Our story begins with Jesus actively involved in Jewish religious life: “Now Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath.” (Luke 13:10)

True Religion and Toxic Religion

Although some suggest that Jesus was opposed to organized religion, this text proves that Jesus was an active participant in the religious rhythms of Jewish life. He faithfully participated in Hebrew worship, rituals, traditions, and festivals. It is naïve to suggest that Jesus was anti-religion. Religion bears Jesus’ personal endorsement. It is a good thing.

But like all good things, it can be corrupted. Though religion can be liberating, it can also be oppressive. Religion can bring health and wholeness, but tragically, it can also be toxic and destructive.

Perhaps the best way to distinguish between true religion and toxic religion is by evaluating the fruit of both paths: True religion creates compassionate, loving, life-filled people. Toxic religion creates petty, demanding, legalistic people. Jesus is for the former, and he is outraged by the latter!

In the story before us, we encounter a battle between true religion and toxic religion.

Healing the Crippled Woman

In the midst of teaching, Jesus’ noticed a small crippled woman who “was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight” (11). It says much about Jesus’ character that he noticed her – especially in his cultural climate. The crippled woman lived on the margins of Jewish society. She was an outsider on two counts: (1) she was a woman and (2) she was afflicted. Women were generally not counted in synagogue worship; only men counted for a quorum in formal service. Her suffering of eighteen years by an evil spirit branded her as unclean and untouchable.[1]

Apparently, the crippled woman had come to worship and not for healing. Craddock notes that she “does not approach Jesus, makes no request of him, and nothing is said of her faith.”[2] It is Jesus that notices her and, out of compassion, takes the initiative to touch and heal her.

The result: “When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God” (13). This is a beautiful account of restoration. It results in unhindered grateful praise to God – the goal of all religious service.

If the account simply ended here, it would simply be another story of healing. But the main point of this story is not in the cure, but in the resistance the cure provokes. Though the woman rejoices, the leader of the synagogue does not. He does not see liberation; he sees only an offense against the Sabbath. According to him, Jesus has done the wrong thing in the wrong place and at the wrong time!

Religious Professional: “Wrong Time!”

While the healed woman rejoices, the religious leader is furious. At this point, the crowd does not appear to know how to respond. An unspoken power struggle begins as the ruler addresses – not Jesus – but the crowd: “the leader does not confront Jesus himself with his irritation but instead harangues the crowd, a classic ploy of deflected anger.”[3]

His argument: “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the Sabbath day” (15).[4] He was untouched by the glorious miracle that had just taken place. He perceives that Jesus’ work of healing is forbidden on the Sabbath. His concern for rules overshadows his compassion for the suffering. His religion was toxic – petty, demanding, oppressive – rather than true, liberating, and compassionate.

The Sabbath command celebrated the exclusive relationship between Israel and God (Exodus 31:12-17). One can hardly overestimate its importance in ancient Jewish culture. “As a kind of national banner, the breach of the Sabbath would have been similar to desecration of the flag in modern times; and it triggered similar reactions.”[5]

The Sabbath law contains both a positive and negative command. Positively, Israel was to “remember the Sabbath to keep it holy.” Negatively, they were to refrain from work. It is the negative command that caused problems. What exactly were they to refrain from? Larry Chouinard describes the dilemma. The Hebrew Scriptures

offered only minimal restrictions: no fire in your dwellings on the Sabbath (Exod 35:3); no plowing or harvesting (Exod 34:21); do not carry a load on the Sabbath (Jer 17:21-22); and excessive travel was prohibited (Isa 58:13; cf. Acts 1:12>). However, scribal concerns for exact compliance to God’s Law, felt compelled to greatly expand explicit legislation by further defining and categorizing precisely what kind of activities constituted “work.” Eventually, their discussions were collected in the Mishna, resulting in thirty-nine distinct categories, with sub-groupings, of activities prohibited on the Sabbath.[6]

The Hebrew Scriptures provided few explicit commands concerning what work was forbidden on the Sabbath. This absence fueled the seemingly endless addition of complex guidelines. Most of these guidelines possessed no scriptural basis. Keeping the Sabbath, which was intended to promote rest, was reduced to another tedious, difficult, demanding chore – just another religious burden to bear!

