About today
Readings
Romans 9: 1-5. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem – Psalm 147: 12-15, 19-20. Luke 14: 1-6.
Is it against the law to heal a man on the Sabbath?
Oh those pesky Pharisees and lawyers trying to trip Jesus over the “rules” of the Sabbath! Jesus shows in His principles so simply to demonstrate the love of God – we do what we can, whenever we can to bring people back into the community and remove all obstacles to their participation. The hypocrisy of not healing a person on the Sabbath is immense – would our God the Hebrews, who was brought out of slavery, have this pity? The questioning of Jesus leaves the “authorities” speechless – without justification to uphold a law that sets someone free. This action by Jesus shows us the way to protest against our own authorities with rules that do not uphold human dignity – the irreconcilable attitude towards the family imprisoned on Christmas Island (hopefully they are when this is printed live free); the harshness of visas for temporary protection and detention of refugees in hotels. We urgently need the example of hospitality, welcome and freedom shown to us by the authorities in our community.
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