The synagogue leader
The poll numbers for the synagogue
leader don’t look good. His approval rating never makes it out of the single
digits. He seems so persnickety. We wonder why he can’t close his rule book
just this once and join the woman in praising God. Who could watch Jesus heal a
woman of a terrible affliction and still act so fussy?
Hadn’t Jesus’ healing power already indicated
that he did God’s work? When Jesus had healed the paralytic, he had seemed to
win the argument that he also had authority to forgive sins.1 Yet
the synagogue leader comes along to try to break up the party. Can’t he relax
and celebrate that the woman can now straighten up? After all her years of crippling
pain, of the isolation of not looking people in the face, of the difficulty of
simply walking, couldn’t he look the other way on the rules and praise God with
her?
He might remind us of the church
people who always want to put the youth in their place: “Those reckless
teenagers spilled their drinks in the parlor the last time they used it. We
should pass a rule that they have to stay out of there!” If one of the youth
girls winds up pregnant, someone at church might want to shun her. “She’ll
serve as a bad influence on the rest of our young ladies. She can come back
when she’s given the baby up for adoption. If she’s smart, that’s what she’ll
do!” The synagogue leader might remind us of the person who never wants to try
any new ministries: “We should keep doing things the way we always have done
them. It worked in the past; it will work now. We don’t need any newfangled
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