One Sabbath, Jesus is teaching in a synagogue and heals a woman who has been bent over for 18 years with curvature of the spine (see Luke 13:10–17). The leader of the synagogue is indignant and challenges Jesus, reminding the people that Jewish law forbids working on the Sabbath, the day for rest and worship, and telling them to come only on the other six days of the week for healing.
Jesus pushes back, noting that since Jewish law allows owners to free their animals from their stalls on the Sabbath to get water, it’s more than legitimate for the woman to be freed from her illness on the Sabbath. Jesus’ words leave his opponents silent and ashamed, and the people around rejoice in the good Jesus has done.
Reading this story again, I asked myself how these two individuals—Jesus and the leader of the synagogue—both deeply committed to following the Jewish law, managed to understand and interpret it in such diametrically opposite ways. Was there a lesson I could learn here about following the Manual of The Mother Church, written by the Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, and branch church rules, where people may be at odds over various interpretations?
