Twenty-seventh Sunday after Pentecost, Tone 2; The Holy Prophet Zephaniah (Sophonias) (7th century BC).
Nativity Fast.
Ephesians 6:10-17; Luke 13:10-17.
Read Luke 13:10-17
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
There are always two things going on in a conversation, the topic of conversation and what people are doing with the topic of conversation. So, do you think the ruler of the synagogue in today’s gospel reading had a lot of people being healed of long-term disabilities from Sunday to Friday every week? Anybody at all? Were the “glorious things that were done by (Jesus)” so commonplace that one could legitimately argue over which day of the week they should be done? The topic of his conversation may have been sabbath observance, but he was using it toward some other purpose.
Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the sabbath; few were permitted to do so. He called upon someone attending to come to him. By his word and his touch she was made well. All this is a picture of authority.
Who was the person who was being indignant? The “ruler of the synagogue”, the person with the office of authority.
How do we respond when we see someone who is effective at the very thing that we are responsible for caring about? What would our role guide us to do in response to that person’s effectiveness? One would hope that we would do whatever we could to support, increase, and widen that person’s effective service to others. The responsibility for good coming in some way to others doesn’t mean that we have to be the gatekeeper through whom it comes. We must take care that we do not so identify ourselves with our authority that we even miss the work of God happening right before our eyes because it is coming through someone else. How wonderful it would have been if the ruler of the synagogue also “rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by (Jesus).”
Bible References