Lectionary: Luke 13:10-17
As an orthodox Christian, it can be easy for me to become preoccupied with doing things right, with doing things correctly. And who can blame me? After all, that’s what the word orthodox means. Ortho-doxia: right belief, right worship.
As an Orthodox Christian, I am given a long list of traditions, and canons, and expectations that make up one authentic, ideal, Apostolic Faith. We have this Nativity Fast, with all of its own rules, and expectations, to remind us of this. Clearly, rules are good. Traditions are important.
But, is it possible that I could take these rules, and these traditions, and perhaps take them too far? What happens if, instead of using these rules to better worship my God, I begin to worship the rules themselves?
Today, a leader of the synagogue, rebukes his own God, all because that God has apparently broken the rules. Christ has healed a woman on the Sabbath, and rather than be thanked, he is chastised: “How dare you break the Sabbath! How dare you ignore the customs this temple, of this Faith!”
The leader of the synagogue has spent his entire life following these rules, incorporating the law into every single aspect of his daily life. And so, he is blind to the miracle before him, and he sees only blasphemy. He feels only jealousy and envy. Because, he has corrupted the Law into a way to judge others and to justify himself. And so when he sees the woman healed, rather than reassess his own mistreatment of the law, he rebukes the Lawgiver Himself.
And just as this leader of the synagogue, I can take the rules that I follow, as an Orthodox Christian, and do the very same thing that he does. I can place the traditions themselves up on a pedestal, and idolize them, and I might then use this worship of tradition, this worship of worship, in order to cast judgment. I look around me and judge those who I think are doing less then me, who I feel or doing worse than me. Those who break the fast, those who ignore the feasts, those whose sins are perhaps simply less concealed than my own. I might even feel justified in my anger towards those who live a life outside the rules entirely, outside this Faith. Those other people. How dare they! How dare they blaspheme against my rules! Angered, I afford them no compassion, and I wish for them only condemnation.
But then, what happens when I stumble? When I fail to measure up to the ideals of the Law? Well, I could ignore my mistakes, of course. I could be so busy looking for others’ splinters that I neglect my own blindness. But all that leaves me is alienated, and hateful, and ultimately alone. Or even worse, having failed to exemplify these ideals that I worship, I grow bitter and hopeless, convinced that no one - not even me - is free from condemnation.
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But today, Christ alleviates this blindness that we have set upon ourselves, he loosens our pain, and he straightens us up. For today, in healing this woman from her infirmity, Christ in no way disrespects the Sabbath. He does not dismantle the law. Instead, he fulfills the law.
You see, the Sabbath was put in place so that God’s people could imitate and anticipate a future day of rest, a future time where all would be made well, and God’s creation could finally be at peace. This is why the Jewish peoples rested on the Sabbath day, in anticipation of a future restfulness, provided by God. By healing on the Sabbath, by loosening the pains of this woman, Christ shows us that the bestower of all restfulness is already here!
The peace that was promised has come! The Prince of Peace is with us.
And just as Christ heals the infirmities of this woman, so too does he loosen our own pains from us. Hunched over and weighed down by the sins of this world, by the distractions of this life, by the passions, we’ve become painfully bent, spending far too long looking down: looking down on others, looking down on ourselves, looking down to all the sinfulness and suffering of this life. And so our God, in his infinite mercy, reaches down to this level that we have lowered ourselves to, and he straightens us up.
He performs a miraculous work upon all of humanity. And he does so on the Sabbath. Crucified for us and for our sins on a Friday, Christ dies and enters into Hades. And he gets to work. He performs the work of our salvation, as he lays in a new tomb, on the Sabbath Day. Though laid to rest, Christ doesn’t rest for a moment. He takes fallen Adam and he raises him up and he leads him out, out of Hades, out of a day of rest, and into a day of Divine work: the Lord’s day. A day of celebration, of thankfulness, of service.
In doing all this for us, Christ shows that these tools that he has given us - these traditions, these laws - they are not for judgment, not for condemnation, nor as an obligation. Instead, he has crafted these things specifically for our salvation. He dwells within them precisely for the softening of our hearts, for the purification of our souls.
So, this Nativity Fast, we have before us a multitude of tools that Christ has entered into and now offers to us, for our transformation.
Christ enters into fasting so that it is now an opportunity for us to deny our passions, to reclaim our focus, our focus on him.
Christ enters into prayer, praying himself and showing us how to pray, showing us that prayer is no obligation, but rather a window to an intimate and real relationship with our creator.
Christ enters into almsgiving, showing that spiritual change can derive from financial stewardship. Christ has taken money itself and made it a tool by which we can open ourselves to generosity, to compassion, to love.
And by doing all of this, Christ shows us that following these rules actually free us. The traditions of this church offer to us an opportunity to realize the true identity of ourselves. An identity found precisely in the ministry, life, and death of our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ. So we take these rules, and we imitate Christ, which means that we get to participate in and bear witness to our God’s infinite compassion, unwavering patience, and unfathomable generosity, for us.
Glory to Jesus Christ!
