Jesus began teaching in a synagogue on the day reserved for rest, thoughtful reflection on God’s wisdom and quiet meditation. A woman, bent over and crippled for many years, appeared near the door. Jesus took notice, stopped, went over and healed her. There is no indication the woman had made a fuss over her infirmity or had interrupted Jesus, begging him to heal her. It was Jesus who had noticed her, postponed his teaching, and sought her out. When her healing had become apparent to others, the people around Jesus and the woman were moved to rejoice, albeit being completely distracted from the assigned lessons and the expected and proper decorum for the Sabbath.
Jesus, more than simply curing the woman of her affliction, publicly introduced and pronounced her as part of the family again, proudly naming her as a daughter of Abraham! Heretofore, her disease had bound her, kept her apart and anonymous. Jesus gave her name and her heritage back to her, and that was the real sign that the spirit of God was present and working among them.
We miss the point of this story if all we see is the rebuke of a hierarchy and the condemnation of a religious institution being bound by inflexible regulations and rules that permitted no healing of disease. Much of Jesus’ reply to the Pharisees was likely lost in the institutional polemics of the controversy between later fledging church communities and the established synagogues of traditional Judaism. The main point is that the congregation celebrated the woman’s return to health and full participation in her community.
At one time, there seemed to be two universal components of college orientation that on the surface at least seemed to be contradictory of each other. One component would be the Dean of Academic Affairs saying to the assembly of new students, “Take a look at the person on your right and then on your left. One of them will not take their studies seriously; they will party too much or waste their time or not take advantage of the wonderful opportunities here, and they will not be here at graduation four years from now.” Then later on in the program, the Dean of Admissions would take the podium and say, “You are a member of the incoming freshmen class that is the best class ever admitted to this institution; you have the highest SAT scores; you have done more extracurricular activities; and you are the most mature and talented in our history. You would not have been admitted unless we felt that you would thrive here and contribute greatly to this institution. Take a look at the person to the right of you and then to the left, for there is no reason, if you live up to your potential, that all of you will not be here four years from now for graduation.”
I suppose some new students need to be scared into applying themselves, others assured that they indeed have the ability to succeed. Someone in college administration may have to play the good guy, and someone the bad guy routine to try to use various ways to draw the best out of everyone and encourage everyone to succeed.
One of the lessons of today’s Gospel seems to be in cautioning us as a community of faith from relying too heavily on the threat of failure or even expulsion as a way of maintaining a healthy community. Yes, we do have expected parameters of behavior and treating each other, but God’s intention is to uplift and incorporate everyone. God’s purpose is not to distill us, holding on to the best and brightest among us, and letting all others evaporate away.
Many of us probably have experienced in our formal education a teacher who graded on a curve. Some would get an A, a few more a B, most a C+, some a D, and always one or two received Fs. No matter whether it was a short paper, final exam, or course grade, the process of grading inexorably involved the curve, and students were placed on it. But God is more like the teacher who is more concerned with each individual student succeeding and measures that success in terms of all members of the class gaining a high level of mastery and comprehension of the subject. God doesn’t grade on a curve because God doesn’t like to leave people out. In an important sense there is no competition to enter and belong to the commonwealth of God.
That is why for people of faith, the larger issue of the accounts of Jesus stopping what he is doing and healing, is never about the failings of a human institution to cure on the Sabbath, but about God giving a person back an identity. The challenge for us, as a body, as a community living in Ithaca becomes to welcome one another as belonging, and not as an anonymous passerby, or just a person in a crowd, suffering unnoticed, unrecognized, and unloved. Our calling as a parish is about gathering together to worship and growing together in Christ with no grading on curves, and no subtle threats of intended failure or expulsion.