The synagogue leader’s argument boils down to this: This is the wrong time for work – even the good work of healing. It is the wrong action in the wrong place and at the wrong time. However, for Jesus, the Synagogue is the right place and the Sabbath is the right time to do the right thing – liberate the crippled woman from her bondage.

Jesus: “Right Time!”

Jesus expresses disgust that the religious leader doesn’t “get it.” He accuses him – and all those who share his opinion – of hypocrisy. Their religion is merely “an act.” They are “playing” religion rather than truly embodying it heart and soul. To embody God’s law involves reflecting God’s heart of love, compassion, and mercy.

For Jesus, this is the right time. He essentially argues, “What better day to free people from bondage and introduce them to new life than the Sabbath?” The Sabbath is not meant to be a burden, or even worse, to limit good actions, but it is a day to remember God, celebrate God’s goodness, and share it together. This is the perfect time to free the woman from her bondage and restore her to a rightful place as a daughter of Abraham.

In order to make his case, Jesus “sets up a series of parallels, arguing from the lesser to the greater:

If an animal, how much more a daughter of Abraham?

If one whom you have found for a few hours, how much more one whom Satan has bound for eighteen years?

If you can loose the bonds of an animal on the Sabbath as well as the other six days of the week, how much more is it necessary for God to loose this woman’s bond on the Sabbath?”[7]

One more incontrovertible piece of evidence remains. The leader, and all of Jesus’ detractors, faced a significant obstacle in their own opposition – the success of Jesus’ miracles. “In the Jewish view, God would not endorse a violation of his Sabbath law, so where does the power come from to reverse the condition of the woman that Satan is responsible for? That source cannot be Satan, since he is responsible for the woman’s condition; thus, the healing must be divine (11:14-23).”[8] Put simply: the proof is in the pudding. The miracle mediates God’s approval of the healing.

Jesus’ arguments were strong enough that he won the crowd’s support: “When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing” (17).

Limitless Love and Endless Compassion

Jesus’ ministry reveals God’s tender compassion. Jesus was deeply touched by the suffering of the crippled woman. He deviated from his “schedule” and attended to her need. This is simply one example of his consistent ministry of compassion for suffering humanity – especially toward the marginalized, weak, and forgotten.

For Jesus, compassion toward the suffering trumps all rules. Jesus said, “ought not this woman… be set from this bondage on the Sabbath day?” The word, “ought” connotes the divine will – what “ought” to happen. God’s law is meant to guide expressions of love and compassion. Since love and mercy know no boundaries, often rules fail to completely define what must be done. Even more, sometimes rules get in the way of divine expressions of love and compassion. A well-known example is the Parable of the Good Samaritan. In this story a Levite and Priest pass by what they perceive to be a dead body. They do this in order to obey divine regulations concerning cleanliness. They would be unable to fulfill their religious duties if they were made unclean by contact with the dead. Their commitment to rules kept them from doing the “right thing” at the “right time and right place.”

Nothing seems to trip Jesus’ trigger like limiting God through religion. Religion is too good a thing to corrupt and abuse. Perhaps one way to apply this is to be ever open to God’s interruptions in our lives, and indeed, our religious services. We must always remember that our scheduled plans – even of a religious nature – are not the final word on things. God’s divine purpose takes precedence over our plans. If we were to make a spontaneous change in the order of worship in order to meet a need, would we hear from some: “You can’t do that – it is not in the liturgy!”

We would do well to hear Bock’s warnings:

Finally, we must be careful not to let our pursuit of religious practices according to our preferred custom outweigh our responsibility to be compassionate. Many churches have battled over the role of music or other elements of church practice that are not issues of spiritual significance. We must not allow the tyranny of comfort in practice or even the tyranny of keeping to some type of predetermined schedule prevent us from being sensitive to others around us.[9]

Religion is not meant to limit love and compassion. It is always the right place and right time for compassion. There are no boundaries to divine love. Therefore, there should be no boundaries to our expression of these things. Every place and time is an opportunity to do the right thing. When religion facilitates this, bringing all things to this goal, then it is healthy, good, and right. When it does not, it becomes toxic. And worst of all, it does under the banner of doing “what is right.” This is the worst form of hypocrisy and the object of Jesus’ outrage. We would do well to keep our religion pure and true by always remaining open to divine interruptions and spontaneous expressions of love, compassion, and mercy.

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© Richard J. Vincent, 2006