(Please read the Scripture passage before reading the homily.)
A woman came. It was a Sabbath. She was mightily crippled. She could not stand up straight.
Jesus came. It was a Sabbath. He was mighty in word and deed. He spoke to her. He said, “Woman , you are freed of your infirmity.” He touched her; she received healing and began to praise God.
The synagogue official was there. He had come for the Sabbath. He spoke his indignation at such a blatant disregard for the holiness of a Sabbath. He felt strongly that healing was too much like work, which should not be done on the Sabbath.
On the other hand, both then and now, we feed and water our animals, pets and otherwise, on our Sabbaths without thinking anything wrong with it.
Again, if we are not allowed to do good on the Sabbath, are we, therefore, allowed to do evil? How does a person do nothing on a Sabbath?
The woman, if one should look past her disability, was no ordinary women: she was a daughter of Abraham. This, for Jesus, was a sacred designation. Luke has Jesus refer to two people as children of Abraham. This woman is a daughter of Abraham, and Zacchaeus is a son of Abraham. Both were misfits, one crooked in body, the other crooked in spirit; both, however, welcomed by Jesus.
The purpose of the Sabbath rest was to enable people to enjoy freedom, freedom from slavery, freedom from day-in, day-out work with no breaks, freedom to be human. Jesus enabled this woman to have Sabbath by giving her freedom from her affliction and by recognizing her heritage.
We also come to Sabbath. We also see many people with their needs. How do we respond to enable these others to have the freedoms we have? We come from a very privileged class of people. Many people long to have what we take for granted and have it not. Whether it is freedom of movement, freedom from acts of discrimination, freedom poverty, freedom from disease, or freedom from all other restrictions that prevent others from achieving their full potential: how do we respond as Jesus did to the woman? Every day is for us a Sabbath for us to restore freedom and humanness to others.