Happy Monday! We are in our third week of studying the story of the bent woman from Luke 13:10-17.
This week as you read over the text, you should consider the question:
Are there any sins to repent of or commands to obey?
Many of you may not know that I am an English teacher at Charles Page High School. I've taught English in multiple schools for almost 25 years now. I've learned a lot about myself over these 25 years. One thing I've realized is that I am a rule follower. I'm all about the rules: grammar rules, classroom rules, dress-code rules, and rules of behavior. I believe that rules are made for a reason; therefore, they should be enforced, so I have always tried to implement them, especially in my classroom. For many years, I was known as the "hat Nazi" because I would make students remove their hats in the hallway or in my classroom. Some of the worst confrontations I have had with my students have been over hats. That seems pretty ridiculous, right? They didn't understand why it was a big deal. To me, it was a "respect" thing that had been drilled into my head for years. You didn't wear a hat in a building, especially church and school. It was a rule that made me miserable more than once. About three years ago, the high school administrators lifted the rule about wearing hats in the building, and students felt like they had won a major battle. I was frustrated at first, but my life became so much simpler once I was able to stop seeing those hat-wearing students as rebels, and I barely even notice the students wearing hats anymore. Why am I telling you this?
Well, like most of you, when I first read the passage about the bent woman, I immediately got upset with the leader of the synagogue and wondered how he could be so angry after Jesus himself had healed this poor woman who had been suffering for 18 long years. Shouldn't he have been happy that he had witnessed a miracle in his tabernacle instead of reading everyone the riot act for coming to be healed on the Sabbath? When Jesus put them in their place by calling them hypocrites and explaining that even they worked on the Sabbath, I found myself cheering Him on. (Go, Jesus!) But this week, as I started thinking about the sins to repent of, I discovered that I am not that different from the leaders of the synagogue. I was guilty of being a hypocrite. I was all caught up in the rules and making sure that everyone else was following those rules that I wasn't seeing the good that was going on around me. I'm pretty sure that I would have asked Jesus to remove His hat if He had walked into my classroom as a teenager.
Sin: Judging others for what they are guilty of doing
Matthew 7:3 asks us,
"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?
Last week, I talked about focus and asked what you are focused on, this world or things from above. As ridiculous as this sounds, once they did away with the hat rule, my focus on many things changed. It is like the plank in my eye was removed, and my outlook on life became brighter.
As the title says, I was guilty as charged. I wasn't breaking the hat rule, but had I broken other rules in my life? Of course.
Jesus wasn't there to call me a hypocrite, but in Romans 3:23 it says,
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”
I was so focused on the sin of others that I couldn't see my own sin. In Luke 13:17, the hypocrites are called Jesus' "enemies" or "opponents," and it says that they were "humiliated." Were those religious leaders actually enemies of God looking to destroy the reputation of Jesus, or were they just caught up in the rules of the time? If you read on in Luke, you will find the answer to that question.
For now, I leave you with these questions: What is keeping you from seeing the good things going on around you? Are you so focused on the splinters in the eyes of others that you can't see past the plank in your own eye?
Footnote:
A plank weighs on average 93.6 lbs. That much weight in a person's eye would have them bent over for sure.
Chelynn is a contributing writer for Shaken and Stirred. She is a long-time daughter of Christ, a wife, mother of two amazing adult children, and Nonnie to four beautiful grandchildren. She teaches Senior English at Charles Page High School and is also a Realtor for Keller Williams. She enjoys all things summer including boating, vacationing, and swimming.