If you’d rather watch than read, here’s the you tube link: https://youtu.be/LJd_A6K5vNg

Luke 13:10-17  If you don’t have a Bible handy, you can read it here: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2013%3A10-17&version=NIV

So Jesus is teaching at a synagogue, a religious community centre, on the Sabbath day which is the last day of the week.  Every Sabbath the Jews were to rest and focus on God.  They weren’t to be selling or labouring.  It wasn’t a day to gain wealth, it was a day to rejuvenate physically and spiritually.  We’ve bumped into this concept of Sabbath before.  The law said to keep the Sabbath day holy and do no work, but how that played out was unclear, so people developed laws to clarify God’s laws.  Just a note.  If you find yourself in a place where you are explaining how to follow a law God gave us, be careful.  You do not want to claim God said something that he didn’t say.  He doesn’t like it when people use his name to control others.

Jesus was well known by now and people had heard of all the miracles he performed.  Understandably, the sick and suffering found their way to him wherever he was.  It was so entirely in keeping with his kind heart and generous character to heal and help whenever the opportunity presented itself.  So he helped this poor woman and everyone, especially the woman, praised and worshipped God.  But the synagogue ruler was not impressed.  To his mind, the Sabbath was for quiet study, for rest, for focusing on God.  It was not for getting healed.  That was too much like work.  But when he rebuked the people, Jesus was having none of it.

What is it about the synagogue leader’s response that got Jesus so worked up?  He was trying to enforce the law, wasn’t he?  Isn’t that honourable?  

Well, clearly not.  I think Jesus’ response helps us see the heart of God.  God’s laws were provided as a reflection of his character.  God loves mercy.  He loves kindness and healing.  If we interpret God’s law in a way that contradicts his character, we have interpreted it incorrectly.  Jesus is furious with the synagogue ruler because he is misrepresenting the heart of God. He calls him a hypocrite which isn’t a light-hearted jab. The people who wrote the rules about how to obey God’s rules had made allowances for watering farm animals and rescuing them if they were harmed or in danger on a Sabbath, but they had not accounted for helping their fellow humans in the same way.  Jesus’ response was a rebuke to anyone who could imagine that God’s laws were arbitrary rules that he imposed on his creation rather than gracious guidelines for living life to the fullest extent possible.  Rescuing a woman who had suffered from living in a tortured body for eighteen years was precisely in line with the heart of God.  The Sabbath was for honouring God.  What possible better way could there be to spend a Sabbath?