Reflection on Luke 13:10-17

She was like a tiny mustard seed on the floor, and nobody saw her.  Well, I do not mean to imply that she was invisible, but let us just say that nobody took note of her.  She was just the old slumped over lady who came to the synagogue to worship.  People would scoot around her to get by in order to get to their own tasks of worshipping in the synagogue. 

She would make her way, slowly, in her crouched position.  She would attempt to raise her hands in praise, but they were not raised very high since her back forced her to stand so low.  No matter, it does not matter to God how high your hands are raised.  It does not matter to God if you are a little different from everyone else in the room either.  What does matter to God is if you are bound and imprisoned in any way.  What does matter to God is if you are overlooked, like a tiny mustard seed on the floor that fell off of someone’s sandal.

So many people are tiny mustard seeds.  So many people are secretly bound and imprisoned.  So many people are simply overlooked, bound and imprisoned by their own forms of crippled backs. 

I think of the guy I saw walking along the Main Street of my hometown as a young child. As I watched the man who walked with a slight limp, I jumped when he suddenly dropped to the ground and took shelter briefly under a store window.  I asked my grandma what had happened, and she simply said that he heard a loud noise and he does not like loud noises.

He was a mustard seed, cast from a shoe on the ground after the Vietnam War…or maybe it was the Korean War…well, nobody knew for certain because though his reactions to sounds like boards clapping together was rather dramatic, the “politeness” of the small community did not allow anyone to truly take notice of the man.  For the community, it was just easier to pretend that the man did not exist.

I think of the woman who I saw the other day with tears in her eyes outside the grocery store.  What was her story?  What was wrong with her?  What crippling ailment had seized her and caused her to stop her normal tasks of everyday life? 

I do not know.  I had the kids with me, so I walked right along with everyone else.  Lots of people saw her, but nobody noticed her.  She was too little.  She was a mustard seed, left by someone’s shoe, unknowingly discarded on the side of the parking lot to live with her own pain and remain within her own imprisonment.

The thing about mustard seeds though is that God has made them to do amazing things.  These tiny little things can be planted into the ground where they start to push away amazing amounts of pressure from surrounding rock and compacted soil with their young roots, just so that they can spring up into bushes that God uses to shelter birds and rabbits.  Just because it is little does not mean that it is forgotten. 

God does not forget.  God does not pass by.  God does not allow mustard seeds to remain imprisoned in the ground.  In God’s world, little does not mean forgotten.

The woman who was crouched over was not forgotten.  There was one who not only looked at her, but also noticed her.  He noticed how she had been taken into slavery by her ailment.  He noticed how this Israelite woman needed to be set free like her ancestors needed to be set free from Pharaoh and the slavery in which they were held in Egypt.  Jesus noticed the little, crouched over woman and saw her as a mustard seed that just needed a little bit of freedom to sprout.

"’Woman, you are set free from your ailment,’" [Jesus said]. When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God” (Luke 13:12-13). 

It was only then that people finally took notice.  They took notice alright; the normal state of affairs had been uprooted and some of them did not like it. 

The synagogue leader complained aloud, "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the Sabbath day.”  

As if we consider being crippled a normal state of affairs.  As if being crippled and imprisoned is something that we can leave for another day.  As if it is OK to just let the mustard seed die on the floor without moving it to the soil where it can be free and flourish. 

Quite frankly, Jesus does not care if the normal state of affairs is uprooted and disrupted if someone can be set free.

It was Jesus, after-all, who taught earlier in one of the synagogues that, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19). 

For Jesus, Sabbath worship includes setting people free, just as God set the Israelites free from their bondage in Egypt.  The Sabbath is about praising God and living in God’s kingdom.  Therefore, if someone is crouched so low from whatever imprisons them that they cannot praise God, then Jesus is going to set them free.  Do we not make sure to water animals on the Lord’s day Jesus asks? 

The Sabbath is about life.  The Sabbath is about freedom to worship God.  The Sabbath is a day to worship and to set free.  The Sabbath is a day to notice discarded mustard seeds, to pick them up, and to bring them over to good soil.

A number of years back I got this idea, or maybe it was even a revelation from God.  It has to do with the Sabbath.  Here it is: since Christians celebrate on the first day of the week…Sunday...the day after the Jewish Sabbath, what if we used the traditional Sabbath day (which is Friday night through Saturday day) and used it to do those acts of freedom that Jesus cares so much about? 

Of course you can do this any day of the week, and should do this every day of the week; but what if we designated the traditional Jewish Sabbath for acts of noticing little, discarded mustard seeds and freeing them to flourish in good soil? 

In normal words, what if we spent some time Friday night through Saturday day intentionally looking for those in pain and hardship and helping in some way? 

I wonder how many people are kept from praising God because they have been crippled in some way?   There are probably many more than we think.  So, how about we take the time to not just look for these people, but to also notice them? 

After-all, Jesus noticed you.  He looked and noticed you when you were crippled and easily overlooked.  He saved you when you were at your lowest and brought you up to new life, raising you upright to praise God once again. 

Jesus does not walk into a room and fail to notice the discarded mustard seeds on the floor.  He created those mustard seeds!  Jesus wants each of them to flourish and push away mountains and create branches in which birds can live.  Jesus looks, notices his seeds, and then frees them to be who God created them to be.

So, what are you going to be doing this coming Friday and Saturday?  Heck, you could even start this afternoon on this holy task of seeing, truly noticing, and freeing.