"The Jesus of No-Excuses"

Sermon 08.22.10
“The Jesus of No Excuses”


Did you ever notice that whenever Jesus is teaching in the synagogue, something usually goes wrong? He never seems to just read and discuss the Hebrew Scriptures like he is supposed to do. He doesn’t always unroll the scroll, recite the verses and then turn to discuss them with the other religious leaders. Nine out of ten times, an incident occurs, the Pharisees are ready to hurl him over a cliff, he’s threatened with punishments and you have to wonder why he keeps doing this. What is it that he doesn’t understand?

It happens again in today’s Gospel. The text begins innocently enough – “Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath.” Seven verses later, he’s wiping up the floor with the hypocrites to the cheers of the crowd.
What happened? He was probably between verses 12 and 13 of the fourth chapter of Leviticus when he spied the woman whose back was bent, the infirmed one, as the King James Version says. He sees an opportunity for a healing. And it just happens to be the Sabbath. I’ll bet you could see the funnel cloud all the way from Jerusalem.

The image of the crippled woman in Luke’s text for today is certainly an object of great pity. Try to imagine what it must have been like for her existence: unable to straighten upright, always bent over. Day after day she sees nothing but her feet, the dirty, dusty streets of the town, and other peoples’ sandals. She could not talk to another person, eye to eye, never saw a sunset, never seen the stars, had been infirmed, as the old King James versions says, for 18 years. This is six years longer than the woman who was healed of her hemorrhages. Had she given up hope? She didn’t ask Jesus to heal her, she was just passing by the synagogue.

But it was the wrong day, unfortunately. Healings can only take place during the week. “Come back another time,” says the leader of the synagogue. He completely misses the miracle because he is so focused on following the rules. A woman is not longer inflicted with a pain that had her doubled-over in misery for almost 10,000 days, and the leader is concerned with the propriety of Jesus’ actions.

What I love most about Jesus is that he never, ever makes excuses. The church of no excuses is where Jesus fits in. He could have said to the leader, “But she was sick….or but she was in the neighborhood so it seemed convenient…or but she couldn’t come back another day…but I won’t be available later in the week…or I’m really backed up with miracles in Galilee…or maybe I’m never coming back to this synagogue instead. Jesus doesn’t make excuses for his healing.

But we are the people with excuses. Especially when it is a matter of coming to church. We have lots of excuses. A church in Wichita, Kansas, once advertised a “no excuses” Sunday service.


To encourage both the faithful and the unfaithful to attend church this year, every Sunday will be a no-excuse Sunday and the following will be provided:
Cots will be placed in the vestibule for those who say. “Sunday is my only day to sleep in.”
Murine will be provided for those with tired eyes, from watching TV too late on Saturday night.
There will be steel helmets for those who say, “The roof would cave in if I ever went to church.”
Blankets will be furnished for those who think the church is too cold, and fans for those who think it’s too hot.
We will have hearing aids for those who say, “The minister speaks too softly,” and cotton for those who say, “The pastor is too loud.”
Score cards will be available to those who want to list the hypocrites present.
Some relative will be present, for those who like visiting on Sunday.
There will be TV dinners for those who say they can’t go to church and cook dinner also.
One section of the church will be devoted to trees and grass for those who like to seek God in nature.
Finally, the church will be decorated with Christmas poinsettias and Easter lilies for those who have seen it without them.


Now Jesus doesn’t play this game. Instead, he takes the Pharisees head on and gives them a dose of their own medicine. He points out the fact that they all work on the Sabbath, in one way or another. Just lays right into them and blows away their excuses. He says that untying your donkey to give it water is working on the Sabbath. And by the way, wouldn’t the Sabbath be the best day of the week for a healing?

There is a mix of messages in today’s passage. One aspect focuses on Christ as healer, as miracle worker, no matter what day of the week it is. Whenever there is an opportunity to bring restoration and wholeness, he will be there, even if he’s working on something else. God invented multi-tasking. And Jesus is not especially concerned with the calendar.

The second message is that sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees. Rather than appreciate the renewal of the woman’s health, the leaders of the synagogue are so worried about the letter of the law and that miracles qualify as working on the Sabbath. We certainly do that from time to time, getting stuck on one things, such as a bad sermon, and forgetting that the rest of the service went really well. And we actually loved the hymns, now that you think about it.

The third message is that Jesus takes no prisoners or excuses. He calls it as he sees it. He is not afraid to lift up the sin of hypocrisy and start taking names, even among the religious leaders in the synagogue. His followers are in agreement on that and start rejoicing. He makes trouble, but manages to clean up his mess in such a way that it turns out for the better.
The good news for us today, also comes in three parts. First, Jesus truly has the power to free us, to unbind us of all ailments, be they mental, spiritual, emotional and physical. He heals at unexpected times and is not limited to social conventions. Miracles still occur, even after 18 years.

The second part of the Gospel take-away for this morning is that we have to work on our limited vision of what the reign of God will be like. We all have preconceived notions of societal norms and Jesus, unfortunately, mostly works outside of the box. As Paul says in Romans, we are not to be conformed to the world, but to transform it.

And the third advice that we are given is not to back down and make excuses for our faith. If we call ourselves children of God, we cannot permit hypocritical actions. Jesus is not interested in hearing our excuses for not being faithful followers. And he isn’t afraid of calling our bluff if it comes to that.

May we celebrate the healing of the crippled woman, who raised her body as an expression of praise to Christ our Lord. Let us rejoice, like the crowd, in the miracles that we see all around us, if we are paying attention. And finally, we pray that we can be more tolerate, more loving, and more understanding than the religious leaders that Jesus addressed. Our excuses will go unheard, but God’s word will return to us to set us free. Amen.