmity” or a “spirit that crippled her”. She is impacted by this physical issue that she cannot even bring herself to look up to Jesus.

In that time and place, physical ills were believed to be caused by something deeper – sickness of the soul.  What happens next is significant.

Jesus sees her, and three things happen: First, He calls to her. He is the one who acknowledged her presence, not the other way around – a clear example of the grace Jesus is about to offer her.

Then he says to her “Woman, you are free of your ailment.” He speaks these words of assurance even before she reached him. By freeing her, Jesus was demonstrating His power over sickness.

Immediately, all eyes are on Jesus, and based on where she is sitting (on the opposite side of the room) and where He is seated (in the front, with the teachers), He has to walk through the entire crowd to reach her.

Finally, Jesus lays hands on her. Jesus is physically declaring His power over any physical or spiritual sickness. And what happens? The woman is made whole in body and in spirit, she stands up straight, and immediately she praises God.

Now, the synagogue leaders will have nothing to do with this heretical behavior of Jesus. In that time, the Ten Commandments determined certain behaviors and expectations of the Israelites on the Sabbath. However, as time went on, the commandments were turned into laws – hundreds of them. By Jesus’ time, there were many restrictions on what could and could not be done on the Sabbath, and healing was one of them. Therefore, the religious leaders are not praising God for the miracle that just happened; they are crying foul when Jesus isn’t following the laws of the Sabbath.

The leaders emphatically tell the crowds essentially that being cured on the Sabbath really isn’t an option. One must come on the other six days if they want to be healed.  In saying this, they have now completely marginalized a whole group of people. They speak to these people as if they are less important than the rules of the Sabbath. They have placed process above purpose.

There are many in our society who feel the same way. They feel that the rules of religion exclude them from participating and engaging in the life of the church. They feel that they are not able to be whole because of the rules of participation that are presented to them. They don’t feel the same grace that Jesus expresses in this story.

Then the Lord speaks against what is being said, calling the people in the Synagogue “hypocrites”. Then, the Lord compares the situation to that of providing water to an animal with curing a person on the Sabbath, placing greater value on the miracle which just took place than the day to day care of animals. Jesus uses their own logic against them in an attempt to make a point. His logic is that, if the law permitted loosing an animal for water on the Sabbath, shouldn’t it be permitted to loosen the bonds of this woman who has suffered for 18 years? 

Perhaps, however, it is not about this rule, but control of a marginalized portion of society. Jesus comes and breaks the rules –the rules of the Sabbath and the caste system, placing women before men, the sick before the healthy, the needs of the less in society before the rules of engagement in a church service. He demonstrates abundant grace to those in need, putting their needs above those in power.

Perhaps there are two crippled people in this story, the obvious being the woman who Jesus heals, but the other being the rulers of the synagogue, who was crippled by legalism. They couldn’t see beyond the rules of the church to see the need in front of them.

So, how does this apply to the church of today? The message is simple: we should put the needs of those around us before our need to control. Our need for rigidity and comfortableness shouldn’t supersede our God-given directive to address the needs of those around us. We shouldn’t put our systems before the people who we serve.  We who have experienced the grace of Jesus Christ in our lives need to reach out to a world in need and show that same grace to others.

This may require that we break some rules, think of things unconventionally, and reach out at times where it may be inconvenient for us, but I believe that is what God is calling us to – to show grace to a world in need. We need to resist the constant pressure to maintain the status quo. We need to reach out to those who feel alienated by the church so that we can minister to their needs.

The people of Phoenix are looking to the church for healing and wholeness. Unlike the woman in this story, they are actively pursuing and seeking the abundant grace given to us and through us in Christ Jesus. The needs of the poor and brokenhearted do not cease just because of our rules of what happens on a given day.

This Good News shouldn’t just be shared on Sundays, but on every day.

Jesus provided freedom and healing to the woman in our story today. However, he didn’t just provide healing; He provided freedom from the rules and customs that governed the church. Jesus is providing that same freedom to us – the freedom to love and to engage with the world around us, freeing the oppressed and those who are sick whether that is physical, spiritual, or emotional – the freedom to show abundant grace to those around us.

In my final paper for interreligious and intercultural encounters, I am writing about issues of poverty in our society, how we as a faith community interact and engage with people who struggle providing for their family, paying the bills, securing shelter, and putting food on the table. In order to help, we need to break out of our bondage of uniformity and create unconventional ways to identify the issue, address the immediate need, and work through our call as a church to resolve social justice issues in our society.

While I haven’t completed my thoughts on this difficult and broad subject, it causes me to ponder and ask – what am I doing as an individual and what are we as a church doing to offer abundant grace to those who suffer from generational poverty, addressing the issue with a touch of abundant grace as Jesus would?