Dear Friends,

Our theme this morning is ‘God has called us to be free’.  In the Gospel reading from Luke we note that Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues and a woman who was crippled by a spirit for eighteen years was present there. She was bent over and could never stand straight.  Luke records for us that when Jesus saw her he called her forward and said, ‘Woman, you are free from your infirmity.’ After this he put his hands on her and immediately she straightened up and praised God. Jesus indeed set this woman free from the bondage of Satan and from her crippling disease.  God sent Jesus to free us from all our bondages.  Here the woman rejoiced at the healing work of God in her life after a period of eighteen years.

However, not everyone in the synagogue was happy.  They synagogue leaders were angry with Jesus because he had healed the woman on the Sabbath day.  The Synagogue rulers were in other words accusing Jesus of breaking the Ten Commandments by breaking the Sabbath law.  The Sabbath day was meant to be a day of rest and Jesus had ‘worked’ and healed a person on that day.  So they tell the woman instead of Jesus that there were six days on which she could come and be healed.  Jesus was furious with the hypocrisy of the Synagogue leaders.  He confronts them and asks them whether or not they untied their ox or donkey from the stall and lead it to give water on the Sabbath.  Jesus says that if they were so concerned about their ox and donkey that they gave it water to keep it alive then how much more should Jesus heal this daughter of Abraham who was bound for eighteen years with this crippling spirit and set her free and make her truly alive on the Sabbath.

God has called us to be free.  He has sent his Son Jesus to die on the cross so that we may be set free from the bondage of sin.  Through his sacrificial death the forgiveness of sins is available to all people.  However, as much as this forgiveness is available to all, one has to personally appropriate it.  When we receive Jesus in our lives as our Lord and Saviour then he will truly pardon our sins and set us free from all the bondages of the evil one whether it be physical or spiritual, emotional or social.  God’s word reminds us that if the Son will set us free then we will be free indeed (John 8:36).  Sometimes we behave like the Synagogue rulers and accuse others about when to come to the church or who can come to the church and be healed by Jesus. We need to remind ourselves then that we too are in the bondage of legalism.  Only God can truly set us free from all our evil bondages.  May we turn ourselves to him that he may indeed break the bondages that keep us grounded in sin.

Shalom

Paul Swarup