Lectionary Year C
August 26, 2001
Luke 13:10-17

Context

Step IV - Context

A. Primitive Christianity

(JFC) First century synagogues were places (many existed according to Acts 15:21) of gathering, prayer, scripture reading, teaching, communal meals, over-night-accommodations and discussing the data of the faith. The Sabbath day was the central one for people to assemble there. Luke records another controversy, re: the Sabbath, at 14:1-6, too. Here, "Jesus pushed aside the scribal Sabbath casuistry, the halakah", Goppelt, TOTNT, Volume 1, page 93. Some people would attend synagogue gatherings for the purpose of being healed, prayed for, having hands laid on, etc. We are not told whether the woman in the text was there for that reason that day. Maladies were thought, in those primitive days, to be caused by sinfulness and/or by evil spirits, including Satan who caused sin and therefore caused illness to result from sinning. The Apostle Paul believed that it was Satan who gave him his "thorn in his flesh", II Corinthians 12:7b. Jesus gained the reputation of being a healer. See Luke 6:6fff. The leaders of the Jewish synagogues were territorial, prone to reactionary replies to any other authoritarian pronouncements and/or actions, such as Jesus exhibited in healing the woman in our text here. They operated with strict and pompous mind-sets of their regulations that controlled order, appropriate and inappropriate behavior. The outspoken chief in today's passage is certainly well within his role of propriety to speak up and to level blame. He was expected to be a monitor for decorum. Hypocrites are described in Mark 7:6bf as, "This people honors me (Jesus) with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines." See also Isaiah 29:13, LXX. Zacchaeus in Acts 19 is referred to, also, as covenanted to be Abraham's kin. Almost all by-standers in this agricultural way of life could identify with the example Jesus uses, re: watering the cattle even on the Sabbath. Luke 4:18 shows that healing at assemblies was a norm for these early Christians. Acts 10:38 tells "how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, . . ."

B. Old Testament and Judaism

(JFC) Sabbath, of course, had significance for Jews ever since the Creation Saga reported God's resting on the seventh day, and six days for work was customary since at least Exodus 20:9 and Deuteronomy 5:13 so stated. The ox and donkey are called "household animals in Deuteronomy 5:14; 22:4; Isaiah 32:20". "A daughter of Abraham. I.e. one of God's chosen people. Cf. 4 Macc 15:28", Anchor. Opponents are ashamed, according to Isaiah 45:16, LXX, "All who oppose God shall be ashamed and confounded, and shall walk in shame . . ."

C. Hellenistic World

(JFC) Certainly, the Greek-speaking thinkers could be provoked by the disparity between Jesus' reforming the use(s) of the Sabbath and the synagogue leader's resolve on traditionally preserving the Law of the synagogue and of the Sabbath itself. Their characteristic dualism could stimulate lengthy discussions, re: what is right and when and where. Their strong sense of ethics could help them re-order some of the older customs of the synagogues and their practices. Goppelt notes, in TOTNT, Volume 1, page 93, that, "The Sabbath was often the subject of ridicule among people in the Hellenistic world because while they were familiar with certain holidays they did not have a regular day of rest." Were they merely too flexible for such scheduling?

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