Those Possessed by Devils Try To Keep Them Under Control

So said Reg, follower and presumed head disciple of the followers of Brian, Messiah. Or so it seems in one scene from Monty Python's "Life of Brian". Completely against his will, Brian has attracted both followers and a reputation and he is now being touted as "The Savior". As Brian makes his way through a crowd, seemingly oblivious to those around him, many cry out for healing and for him to touch them. But Reg is there for crowd control. "Don't push that baby in the Savior's face," he scolds, "he'll touch him later." "Women taken in sin line up against that wall." And, of course, the above mentioned.

I am thinking of this as I look at the Gospel reading assigned for tomorrow in the Lectionary. It is the story of Jesus healing a woman who was bent and crippled for 18 years. She appeared at the synagogue on the Sabbath as Jesus was teaching. When Jesus sees her, he interrupts his teaching to proclaim that she is set free from her ailment. Predictably this upsets the Pharisees who object to Jesus healing on the Sabbath. But this story has a twist, one that brought to mind the above scene from the movie. The Pharisees, a la Reg, say to the crowd, "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured."

Now this is an interesting idea. What are we to assume? Shall we assume that this woman simply did not know that cures were available six days a week? Or shall we assume that had she come on another day, she would not have been cured, as there would be no one there to cure her? One could argue that only Jesus could cure and this was the day he was in town. But what seems more likely is that the Pharisees, in a well practiced art still practiced today, used the letter of the law to weasel out of responsibility. If we grant that it is wrong to cure on the Sabbath, and if we also grant that healing is permissible six days out of the week, then why are not more people cured?

The answer is, it seems from the text, the Pharisees had no interest in that activity. But rather than owning that small detail, they preferred instead to take their moral high road and defend the sanctity of the Sabbath.

Jesus has none of it. He never has any of it from the Pharisees. Jesus points out that the Sabbath was made for human beings. The Pharisees themselves feed their beasts of burden on the Sabbath. Shall not a child of Abraham also be set free on any day, including the Sabbath?

And, of course, this whole scene would have been unnecessary if the Pharisees had been interested in a curing ministry. Had they been so interested, then the Pharisees, this woman, and Jesus could have enjoyed a nice quiet Sabbath.