Entire crowd was rejoicing

 In a book called the "Great Pearl of Wisdom", Sent George continues his quest to live a fully whole and holistic life and his spiritual mentor, a dragon, tells him this tale(paraphrased):

The fire alarm went off in Firehouse #223 so the firemen carefully made sure they had all the equipment and loaded the trucks and turned on their signal to enter traffic. They followed the speed limit and obeyed the stop signs and getting on to the I-75 they waited their turn as it was rush hour and the traffic was backed up. An hour later they got to the house that was on fire, and as you can imagine, it was burnt to the ground as they didn't get there quick enough, but they didn't break any traffic laws. 

As you can imagine, there are times when we want people to break some laws and some rules in order to help someone, especially in times of emergency. Going to a house fire, bringing someone by ambulance down to Duluth, or conducting a search and rescue are times when lives are more important than rules that generally keep people and property safe. 

In today's story, Jesus heals a woman who has been bound up for 18 years. We don't have to diagnose what was wrong with her, that is not the point of the story. The contention here was the synagogue leaders, equivalent to the moderator of our board, was taking the 4th commandment of honoring the Sabbath and applying it to say that Jesus was "working" when God commanded that this is a day of rest in which no work is to be done. If you really want to delve into this, check out modern Hasidic Jews and their interpretations of whether a person can drive a car (you can't) and what is permissible or not. It is very detailed and very legalistic. There is nothing in the Torah, the Five Books of Moses, that says you cannot heal someone on the Sabbath, but there was a lot of interpretation going on back then as it is today. 

This contention seems not to be about the legalism of interpretation, but the issue of control: Who is in charge? The synagogue leader probably had great authority back then over the congregation as rabbi's where not quite a professional class of religious leaders yet, as the Temple in Jerusalem was still the center of the Jewish religion. The priests were seen as the final authority, though there were growing and competing religious groups such as the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes. And, in those days where there was no quick way to communicate, the local communities and synagogues had lots of lee way, shall we say, of how to interpret and enforce their understanding of Jewish law and life in general. So, it really wasn't about the breaking of the Jewish laws, customs, and rituals, it was about who was in charge. Jesus, who was an interloper, was traveling from town to town and disrupting the status quo. Jesus, who was a disrupter, got himself frequently into 'good trouble' by upending the way things were done to keep the peace, and those people in control, and Jesus, who was the messiah, came to bring a kindom that prioritized the least of these and loving neighbor, healing, feeding, freeing, over keeping things comfortable for some, especially those in power. 

One Tin Soldier

"Listen children to a story that was written long ago, 'bout a kingdom on the mountain, and the valley folk below. On the mountain was a treasure buried deep beneath a stone. And the valley people swore, they have it for their very own. 

Go ahead and hate your neighbor, go ahead and cheat a friend. Do it in the name of heaven, you can justify it in the end. There won't be any trumpets blowing come the judgement day, on the bloody morning after, one tin soldier rides away.

So the people of the valley sent a message up the hill, asking for the buried treasure, ton of gold for which they'd kill. Came an answer from the kingdom with our brothers we will share, All the secrets of the mountain, all the riches buried there.

Now the people cried with anger, mount your horses, draw your sword, and they killed the mountain people, so they won their just reward. Now they stood beside the treasure, on the mountain dark and red. Turned the stone and looked beneath it, "Peace on Earth" was all it said."

In our story today, it said that after the contesting of the healing, the leaders were ashamed and the entire crowd was rejoicing, meaning probably the leaders joined in on the rejoicing as well, seeing the light. This is Jesus' vision of the world to come is not a bloody battlefield where the foes are vanquished and the bodies of our enemies are piled high or sent into eternal damnation. Jesus vision of the world is where we do all we can, how we can, and when we can to unbind people from sickness, injustice, prison, and anything that binds all people from being loved and living fully and freely. Heaven on earth! As it is in heaven, may be it done on earth! Living and loving abundantly, generously, and being salt, light, and leaven for the furtherance of God's reign. God is good (all the time)!  All the time (God is good)!