COMPASSION AND THE KINGDOM

"Should not this woman,
a daughter of Abraham,
whom Satan has kept bound
for eighteen long years,
be set free on the Sabbath day
from what bound her?”

Luke 13:16 (read 13:10-17) - NIV

The ruler of the synagogue was angry when Jesus ignored the rules of the Sabbath day and healed a suffering woman who had been victim of a crippling disease for eighteen years. Jesus was living the Kingdom, but the ruler was living the institution. Jesus sought the welfare of human beings regardless of their social status or "moral" condition. The ruler defended the integrity of the laws and the values system of the religious institution while Jesus ignored the limitations imposed on the woman by the law. The ruler ignored the woman and preserved the letter of the law, but Jesus put practice above ideology. The ruler made ideology supreme at the expense of practice.

Religion has a tendency to organize and put things in order. That is good to some extent, but the danger is to establish a strict order that is closed around itself. In that way the order becomes worse than the chaos that it intends to correct.

On the global scene, the three great monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam, have internal structures of self-preservation and promotion that often more overwhelm than heal people. Their injustices have the facade of democracy against despotism or of oppression against imperialism. But in reality the “democracies” practice tyranny and the “oppressed” strive to establish another empire, each one appealing to its God.

The Kingdom represents the practice, not imposition, of justice. The exercise of justice is in doing the good when and where opportunities present themselves without putting conditions or restrictions.

The Kingdom is always here and now, where we all are. Today, not yesterday or tomorrow, is always Kingdom day. The moment the Kingdom is always now, not before or after. It breaks all barriers of time and space.

Our tendency is to limit the Kingdom to certain conditions and seasons by separating the sacred from the secular. We associate the sacred with God and consider the rest of the world to be profane.

Judaism established the Sabbath as a holy day to be devoted to "do nothing". Jesus was criticized for doing good works on the holy day. To Jesus every day was sacred and to be dedicated to act for the benefit of others. Jesus lived the Kingdom at all times and in all places. It was enough for the sick woman get close to Jesus. He saw her and healed her without preconditions.

We err when we think that we should try to mold others according to our view of right and wrong and put our order in what we consider to be chaos. It is not for us to establish and build the Kingdom. It is already around us and within us. We are only participants. It is our place to sow the good and leave the results to God.

LUKE 13:10-17 – NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (NIV)

On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.

Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”

The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”

When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.