Daily Reflection – 10/25/2021
Sacred Scripture
Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the Sabbath. And a woman was there who for eighteen years had been crippled by a spirit; she was bent over, completely incapable of standing erect. When Jesus saw her, he called to her and said, “Woman, you are set free of your infirmity.” He laid his hands on her, and she at once stood up straight and glorified God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant that Jesus had cured on the Sabbath, said to the crowd in reply, “There are six days when work should be done. Come on those days to be cured, not on the Sabbath day.” The Lord said to him in reply, “Hypocrites! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his ass from the manger and lead it out for watering? This daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now, ought she not to have been set free on the Sabbath day from this bondage?” When he said this, all his adversaries were humiliated; and the whole crowd rejoiced at all the splendid deeds done by him.( Luke 13:10-17)
Reflection
Jesus is constantly saying, “Follow me!”
In today’s scripture he shows the compassion, he shows the kindness, he shows the mercy that we should model if we are to truly follow him.
The woman not only has a serious physical malady but there was also a deep spiritual analogy here, where she just couldn’t look up toward God. Her eyes were constantly on the ground. There were massive psychological and spiritual effects from her physical problem. She came into the synagogue because she still wanted God. She still knew she needed God.
But Jesus was criticized for his healing, as he was always criticized for good deeds, on the Lord’s Day. The rigid Pharisees had gotten to the point in which their own rules, the fences that they had made around the Mosaic law, had become so important to them, that they thought that on the Lord’s Day, they should refuse to love another.
Jesus exposes their hypocrisy, that they care for their donkeys and oxen, on the Sabbath, but they don’t really care for people. In fact, they did not have any compassion for their fellow human beings.
There’s a principle here that we all need to learn. Imitating God means that, even when we’re doing good things, we cross the road and lead, first, with godlike love. The whole parable of the Good Samaritan teaches that there is something more important than going to the temple. As important as that is, when somebody is dying, when somebody is hurting, when somebody really needs us, we need to stop. We need to walk out of our comfort shoes and remember that we lead with love. We need to care. We might not be able to solve all the problems. But we stop and care. We stop and act out of love. The hero in the parable of the Good Samaritan needed to be on his way as well. But he did what he could at the time and he cared.
God wants us to act just as Jesus cared for this woman. We need to be sensitive to another’s infirmities, their curvatures, whatever is keeping them from lifting up their minds, hearts and souls to the Lord. And to do what we can, together with him.
Jesus may not have blessed us with the gift to be physical miracle workers. At the same time, just being there for tothers, letting them know that they’re not suffering alone is so key, to be able to free them from the bondage of isolation. We can always do that. When we do that, we are imitators of God as his much-loved children.
Prayer of The Day
“Lord Jesus, you grant freedom to those who seek you. Give me freedom to walk in your way of love and to praise and worship you always. Show me how I can bring your mercy and healing love to those in need around me.”
Daily NoteWe believe that each of us is created in the image and likeness of God. Yet, much of the world acts as if that is the last thing on our mind. Jesus came to remind us to love one another. If we take that to heart then we know that when we act beyond our self-centered love, when we reach out to another in love, then we are following in the path of Christ. We are truly acting in imitation of him
