In today's appointed scriptural passage from Saint Luke, we learn that Jesus is teaching in the synagogue. Jesus was a Rabbi, a teacher. His first ministry was healing, but we often forget that His second ministry was teaching. However, He was not just any ordinary teacher. Jesus was, is, and forever shall be, The Teacher.

As Orthodox Christians, we are familiar with Icons of Jesus "The Teacher" holding an open Gospel in One Hand, while blessing us with His Other Hand. Jesus’ teaching in the synagogue was a familiar scene, but in this passage from Saint Luke, it documented His last teaching in the synagogue, for the synagogues were closing to Jesus.

Nefariously, the powers and authorities of this world were plotting and waiting to pounce upon Him to discredit, ensnare, and destroy Him. For the corrupt power structure, Jesus was much more than a nuisance; He was a threat to their power, status, and privilege. The Healer of every disease and every infirmity could no longer be suffered. The Good Teacher and Eternal Word of God must, therefore, be discredited and silenced.

           During His last lesson, Jesus was teaching on the Sabbath, a day of rest to be remembered and honored. God rested on the Sabbath from His work of creation; furthermore, God had commanded that the Sabbath Day be honored and kept holy in remembrance of His gift of creation to man.

In fact, this was one of the Ten Commandments that no one--especially a good, pious Jew--must violate. However, during this lesson, Jesus noticed a woman who had been horribly infirmed and hideously disfigured for eighteen years. To contextualize the cruel and full extent of her malady, eighteen years today is the prime of one's adulthood from eighteen to thirty-six years of age.

Very few great athletes can perform at their peak level after the age of thirty-six, even in the modern age, but in the time of Jesus, with its much lower life expectancy, eighteen years was almost a lifetime. Therefore, this poor woman had not only suffered much, but she had also--and moreover--suffered long, and had consequently, she had already lost the best years of her life.

           So, when Jesus saw her, He had compassion upon her, and, immediately, He engaged and called her. As the Face of God, Jesus faced her as a person. He validated her authenticity and value. As the Most Compassionate One, He had compassion. As the Merciful God, He had mercy. As the Embodiment of Love, He loved her. As The Creator, He intimately felt for His creation that He had fashioned with His own Hands in His Image and Likeness.

As The Perfect Man, Who shared her human nature perfectly, He shared her pain. As the Author of the Law and the Commandments He had given to man, for man, He would not sit idly and callously by to suffer a daughter, in spirit to God His Father, and His sister, as the Son of God Who assumed and shared her nature, and do nothing now, when He could do everything now and for eternity. Now was the time, now was the present, now was the gift, the opportunity to do something, and Jesus did something, and He did it immediately, for when good can be done, it must be now, without delay or excuse.

           So, when The Incarnate Word of God--Who created all that exists and became a part of His creation to ordain, consecrate, guide it and save it--saw this woman, with His saving Word, He delivered her from her malady and healed her: "Woman, you are set free from your weakness." Then, like a Master Potter working creatively with His clay, The Creator and Saviour of All laid His Hands upon her, and refashioned her once again, straight, whole, healthy, and sound--a living wonder to behold in the midst of the assembly.

           Now, one would think this was a wondrous and glorious miracle, and everyone would rejoice for this woman and give glory to God, but unfortunately, you would be wrong; for the ruler of the synagogue was vexed that Jesus had the audacity and unmitigated gall to heal on the Sabbath Day and technically violate the Law. To the ruler, the Law was more important than the human being for whom God gave the Law to guide and protect. The ruler was self-deceived. The Law was made for man and woman. Man and woman were not made for the Law.

After all, Who preceded the Law and who received and was entrusted with the Law, and for whom was the Law made and given? The Ruler had it backwards. His being right and legally correct was more important than the relief of human suffering. He argued that Jesus should only have healed on the other six days, for those were the days that God worked. God rested on the Sabbath Day. By healing the woman, Jesus technically performed work, and, therefore, He was a violator of the Law, a dangerous transgressor. The Ruler thought he had finally caught Jesus.

           As God, as the Author of the Law, and the Creator of humanity, Jesus knew the Law inside out and His creation intimately, and so He cut to the quick, calling the Ruler, scribes, Pharisees, and lawyers present, "hypocrites." Jesus used the very weapon they schemed and employed to bludgeon Him with against them--namely, the Law they loved more than man, and, by corollary and extension, The Son of Man, Jesus the Messiah.

Jesus saliently reminded and educated them that the Law provides for exemptions in order to relieve the sufferings of the dumb beasts of the earth, such as their ox and ass, and yet, they would have the effrontery and dare to deny the Law to relieve the suffering of a fellow human being, a woman, and, moreover, a daughter of Abraham, a fellow pious Jew praying in the synagogue? Where was the mercy, where was the compassion, where was the reason, where was the understanding, where was the humanity in that? Forget about love; what about a little decency and a modicum of humanity?

           Satan had bound, crippled, and disfigured this woman for eighteen years, and they, the leaders falsely so-called, would not allow her to be freed and healed, to be healthy and happy? The Word of God, the Creator of All, the One True Judge, Jesus Christ, convicted them with His Law, which they sacrilegiously and fatally dared to usurp, misappropriate, and twist for their self-serving purposes of power and control at the expense of others and to the insult of God. Their thoughts betrayed them; their thoughts bore witness against them; their actions convicted them; and the people bore witness; Jesus, the Judge and Author of the Law, had Ruled as Ruler of All; and the ruler of the synagogue was overruled.

           Brothers and Sisters in Christ, sadly and tragically, sometimes people love systems, customs, technicalities, legalisms, and conventions more than they love God. Oftentimes, because they are not self-aware, they are not aware that they are being hurtful, judgmental--even cruel. Sometimes, there are those who utilize technicalities to obstruct, detract, deflect, undermine, and kill.

The history of humanity is littered with such people. Such people tried to destroy Jesus. Given our fallen human nature, it is lamentably true also that more trouble, consternation, and strife happen in church communities over legalistic, arcane details of procedure than any other issue.

Let us not forget that Saint Paul railed against these very things in letters to the very own communities that he himself had established, and you could sometimes feel him crying like a father unable to keep his children from hurting each other. Yes, it is very sad, but true, in this fallen world, when we are not vigilant and focused on our calling and vision as a People of God, we may fall prey to the devil who, appealing to our egos, tricks us into loving procedures and systems more than we love God and more than we love people.

           The devil will give an infinite number of reasons not to do something good, noble, worthy, and brave, or not to do it now. In an imperfect world, there is never a perfect time. What matters is that we do good, and we do it quickly. Jesus made it clear by His very action, that if you can heal and help now, no matter what the time, then you must do it now. God’s work for salvation never rests.

Jesus came for our salvation to offer us a New Beginning, a New Creation, but even when Jesus rested in the Tomb on the Sabbath Day, He was completing God's Plan for the Salvation of the world. God’s work for salvation never ends; it never rests. For us, as modern-day disciples of Christ, the Latin proverb should ring loud and true: "He gives twice, who gives quickly." There is no rest from doing good and making a positive difference in this world to the joy of the Angels in Heaven. Give now, give doubly, and thereby, live gloriously for eternity.

“O give thanks unto the Lord, for His Mercy endureth forever. Psalm 136:1”

By His Providential Grace, I gratefully remain, yours in Christ,

                                   

                                                                                                         †Father Jim