Am
I A Thriving Christian or Surviving Christian?
10
Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11 And behold,
there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was
bent over and could not fully straighten herself.
14
But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the
Sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days in which work ought to be
done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.”
Luke
13:10-17
We
have all heard the statement, “Let go and let God.” Have you ever thought about
where it originated? The story goes something like this: A college student back
in the nineteenth century took six postcards and wrote a large letter on each
one of the postcards: L–E–T-G–O–D. He then put them on the mantelpiece in his
room where he was living at school. One evening a draft blew through the window
and the “D” blew away. As he picked it up, what he saw seemed to be a message
from God, the secret of the Christian life. Only by letting go can you let God
carry out His will in your life.
Life
is good. Life is hard. Sometimes life is more good than hard. Sometimes life is
more hard than good. Many of us live our lives in a context where we experience
some degree of both. There are people, however, who face such overwhelming
hardships and difficulties in life that their trials overshadow what goodness
there is. This inequity and imbalance is due to two realities. One, it’s due to
the randomness of life, which we cannot do much about. We have no control over
many of the circumstances that affect our lives. That’s one factor. The second
reason is due to the injustice and evil in the world, which we can do something
about if we are willing.
In
the read portion we find a woman who has been crippled for eighteen years and
unable to stand up straight. The text says she was bound by a disabling spirit
or Satan. This disabling spirit can be taken as a symbol for the oppressive
system.
In
our story, the misuse of religion is symbolized in the leader of the synagogue.
His concern is not for the crippled woman. Nor does he particularly care that
Jesus has healed her and restored her sense of personhood and dignity as a true
daughter of Abraham and a daughter of God. His concern is that Jesus did this
on the Sabbath.
For
these religious gatekeepers, religion, had become a way to control who they
would let in and who they wanted to keep out. They cared very little it seems
about the plight of the oppressed and destitute. What they cared about was
their own position and power and authority to set the rules and maintain the
status quo.
Jesus
exposes the hypocrisy of this kind of religion. He points out how the synagogue
leader and his fellow gatekeepers make exceptions to their Sabbath rules to
lift their own ox or donkey out of a pit, but will not lift a hand to lift this
crippled woman out of the pit she had been living in for eighteen years.
Jesus
says, healthy religion can be the most transforming force in the world. That’s
what he came for. The best of our tradition and scriptures teaches us that
Jesus longed for a world marked by grace and hope, love and mercy, peace and
justice, where all people have the capacity to thrive, not just survive.
This
lent can we
a.
Look into our community to find those who are oppressed by our systems?
b.
Ask for the will and courage and heart to translate that longing of the
oppressed into the actual practice and pursuit of mercy and justice?
*This
homily by me has been published in Darshan (magazine of the Delhi Diocese)
