GREETINGS TO THE HOLY PEOPLE OF GOD,

Leftovers. I love leftovers. As the primary meal planner in my home, I love to have a back up plan with leftovers. For some foods, I think they are better the second time around. And most of the time the interesting things learned in study stay in the notes and don’t make the sermon.

Here is a leftover from our gospel lesson last week. The woman was bent over for 18 years (Luke 13:11). That’s a long time to be bent over with limited ability to move and see the world in which she lived. This is Jesus’ response to the pleas of the synagogue leader who wants healing to happen on the 6 other days and not the Sabbath. What does Jesus want to draw our attention to by healing on the Sabbath when the healing could have easily taken place on one of the other 6 days. Healings that are not life-threatening take place on Sabbaths is a pattern for Jesus. What would Jesus want us to learn about healing and Sabbath? The Sabbath time as a time of healing and restoration?

Eighteen years is a long time, and this is not the first time 18 is used. Eighteen could simply be a catch word to link two narratives together. In this case the woman is bent over for 18 years and there were 18 that died when the tower of Siloam fell (Luke 13:4). Linking tragic loss of life in both cases. The question Jesus throws back at the listeners who have told Jesus the news about Pilate’s killing Galileans as they offered sacrifice is, “do you think they were worse sinners than other Galileans, do you think they were worse offenders than others living in Jerusalem? No, Jesus says, but unless you repent you will all perish just as they did." What does Jesus want us to connect with these two stories together? How will our idea of Sabbath expand and grow?

Eighteen makes an appearance in the word for life. All Hebrew letters have numerical equivalents. Aleph (a) equaling 1, bet (b) equaling 2 and so on. The letters chet (8) and yod (10), which together add up to the number eighteen, also spell chai, meaning “LIFE” from which the phrase, “l’chaim,”
“to life”’ comes from. Both the 18 people killed in the accident and the woman bent over for 18 years are lacking full “life.”
Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem with his mission to ultimately restore life, even life through death. Life is restored for the bend over woman and anticipated life returned for the 18 killed in the tower of Siloam – resurrected life, restored life as Jesus prepared them for his death, his resurrected life and his return to the Father.

Chew on those leftovers as you reflect on the restoration of the Sabbath and the gifts God gives to us through his Son, Jesus. The Holy Spirit nurtures these reflections in you, helping you to make connections between what God did and is doing now in your life. The restoration, the release from evil’s hold on us, the turning toward God in the midst of tragedy and loss of life. Jesus prepares us for life, death, life again and return home to our creator.

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack