SO...WHO CARES?

Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath,

the synagogue ruler said to the people,

"There are six days for work. 

So come and be healed on those days,

not on the Sabbath."

Luke 13.13-17

This is a "Can you believe this!"  attitude and reaction!

A crippled woman healed after eighteen years of suffering!!!

Who would care about the day or place!?

The woman was healed and people were delighted and amazed.

Except for the synagogue ruler.

This "ruler" condemned the work and the Worker!

A woman crippled for eighteen years, bent over and not able to straighten up at all.

Could she have been so bad that the ruler was justified in using his rule to exclude her from restoration to life?

Did people avoid her?  Was she a nuisance to them? 

Was she ugly?  Was she poor?  Unintelligent?

Objectionable in any way at all?

What was this ruler thinking?

Had he ever seen anyone healed from anything in all his life?

Had he ever considered what this was like for for her?  

For eighteen years!

Had he any idea what she must have "felt" all these years? 

More:  Did he ever

Care for the heart, soul, mind, and body of this woman?

Care about anything about anyone?

Care enough to talk to people crippled in heart, soul, mind, and body?

Care how others were suffering?

Care about others as himself?

Care about anything that God cared about?

Care about God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength?

But....for me--

Do I

See the crippled people all around me?

Hear the cry of their heart?

Feel the pain of their body?

Care about their body, soul, or spirit?

Do I look when Jesus says, "Look at the fields--they are ripe for harvest." 

Do I see the people who are "Like sheep without a shepherd"?

Do I see any who are troubled, helpless, hopeless, burdened, weary, and......

Did not Jesus heal this woman, rebuke this hypocrit, and have Luke record the occasion for me to read. 

Should I not care about this woman in her grief?

And then rejoice as I see Jesus' healing her body and soul?

Should I not realize that Jesus shows me this story because He wants me

to care about sheep without shepherds around me?

Does He not want me to speak and touch these broken, helpless, and hopeless people?

And touch their body, soul, and spirit?

With the same healing He gave her?

With compassion, mercy, goodness, and grace He gives me for them?

Do I not need to spend more time with Jesus and with others?

Listening to Him and others?

Learning from Him and about others?

Do I not need to ask Jesus to let me love others like He loves them?

If I do not,

                      Am I not in danger of hearing from Him one day,

"You hypocrit!"