The Sabbath is a Gift
The Sabbath is a Gift Luke 13:10-17
Have you ever identified stress points in your life? What are those symptoms that start to appear when we are operating on overload? We’re in the grocery store and you duck behind the next counter or zip to the next isle because you don’t feel like talking with a person you recognize? You avoid eye contact. You are curt in a conversation with someone you love. You sense a edge of cynicism in your thoughts. Your body language exposes your hidden anxiety? Sooner or later something has to give to regain perspective.
Today’s gospel lesson is about the Gift of the Sabbath in our lives. On this day God urges us to look beyond our own interests. This is God’s day. It is God’s gift to us.
As we’ve worked through the gospel of Luke in our lectionary texts—we’ve found that Luke
has a keen eye for the outcasts of society. He also clearly focuses upon the lot of women in 1st century Palestine. Luke had a compassion for those whom society pushed aside and that compassion came to him through the eyes of Jesus. This specific story is unique to Luke.
Picture with me this poor woman. She perhaps was so bent over that she was constantly looking at the ground–not even able to meet people eye to eye. In addition to her physical burden—she carried the weight of societal judgment. In her day—physical infirmity was often equated with sin. Even if she couldn’t see the eyes of those looking at her she probably felt their stare. This was coupled with the fact that she was a woman in 1st century Palestine. This nameless woman’s identity was bound by her gender and infirmity. It was a heavy heavy load. She had carried it for eighteen years and he was duly humbled by her condition.


