Follow the leader! People, do you know? The best leaders are devoted followers of Jesus Christ. They are those who know that their gifts of leadership are for the healing of those who allow them to lead by being followers.
Luke 13: 10-17
Verse 14 And the synagogue official, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, began saying to the multitude in responds, “There are six days in which work should be done; therefore come during them and get healed, and not on the Sabbath day.”
In the Old Testament Laws that were given to Moses on Mount Sini, The Lord said, ‘Remember the Sabbath Day. to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work….’ (Exodus 20:9-10a) The religious leaders had developed an elaborate set of rules designed to try and be obedient to this command. In doing so they had gotten miles away from the spirit of the command and in fact created impossible burdens for the people. Somehow, unbelievable as it may seem, they had decided that healing was considered work!
It is of great interest to me that this official does not address Jesus, who is the Sabbath breaker in these events. Instead, he addresses the multitude of people, telling them that they should not come to the synagogue on the Sabbath day to be healed! One had to wonder, why else would they come then at all? Clearly, he is responding to the fact that his control over the people in that room was slipping away big time and he wanted it back!
The saddest thing about this story is the fact that the leader of the Synagogue was just as crippled as the woman who was healed! He had a sickness as well…. Pride! He couldn’t use the gifts of leadership given to him by the creativity of God because he did not understand his own great need for the touch of this very Jesus that was so near to him.
This guy has it so backward, so upside down, so off the mark that Jesus takes him on with the greatest weapon of all. TRUTH!
Jesus calls him and those who sided with him, hypocrites (deceiver, fraud, and pretender) and exposes the stupidity of the rules created by their thinking.
15 But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites, does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the stall, and lead him away to water him?
16 “And this woman, a daughter of Abraham as she is, whom Satan has bound for eighteen long years, should she not have been released from this bond on the Sabbath day?”
A desire for healing is exactly why people do come into our churches to seek after God. Many people, even those who are Christian believers are bound by situations and difficulties that they are powerless to change and come to the worship of God for hope. It is often what motivates their steps into the doors of our places of worship.
Follow the leader! People, do you know? The best leaders are devoted followers of Jesus Christ. They are those who know that their gifts of leadership are for the healing of those who allow them to lead by being followers. Are you a leader? What feeling comes into your soul when Jesus does a work in the life of those you lead? Let the Lord Jesus Christ evaluate those feelings because He knows exactly what they mean.
Lord, I take the responsibility of leadership very seriously.
I want to be a leader in Your Church who is a devoted follower of Your heart.
I want to be a leader in Your Church who understands the spirit of Your commands.
I want to be a leader in Your Church who knows how much I need Your freedom and Your touch.
I will be a leader in Your Church who follows You Lord Jesus. Amen