Love over Legalism – Liberation into Life!

This cultural form was reinforced and guarded by 
one leader in particular. He had power in both church and the local community. He was Powerful Ruler.
Every month or so, Powerful Ruler would gather the children and young people together and give them a 
rev-up to remind them of how the world was and should remain. He preached a racist Gospel, drawing on 
Biblical passages to justify segregation, racism and the exclusion of all people of colour. He reinforced such 
a negative view of those of different skin colour ensuring all the children and young people understood how 
things were, the way of the world.
In their church was another older woman who had been a missionary in Korea for several decades. She 
retired back to her hometown where there was family. Her name was Miss Hattie Buie, and that was how 
they referred to her. It seemed to Tex, that every time Powerful Ruler called the children and young people 
together, serving up his racist rant, Miss Hattie Buie invited all the children and young people to her home. 
There was no way she could take on Powerful Ruler directly. He would have made life unbearable, even 
running her out of the church – perhaps the town. So, Miss Hattie Buie invited the children and young people 
to her home, where she dressed up in traditional Korean clothes, brought out Korean art, sculptures, toys and 
other things she’d brought back with her. She explained them to the children and young people, telling stories 
of Korean life and people, especially young people. Miss Hattie Buie also taught them songs. One was how 
Jesus loves the children of the world, children of all colours, were loved. She taught the children to sing ‘Jesus 
Loves Me’ in Korean and 60 years later, Tex Sample could still sing those Korean words.
Miss Hattie Buie had a profound influence on Tex and opened his view to see people as people. He said
that Powerful Ruler took God’s story and placed it inside the world’s story of racism, power, greed and 
exclusion, transforming God’s story into something less. Miss Hattie Buie took the world’s story with its 
exclusion, racism, greed, and violence and placed it into God’s story of grace and love, inclusion and 
belonging. She transformed the world’s story.
This week, in Luke’s story of Jesus (Luke 13:10-17), we find Jesus in the synagogue teaching the people. 
As he spoke, he noticed a women lurking in the shadows, unseen. This woman was bent over with some 
physical deformity, and she was lost, alone, ignored and unseen by other people. This woman had this 
deformity for 18 years! She was excluded because of her deformity but Jesus noticed her! He saw what others 
didn’t or refused to see. He called her over and proclaimed that she was free of her ailment – released or 
liberated. The sense here is not so much curing of a disease as release from something that oppresses and 
weighs down. Jesus liberated this woman from her oppression. She stood up straight and praised God! 
This story connects with Jesus’ opening words in Luke’s story, where Jesus declares that he has come to 
bring good news to the poor, release of captives, recovery of sight for the blind and freedom/liberation for 
oppressed… This sense of liberation from oppression carries through the story as we hear of the conflict that 
Jesus has provoked by healing this woman on the Sabbath Day.
The leader of the Synagogue is furious and addresses the people declaring that there are 6 days on which 
you can be healed – don’t come on the Sabbath as that is a holy day before God. He quotes, with some 
interpretation, the law that there are 6 days for work and the Sabbath is a day of rest. The implication is that 
this woman could have come yesterday or tomorrow, and Jesus could have waited until tomorrow. Healing 
did not have to occur today – and should not have happened. The law is the law and the law was broken!
Jesus didn’t mince his words in reply: “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox 
or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, 
whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”
The religious leaders were silenced, put to shame as the crowd cheered. 
Jesus used the language current in his world, language of Satan, demons, spirits etc that competed for 
control in their world. It is not the language we would typically use. Our worldview is very different, and we 
would attribute ailments, illness etc to physical and mental illness, psychological issues but probably not fully 
recognise the spiritual realities in our lives. This language, never-the-less, conveys oppression and suffering 
under the weight of life, emotional stress, trauma, abuse, guilt/shame, grief, poverty and so on. We understand 
the weight of life, even if we may not always associate this with oppression and the need for liberation from that which weighs us down.
Luke enfolds this woman’s oppression with the larger story of legalism that oppresses people, of laws so 
rigidly applied that they deny life, hope and healing into God’s grace. The leader of the Synagogue was both 
right and wrong. He was obviously a deeply faithful man who held the law of Moses in very high regard. He 
sought with all his might to ensure that God was honoured through deep respect for and obedience of the laws 
given to Moses on My Sinai and then developed through history in the community of faith. These traditions 
and laws gave structure and form to society and ensured there was order and God was honoured. However, 
such rigid application of the law ignored people!
Lurking deep within this story is a question that sits, unuttered, but silently present: What is God like? 
Does God hold that the law is all important and people must uphold every aspect of the law, no matter what 
the cost or implication? Or is God more concerned with people and their well-being, their inclusion and 
liberation into deeper life and grace? What is God like? How we answer this question will also push us towards 
one side of the other – towards the Synagogue Ruler and his absolute upholding of the law, or towards Jesus 
whose approach is towards people, their release from oppressive forces and powers, healing of that which 
separates them and releases them to live in community alongside others.
Jesus’ vision is for a world that is inclusive and welcomes all people, offering the liberating love and grace 
of God, the experience of inclusive community where all share life and resources together. He envisages and 
enacts a way that releases people from the weight of life, including law and culture, so that laws provide a 
gentle structure and help people live together well and with freedom and justice. He brings healing, liberation, 
salvation and life to a world divided by power, structure, class, health, wealth, culture and all that denies and 
divides.