This lesson invites all of us who seek to follow Jesus today to ponder the ways in which our own rules, customs, and habits of what is right and proper have in fact become "Bad News" for the poor, the blind, and the oppressed - and to break those bonds so that we might ourselves be proclaimers of Good News of release, recovery, and freedom.
Year C
Pentecost 14
August 25, 2013
Sunday Between August 21 and August 27 Inclusive
Proper 16, Ordinary Time 21
Click here to read the complete Holy Textures background commentary on Luke 13:10-17.
Image acknowledgement: Website is: GoTell Communications. Artist is Cortney L. Haley.
Click here, Luke 13:10-17, for an easy to print or email Adobe PDF version.
Sermon by the Rev. Dr. George Hermanson, "to be added."
This is the second of 3 healings on the Sabbath that only Luke reports:
- Luke 6:6-11. Man with a withered hand.
- Luke 13:10-17. Bent over woman.
- Luke 14:1-6. Man with dropsy (swollen legs).
These stories may have caught Luke's attention and not Matthew, Mark, or John because Luke himself is a physician. Or it may also be because, it is Luke alone who presents Jesus proclaiming a Year of Jubilee - a year-long Sabbath, Luke 4:18:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release
to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.
Questions about proper Sabbath observance will be a key source of conflict between Jesus and the religious authorities because Sabbath observance is the heart of Jewish practice - established by God in the very fabric of Creation; commanded directly by God to Moses in the Ten Commandments.
New teachings about the Sabbath could only come from God - or one authorized directly by God.
Nothing is more challenging to any religious community than changes to its Sabbath!
...
Click here to read the complete Holy Textures background commentary on Luke 13:10-17.
* Link to Amazon.com Bibliography for Bruce J. Malina and Richard Rohrbaugh, Social Science Commentary on ... The Synoptic Gospels; The Gospel of John; The Book of Acts; The Letters of Paul; The Book of Revelation; and others.
+ Link to Amazon.com Bibliography for Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler, Jewish Annotated New Testament, The Bible With and Without Jesus, Short Stories by Jesus, Entering the Passion of Jesus, and others.
Permission is granted for non-profit use of these materials. Acknowledgement of source is not required in oral presentations. Otherwise please note as, "David Ewart, www.holytextures.com."
Comments