The story of Jesus healing the woman with a crippling spirit while he was teaching in the synagogue one sabbath is about a lot more than what is appropriate to do on the sabbath. It is a window into the mindset of Jesus about ministry.

The first thing we notice in this story is that Jesus is teaching in the synagogue on the sabbath. This sounds like such a traditional means of worship and teaching to us. Many Christians have adopted the term sabbath for Sunday, the Lord’s Day, and talking about Jesus being in worship on the sabbath makes us feel more connected to him and better about what we do on Sunday mornings. It seems like a really big affirmation that it is okay for us to stick to our traditional ways of doing things. If it was okay for Jesus, it ought to be okay for us!

There are some problems with this type of reading of the story, however. The first is historical. We know that worship changed in Israel. From the Abrahamic covenant with its very unique ritual and its renewal in the visit of the three strangers to the time when Moses called the entire people to participate in the covenant-making and to join in the sacrifices that took place in the tabernacle that traveled with them. With David and Solomon the worship centered in a specific place, Jerusalem, and then an even more specific place with the building of the temple there. When the temple was destroyed and the people went into exile they wondered, “How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?” Those who returned to Jerusalem for the rebuilding of the temple were excited by the finding of the Torah. The new temple wasn’t as grand as the last but at least there was a place to sacrifice. But many did not return and Jerusalem was not the center of their world anymore.

Jesus was participating in the faith community in the way that made sense and was open to the people at the time. The people were poor and oppressed. To put together enough resources to feed the family and be able to plant another crop was to be successful. There were no extra funds for a family pilgrimage to the temple in Jerusalem. They could not afford to go annually for the Passover and most would never be able to make the trip. The answer for them was to offer sacrifices of obedience instead of animals. They studied the Torah and they tried to follow it as best they could knowing that the conditions of their lives made much of it unattainable. If Jesus’ presence in the synagogue signified anything it was his openness to honoring God in whatever way one was able.

The second problem with reading this story as a stamp of approval on our traditional way of doing things is clearly presented when Jesus healed the woman with the crippling spirit on the sabbath. If you thought Jesus was giving the thumbs up to tradition over all, then think again. The religious leaders were appalled when Jesus healed the woman on the day of rest. This was not the way things were to be done. In fact, this was in direct contradiction to what God’s word says! No work on the sabbath. It is clearly stated and Jesus had violated this basic tenet of Judaism.

But Jesus had an answer to this criticism. He spoke first of all of the very humane practice that devout Jews followed on watering and feeding the livestock on the sabbath. They were God’s creatures and they were not to be mistreated on the sabbath any more than on any other day. And if that was true for the livestock it was certainly true for the creatures made in the image of God. It made no sense to treat animals humanely and humans with cruelty. And it was cruelty, Jesus asserted, to not free this woman who had been bound by her affliction for all those years.

It was not tradition that mattered most we learned from Jesus, although he often participated in it. It was meeting the needs of God’s creatures and God’s people. Whether it was in the needs of the people to worship in a different way or whether it was in the needs of the people to be set free from their bondage, it was and is the need of the people that matters most to Jesus. When the traditions met these or, at the very least did not add to those needs, then Jesus was content to live within them. But when they did not meet the needs of the people he is willing to go outside the tradition and when the tradition blocked the meeting of the peoples’ needs, he was very adamant on putting the people above the tradition.

Perhaps if we could re-frame our discussions about change in terms of the compassion of Christ and the needs of the people instead of in terms of tradition, we could at least begin to listen to one another. If we listened with the ears of Jesus to a person who has suffered great abuse from the hands of their own father, perhaps we could understand better how difficult it is to call God our Father. It may be a dear term to me that I learned as a child and one that makes me glad but perhaps it is blocking this needy one from realizing the grace of our God. Maybe I could, at least for a time, use another term for God in worship and hold the term Father for my personal devotions, not because the pastor or the worship committee has placed those terms in the bulletin but because of the compassion of Christ. We see this compassion in the story of healing on the sabbath. Scripture does offer many alternatives.

If I looked at other people in terms of their needs instead of in terms of my standards, perhaps I would be less prone to judgment and more prone to service and ministry. A youth group on a mission trip were helping to repair a leaking roof for a family. While the youth worked, the father of the family they were helping sat on the porch in his rocker. He offered no help for the project even though it was to help him and his family. When the youth were talking about it later some of them wondered why he didn’t help. After all, even if he was poor he was still healthy, he could have joined in the project. What is wrong with poor people? One member of the youth group spoke up and said, “The problem isn’t that he is broke. The problem is that he is broken.”

This teenager looked on the man with the compassion of Christ and saw someone for whom hope was no longer possible. Instead of seeing a lazy man who wouldn’t help himself or his family, she saw a man that life had cruelly crushed so that he couldn’t even see the use of fixing a hole in the roof of his house. If there is any help for that man and his family beyond just repairing the roof, it will have to come out of the kind of compassion and insight this youth group member displayed. Telling him he is lazy and no good will not help. Giving him hope is the only thing that can help. Telling him and showing him that God loves him and he is important is the only start to his healing. Seeing the need and moving to meet it is the way of Christ. It is the way of setting free those who have been in bondage.