Looking Christ in the eye
From Wellington Cathedral of St Paul
22 August 2010: am
The Revd Judith Wigglesworth
- Psalm 71:1-6
- Jeremiah 1: 4-10
- Hebrews 12:18-29
- Luke 13:10-17
How long has it been since a teacher summoned you to stand up straight, sit up straight, or face the front? For the Cathedral Choristers, perhaps at school on Friday! For others not at school quite that recently, perhaps a long time ago!
This morning I have an exercise for you to do. Don’t worry – there is no wrong answer, and there’s no detention either!
First, look at the picture of the woman on the readings insert in your service leaflet…
Now close your eyes and visualise this scene unfolding before your eyes:
It’s Sabbath at the synagogue. Jesus is teaching. There are crowds of Jews, some milling around. Others are gathered around Jesus, listening intently to his new words. In the crowd are people from all walks of life, old and young, men, women, and children. It is hot and dusty. In the crowd, jostled around, is a woman, crippled and bent over. She can’t stand up straight to see where she’s going or the faces of people around her. She sees little more than the dusty feet of the people around her as she navigates her way through the crowd.
Suddenly Jesus sees her. He pauses, stops his teaching, and calls to her. She pauses and shuffles in his direction. Jesus looks at her, really looks at her, and feels compassion welling up in him. He lays hands on her. He says to her: “Woman, you are set free from your ailment”. Immediately she straightens. She stands tall for the first time in 18 years. She looks up at the face of her healer, perhaps the first face she has looked into closely for a long time.
Picture her face - I wonder what it looked like. I wonder what she felt in that moment as her eyes saw Jesus, the people, and the panorama around her.
Now open your eyes. Turn to the person next to you. Look them in the eye as if you have never seen them before... Smile…Now look around you as if you are seeing this sacred space for the first time…
Now face the front!
The woman’s reaction to Jesus was immediate. As she stood, she began praising God. She knew immediately the source of her new being, her new life.
The reaction of the synagogue leader, however, was rather different. Luke says he was “indignant”, because Jesus had cured on the Sabbath. He kept on telling the crowd that being cured could only happen on the other six days of the week, not on the Sabbath. I wonder whether the crowd was listening to him? I suspect their eyes would have been glued to this woman, standing up straight after all these years! Can you imagine the shock on their faces, the incredulous buzz of conversation!
But the synagogue leader was having none of this. Despite the origins of the Sabbath focusing on God and the world at rest, Sabbath practice at this time had become so restricted and oppressive that it worked against the acts and gestures of human caring.
In contrast, for Jesus the concept of rest encompassed, not excluded, the concept of healing. For Jesus, Sabbath was synonymous with freedom in God. For this woman, her Sabbath healing completely turned her life around. She was restored, and the source of that restoration was God.
What does restoration mean for us today?
Perhaps a story might help us explore that question. A few weeks ago I called in to see a friend. She was planning a trip overseas to see family. She had been through very difficult and challenging times. The trip held much promise and had taken a lot of organising. A few days earlier, she had excitedly told me about her plans.
This day, however, she was immobilised with fear. All of a sudden, doubt completely engulfed her wonderful plans and expectations. Anxiety now overwhelmed the many encouraging words of scripture which had provided comfort just a few days earlier.
What was happening here? Why had her Lord, her comforter, deserted her now? Somehow, over the next half an hour, through talk, a few tears, and prayer, God broke through her fear. Her face became radiant with a newfound joy and peace.
Yesterday, as I read our gospel passage afresh and came to the part when the woman “stood up straight and began praising God”, that look of newfound peace and joy on my friend’s face came to mind. That surely was a moment of renewal for her, a profound moment of restoration.
Perhaps we could also see it as a “sabbath moment” – a moment when the peace and rest of God has the capacity to overwhelm any human fear.
Jesus called the crippled woman and laid hands on her. Today, through the power of Jesus’ death and resurrection, Jesus calls us and lays hands on us to restore our moments of fear into moments of restoration.
“Sabbath time” – on whatever day of the week – is one way we can respond to Jesus’ call.
Rob Bell, American author and Christian speaker, explores the concept of “sabbath” is his book “Velvet Elvis”. He writes: “sabbath is a day when I produce nothing”, and “sabbath is a day when our work is done, even if it isn’t.”
Perhaps a “sabbath day”, “sabbath time”, or even a “sabbath moment”, can be for us a time when we pause, and reflect on the rest and peace that God offers in Jesus Christ. Perhaps it can also be a time when we stand tall, look Jesus Christ in the eye and say “Thank you”.
Amen.
