The freedom of healing
Who forgives all your iniquity,
Who heals all your diseases. Psalm 103:3
Read Luke 14:1—6
It’s a bit rich that Jesus had to justify his actions when he healed a man. Any kind of healing barely needs justification. And why not on the Sabbath? The Sabbath was a day of freedom. No work that day, not even for a donkey. And that because once Israel were slaves. So the Sabbath celebrated their freedom from drudgery.[1] What could be more appropriate to the day than to set a man free? Freed from a painful and unsightly illness. I cannot read this story without seeing it as a kind of call from Jesus to me. He directs my eyes to where his own eyes are fixed. When I see as Jesus sees, I see the person more than I see my own scruples. And I want to let the love and power and freedom of Christ into their situation. Jesus takes me with him into a ministry of freedom.
Dear Lord, thank you for bringing this one person in his desperation the full freedom that was promised by the Sabbath. He found freedom. In my circle of contacts there always seem to be people in need of that freedom, needing healing in some form. Often enough I have let some hesitation keep me from connecting with them in your name. Let me not hold back now. Let me be ready to be with you in your ministry of healing, your liberating ministry to set people free to be the people you long for them to be.
[1] Deuteronomy 5:12—15