23rd Week in Ord. Time, Monday – 7th September 2020 — Gospel: Lk 6,6-11
Healing without Sabbath violation
Jesus always seeks wholeness and healing. His enemies are seeking his downfall. In reading Jesus’ conflicts with the Pharisees, it is easy to dismiss the Pharisees as legalistic and self-righteous, and to situate ourselves squarely on the side of Jesus. This is especially easy to do with regard to conflicts about Sabbath rest. In the case of meeting a man with a withered hand in the synagogue, Jesus knows that the Pharisees are looking for another reason to accuse him. The answer to Jesus’ question is obvious. Of course, it is lawful to do good and to save life. The rabbis agreed that one must act to save life on the Sabbath, even if it meant breaking a commandment. Some may have argued that this man’s malady was not life-threatening, so the healing could have been done on another day. In Jesus’ view there is no reason for the man to suffer one day longer.
In this healing story, however, Jesus does not perform any action other than speaking. On the Sabbath day speaking was not prohibited and especially in the synagogue. Therefore, he only asks the man to come forward and then asks him to stretch out his hand. Jesus heals the man without ever laying a finger on him. This makes it even more absurd for the Pharisees to say that Jesus is breaking the Sabbath. Then why are they reacting to Jesus? Their furious reaction seems to be a sign of their fear rather than their legitimate concern for the law. The Pharisees saw him as someone who could undermine their whole responsibility of sanctifying the people of God. They accused Jesus of violating the boundary between God and humans. He was a threat to all that the Pharisees held sacred. And most of all Jesus was a crowd puller, turning away the crowd to himself that was blindly following them.
