Sometimes the most profound theological rebuttal is “Oh, Baloney!”

I was in a good mood this morning until I reached Luke 13:10 in my daily Bible reading. What I read there troubled me.

It’s about a Sabbath day when Jesus was teaching in a synagogue. In the congregation was a woman, unnamed, “bent over” (osteoporosis?), “crippled by a spirit for eighteen years.”

When Jesus spotted her (he rarely seems to miss these kinds of people), he called her forward, and with a touch of his hands and a simple statement—”Woman, you are set free from your infirmity”—he healed her. Eighteen years of misery: vanquished.

“She straightened up and praised God,” the story says. For a moment I speculated on how her praising of God differed from the “praising” that might have been going on among the rest of the crowd? I bet this lady had no need for a microphone or an invitation to speak. I wonder if she danced?

One would think that this healing event would thrill everyone in the building.

That everyone would dance. But that would be wrong. The synagogue ruler for one, the writer says, was “indignant.” His comment? “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”

Don’t you just love this guy? As I read my Bible this morning, he’s the one that got my irritability going.

Read More: http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/currenttrendscolumns/leadershipweekly/godislikethat.html