Luke 13:10-17 on August 24th, 2025
Above is audio of the sermon pulled from the video and amplified.
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Growing up and even present day at our house, the rule remains no dessert until you finish your meal, especially your vegetables. That's just the way things are. Now, I don't know how many of you have been to a child's birthday party lately, but cake and ice cream are consumed at massive levels even though Mary Akira has been touched. Because really, what parent is going to say, no, you can't have birthday cake at this party because you can't finish your green beans. And that's because love, welcome, and inclusion matter more than the rules. And that's what we get from our story from Luke today. We meet a woman who has been crippled, bent over for 18 years. And think of how hard that was. Daily life can't look someone in the eyes easily, unable to reach things on the top shelf. Okay, slight joke, but you get the point. This was a hard burden, a life full of daily toil. And Jesus sees her even though she doesn't make any attempt to be seen. He speaks to her and he sets her free from her ailment. Healing is essential to Jesus' mission and it happens here again, right now, no delay. And the entire crowd rejoices. Yay! This healing is amazing, astonishing, astounding, it's a miracle. But Luke doesn't linger there. Instead the author appears to be far more concerned with the controversy surrounding it. While the crowd rejoices, not everyone sees it that way, a synagogue leader clears his throat. And rules are rules. This is the wrong day for joy, after all. And the rule he refers to is no healing on the Sabbath. There are other days on which to be healed, a vast majority of them even. Why don't you follow the rules, Jesus? Now the synagogue leader is not trying to be mean. Instead he is simply trying to protect the good, godly order. Stay true to why God gave the commandments and keep the Sabbath holy and important. But Jesus healed anyway. And he does not seem remorseful about it one little bit. And in fact, this text is the fourth of five healings to take place on the Sabbath. You think Jesus is establishing a pattern here? So instead of obliging to the leader, he confronts the rules with compassion and gospel good news. Because rules, even religious ones, can become a problem when they prevent mercy. If the rules stop us from doing mercy, then we've probably gotten them wrong. A quick aside. That's essentially what Martin Luther's point was in his explanation of the Ten Commandments and that whole law versus gospel thing. The law exists to serve life, not withhold it. And I'm sure that we can think of plenty of examples in churches and in our world where people choose the rules over mercy. The law over life commands to crease stipulations over grace, empathy, and welcome. Often ignoring not only what God intends, but also Jesus's example. But maybe we get berries coming from. Rules help us feel safe. They help us establish order and they make it seem like everything is under control. But Jesus in the face of the rules this leader brings up presents a deeper question. What is the Sabbath really for? The letter of the law says, don't do work on the Sabbath. As the third commandment tells us, remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. The example is God resting on the seventh day of creation. No work on that day. And when the Ten Commandments are recounted after the Israelites are freed from slavery in Egypt, the Sabbath is framed in terms of freedom to rest. Slaves don't get to rest. Free people do. So Sabbath rest is a gift. Sabbath rest is a gift that God gives. It's not a burden. It's not a rule to keep or to break. It is a gift. It's a gift because we need freedom from endless work. And in the Sabbath, God gives us a gift. And in turn, Jesus gives this woman a gift. As we established earlier, she could not truly rest under her affliction. Everything was a struggle. So Jesus gives her true Sabbath, true rest, true healing and comfort. And the thing is, he didn't wait for a more appropriate time. God's kingdom doesn't wait for our sense of convention or polite timing. Grace doesn't hold back because of our well-intended theological convictions. God's healing and life show up now. What is to do otherwise is to resist the kingdom that Jesus brings, which brings us to the heart of this passage. And the good news for that woman, for the crowd, for you and for me. Sabbath is not just a rule about a day on the calendar. Sabbath is a gift. A gift of rest and a gift that we see in the person of Jesus Christ. And Jesus, the gift of God's rest, God's mercy, God's healing, shows up in flesh and blood. Jesus sees those who feel forgotten, offering deep Sabbath rest for weary hearts. Mercy that softens guilt and shame, healing that renews both body and spirit. Jesus frees. Not only from physical burdens, but from the weight of sin, exclusion, life, suppression, giving a Sabbath rest that resonates with belonging and wholeness. Jesus calls touches comes near, bringing God's mercy into the here and now, embodying that healing love that makes broken lives whole and showing us that true rest, mercy and freedom are never breaking the rules. Jesus comes near in personal embodied grace right now. The waters of baptism, God doesn't wait until we're ready. God claims us now. We are named children of God now and forever. At the table, God doesn't wait until we've kept all the rules. God feeds us now. We are giving grace, freedom and restoration for every time and every place. So now we as a church, we are free to go and do the same. We're in a place that hears God's intentions for the world and follows Jesus's example. We don't wait. We share love and grace now. We use Lutherans. We still like good order for sure, but welcome and healing and mercy. Those are the lenses which we see others, not some sort of rulebook. Here a community where the unseen are seen, the bound are freed and those on the margins are brought into the mix. Christ is Lord of the Sabbath, the Lord of mercy, the Lord of life. And Jesus sees you. He frees you. He calls you beloved. So that means we don't have to wait for the right set of rules to receive God's mercy. He said it's like cake at a birthday party. It is sliced up on a plate, plastic fork ready. And if it's like most parties with cake, there's plenty of it. So eat up. Live as people of mercy now, standing tall in God's grace, rejoicing with that woman and the crowds of the synagogue and sharing with the world with God has first given us. A love without delay.