Our theme from yesterday, sabotaging an incorrect elevation of Torah to the point that living a life of love was restricted, continues in today’s passage about missional Jesus from Luke 13:10-17:
1. Missional Jesus will not be kept from doing good on the Sabbath even if it means violating sacred traditions about the Sabbath.
2. Missional Jesus points out the hypocrisy of those who adhere to Torah and to Sabbath but who do not perceive the intent of God. I would call this a “redemptive movement hermeneutic” if you remember our conversations about William Webb’s book.
3. Missional Jesus, on this issue, has the populace on his side against the religious leaders.
On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, 11 and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” 13 Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.
14 Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue ruler said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”
15 The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? 16 Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”
17 When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.