Bible Reading: Luke 13:10-17
Dear Friends
What is the purpose of the law?
According to the stories told in the Old Testament, the purpose of the law is to provide us guidance in how to live with each other so that all of us may get more out of this life and world we share. The law, in short, promotes civility, cooperation, and health. It lends a certain order to our lives, order that creates space in which to flourish and grow. For all these reasons, the law is given to the Israelites by God not to help them become God’s people but as a precious gift because they already are God’s people.
But that’s not always how we use the law. Simply because law does, in fact, lend a modicum of order to a chaotic world, we are all too often seduced into thinking that creating and maintaining order is the purpose of the law. We forget that the order the law provides is not an end but rather is meant to serve life and health. Which is what happening here in the text for this week Luke 13:10-17. The original commandment to keep the Sabbath holy and to do no work on the Sabbath was meant to ensure that people who had been slaves for years and never knew rest would finally be guaranteed at least one day of rest a week. It was, in this sense, the first labour protection law, ensuring that employees and servants alike were not overworked. The law of the Sabbath, in other words, was designed to promote life and health.
But in this scene, we see how one charged with keeping the law turn a means into an end, chastising Jesus for bringing life and health to this woman because it disrupts the order, we tend to prize above all. Before we are too hard on this zealous religious leader of Jesus’ day, however, let’s keep in mind how often we insist on keeping the letter of the law at the expense of its intent, and let’s be honest about our own craving for order and stability that makes it difficult for us to imagine “exceptions” to the law that promote greater life and health.
Jesus challenges the letter of the law, even breaks its ordinance, because he remembers the purpose of all of God’s Law. May we find the courage to do the same.
Solomzi