Pastor Ray preached the Gospel reading, Luke 13:10 - 17, with two focuses .One was on how the healing of the bent woman restored her back into the community How those around her may not have seen this woman because they could not see her face or, being crippled, people may have been uncomfortable resting their eyes on her so she became invisible.No matter how healthy we are, Pastor Ray included then included all the ways Jesus can heal whatever bends us, bent by others prejudice, bent by elitism, whatever it is that is keeping us bent over – crippling our souls – incapacitating our hearts – we can know that there is healing. The wondrous love of Jesus can and will lift and heal – without even being asked -without it being expected.
The other focus was Jesus healing on the Sabbath. Pastor Ray quoted Martin Luther King Jr's speech he gave on August 28, 1963 for the Washington for Jobs and Freedom march. Of course the first words that comes to mind are the paragraphs that begin in that speech with I have a dream:
I have a dream today ... I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low. The rough places will be made plain and the crooked ways will be made straight. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will he free one day.
This was not what Pastor Ray quoted however. Instead he referenced the parts of his speech which spoke about the fierce urgency of now.
“We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there "is" such a thing as being too late. This is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and positive action.”
This quote opened my heart and ears to this dimension of the acts and the words of Jesus. When I read about Sabbath day healings like Matthew 12:15, which occurred right after the healing of the man with the withered hand, another healing that happened on the Sabbath. “But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from thence: and great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all.” Here is an example of Jesus healing multitudes of people on the Sabbath. This healed multitude also symbolized Israel being healed in her earthly kingdom. Jesus Christ is not only healing Israel physically, but spiritually as well.
The reason I thought Jesus healed on the Sabbath was essentially that the Sabbath was made for man and complaining about healing on the Sabbath was only a using the law as an excuse not to do good.
But Jesus is a man whose words and actions are all about the fierce urgency of now.
I thought about a revelation that came three years ago with a Gospel from Luke 4:14-21, often summarized as Jesus Rejected In Nazareth. Luke opens with Jesus reading Isaiah 61 1 2 in the Nazareth synagogue from a scroll. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.
Then, rather than following the synagogue's expectations of providing traditional textual commentary (with all eyes are fastened upon him), Jesus simply starts by saying "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing".
In 2013 I heard Isaiah's proclamation as a future prophecy. Jesus fulfilled his words on that day in Nazareth, being the incarnate son of God. Jesus acknowledged that unique authority and that "scripture fulfilled" was an end point. Big and final win. The others in the synagogue were angry because they did not recognize his divinity.
Later Jesus dies on the cross, comes back, and ascends into heaven each event marking other historical end points in the past. In the present we either wait for the overdue kingdom of God, work to bring it out about, or anticipate the afterlife where this kingdom comes to pass.
On that Sunday three years ago, however, I heard today loud and clear. This was not Jesus claiming superior authority to Isaiah's in my ears. This scripture did not need Jesus God incarnate to be fulfilled. Isaiah's words, read by Jesus, challenged common sense and left me, for one, as aghast as those in the Nazarene synagogue. Because of that word today and knowing this is not about Jesus alone.
Is it just Jesus who is anointed to bring good news to the poor and to proclaim the release of captives? Isn't this a scripture to stir our blood now, as the body of Christ. Isn't now the time to proclaim the recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor?
But wait. Stop. There is still social inequity, captives, blindness and oppression. Does the Lord really favor this year? This year? Isn't everything worse than before? Come on, what we all hope for hasn't happened yet, right?
Jesus continues to speak to the synagogue in Luke 4:24 - 27. His words confront how conditions are placed on spreading the good news and answers the questions above. How should a good Christian respond? Jesus, yes, I want to spread the gospel. No problem but to spread it truthfully, well, let me get my list. Yes, first all widows need to be fed, and all lepers need to be healed and, and, and, and...
When my checklist is complete then I'll gladly proclaim the good news and see this as the year of the Lord's favor. Spreading the good news should naturally wait until there is progress made. Otherwise there is no good news.Yet that response doesn't address the today in "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." Well, surely then that can't be right. Maybe a time limit was reached and now that scripture, once again, needs to be fulfilled? How could Isaiah write this and Jesus declare the scripture is fulfilled when nothing addressed in this scripture has changed at all?
As Pastor Ray quoted MLK's speech I saw that Jesus speaking with the fierce urgency of now. He is speaking to us as the body of Christ. Jesus spoke to us of this beginning with his first words and throughout his ministry. Yes, this is why Jesus heals on the Sabbath, because the Sabbath is always today and no healing should be delayed.
Amen.
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