Have you ever noticed that there are rules in life that seem like they were designed just to drive you crazy? Maybe it’s a traffic law…maybe some policy at your work…or perhaps it’s a social expectation.
There are rules and laws that don’t make a lot of sense to us. For instance:
- In the State of Alabama, it is illegal to make someone laugh in church by wearing a fake mustache. (Apparently, if you make them laugh without a fake mustache, it’s ok.)
- In Colorado, it is illegal to keep a couch on your porch. Who knew?
- And, in the State of Alaska, it is illegal to push a live moose out of an airplane. (Ok…there’s a story there.)
Rules and laws. Some of them don’t seem to make a lot of sense. Others are simply hard for us to swallow. When I was in elementary school in south Minneapolis, we had a wintertime rule that you couldn’t play in the snow on the playground. The school would plow the snow into a giant hill at the end of the asphalt playground, and we were expected to stay away from it. To an eight-year-old, that snow pile looked like the Matterhorn…a challenge to be conquered…fun to be had. My friends and I would stand there staring at it, just imagining the possibilities. But could we climb that hill? Could we even approach it? Not a chance. I’m sure there was some logical safety reason behind the rule, but at the time, to a bunch of 3rdgraders, it felt like pure torture.
That’s the thing about rules. They usually exist for a good reason. But sometimes, if feels like they exist only to limit us, or to keep us from having fun.
And truthfully, there are people who think that’s what the Christian faith is all about. Rules. Laws. Expectations. A long list of “don’ts” meant to make life bland. I’ve had conversations with these people. They wonder: “Why would I subject myself to these kinds of limitations?”
But this is a misunderstanding. And our scriptures today help us understand why.
In our first reading, from Isaiah 58, the prophet reminds us that God’s way is about loosening the bonds of injustice, sharing bread with the hungry, sheltering the poor. God’s vision of law is not about tightening restrictions but removing burdens so people can live in freedom.
And in Luke 13, Jesus makes that vision come alive. He meets a woman with a serious back problem. She has been bent over for 18 long years. Imagine…for nearly two decades…this woman could only look down…at the ground. She saw no sunsets. She saw no faces. Just dirt, feet, and pain. She comes to Jesus…he places his hands on her stooped back and says “woman, you are set free…”. And instantly she stands straight…healed…and suddenly, she is able to look into Jesus’ face, and the faces of those around her. The very first thing she does is give thanks to God.
Now, you’d think everyone would celebrate. But instead, the religious leader of the synagogue gets very angry. You see, Jesus had healed this woman on the Sabbath, and healing was considered “work,” which was forbidden on the Sabbath. Technically, Jesus had broken the commandment.
The irony here…it is thick! The Sabbath was given as a gift, not a restriction. Remember that the people of Israel had lived for generations as slaves in Egypt, forced to do hard labor seven days a week…probably 18 hours a day. When God gave them the commandment to take a day…a full day…and to rest, it was like giving those Israelites oxygen. It was freedom in the form of a holy rhythm. “work, work, work, work, work, work…rest!” But centuries later…in Jesus’ day, the religious leaders had forgotten the reason…the “why” for this law. This synagogue leader was so focused on the letter of the law that he missed the heart of it. By healing this woman, Jesus was not breaking the law…he was fulfilling it. He was giving this woman exactlywhat she needed: Life…and rest…and healing.
That’s the great misunderstanding. God’s law isn’t there to keep us from doing good things. It’s there to help us live in ways that make doing good things possible. The law is not a prison. It is the framework for freedom.
Sometimes the best way to understand this is to think about guardrails. A guardrail on a winding mountain road is not there to ruin your fun…it’s there to keep you from plunging into the canyon.
Several times, I’ve driven Red Mountain Pass in southwest Colorado with youth groups in a 21-passenger bus. Now, this is one of the most beautiful drives I’ve ever made. It’s also one of the scariest. The road climbs to 11,000 feet, and there are these long, windy, curvy stretches where there are no guardrails, just the edge of the road and a drop of a couple thousand feet. There’s even a memorial halfway up, a memorial to the snowplow drivers who’ve gone over the edge. (That gets your attention) Driving this road, I’d find myself hugging the center line, maybe even cheating across it, just to stay away from that edge. And I’d wonder to myself…where is a good guardrail when I need one?
That’s what God’s law is like. It is like guardrails on life. It’s not meant to box us in but to keep us safe so we can move forward. Without it, well…we can crash. With it, we are free to travel and free to live.
God’s law may appear restrictive from the outside, but it’s really the structure that lets us flourish.
The bent-over woman in Luke’s Gospel is such a powerful image. We know what that feels like, don’t we? Maybe not physically, but maybe emotionally or spiritually…we experience guilt, shame, grief, exhaustion. Sometimes life bends us so low that we cannot see beyond the dirt in front of us.
Jesus looks at the woman and says, “You are set free.” He doesn’t say, “you’ve finally obeyed correctly,” or “you’ve finally followed all the rules…” No, he says, “you are free.” That’s what God’s law is meant to do…set us free so we can live as God intends us to live.
And yes, Jesus healed her on the Sabbath. I think he did that on purpose. It was his way of saying, “This is what Sabbath is for. This is what the law looks like when it’s alive. The law is for giving life.”
The Ten Commandments…and all the other laws…they are often seen as a list of negatives, but really, they are intended as gifts. This commandment to “remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.” That’s not God saying, “No fun allowed.” It’s God saying, “Stop working yourself into the ground. Take a breath. Rest. Worship. Remember, child of God, who you are.”
That’s not restriction…it is freedom.
Isaiah’s words remind us that faith is not just about how religious we are…or how religious we look to others…no, it is about how we treat others: feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, break the chains of injustice. When God’s people live this way, it’s like the sun rising in darkness. That is the purpose of the law: not to win holiness points, but to create a world where love is possible.
The leader of the synagogue missed this. He thought Sabbath was about keeping score. Jesus knew Sabbath was about life.
It’s easy to slip into “rule-first” religion. We tell ourselves, “Once I get my act together, once I keep all the commandments, then I’ll be good enough to be useful.” But Jesus flips it around. He says, “You are free now. Out of that freedom, go and love.”
I once heard about a boy whose mom told him not to throw a baseball in the house. He did anyway and broke a lamp. Terrified, he sat and waited for his mom to get home…he waited for punishment. His mom sighed, helped him clean it up, and then took him outside to play catch. Later, she explained that the rule wasn’t to ruin his fun but to keep things whole.
That’s how God deals with us. God’s law is there to help joy flourish. And when you fail…and you will fail…God responds with grace, lifts you up, and sends you back out to live free.
Friends, you are not called to live under a crushing weight of rules. You are called to live within the good and gracious boundaries God has given so that you can be free to love and serve.
Isaiah says that when you live this way, “the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your needs in parched places.” Jesus shows you that life-giving love is always worth more than rigid rules. Because the point is freedom.
So, the next time you think of God’s law, don’t picture a red pen tallying your failures. Picture a loving God giving you a road to travel, guardrails to keep you safe, and the horizon of grace ahead.
Jesus brings you the same healing and wholeness he gave to that stooped over woman. So go ahead. Step out. In Christ you are free: free to live, free to serve, and free to love.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
Test Driving Theology 