Set free on the Sabbath (Luke 13:10-17)

            Other healings Jesus performs on the Sabbath are described in Luke 6:9 and14:5. Nonetheless, it would be hard to piece together a theology of Sabbath from only the events in Luke. But we can observe that Jesus anchors his understanding of Sabbath in the needs of people. Human needs come before keeping the Sabbath, even though keeping the Sabbath is one of the Ten Commandments. Yet by meeting human needs on the Sabbath, the commandment is fulfilled, not abolished. The healing of the crippled woman on the Sabbath provides a particularly rich example of this. “There are six days on which work ought to be done; ” the indignant synagogue ruler chides the crowd, “Come on those days and be cured and not on the sabbath day” (Luke 13:14). Jesus’ reply begins with the law. If people water their animals on the Sabbath, as was lawful, “ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free from what this bondage on the Sabbath day?” (Luke 13:16).

            Additional discussions of the Sabbath — in some cases with a differing perspective — can be found under Mark 1:21-45 and Mark 2:23-3:6 in “Mark and Work,” and in Key Topic #18, “Rest and Work”at www.theologyofwork.org.