By David O. Dykes
Apparently, the synagogue ruler had a few others who agreed with his action because Jesus addressed His words to a group. I like the way Eugene Peterson paraphrases it in
The Message: "You frauds! Each Sabbath every one of you unties your cow or donkey from its stall, leads it out for water and thinks nothing of it. So why isn’t it all right for me to untie this daughter of Abraham and lead her from the stall where Satan has had her tied these eighteen years?" The Jews had made so many loopholes in the Sabbath laws, they had figured out a way to untie their livestock and lead them to water, even if the water was more than a Sabbath’s walk away. Jesus accused them of treating their animals better than they treated people!
Advertisement
Sadly, the descendants of this self-appointed religious expert are still with us today. These uptight folks are relying more on a set of strict religious rules than on a liberating, joyous relationship with God. They are often called legalists or religious traditionalists. You can usually spot them when other folks get happy in the Lord and start praising God. Like the man in our text, they are quick to complain. They still get upset when they see someone having a good time in the Lord. I guess it’s because they think religion ought to make you miserable; and if you are enjoying yourself, you can’t be very spiritual. Those who have been set free by Jesus are under the constant scrutiny of these legalists who are ready to condemn any unexpected exuberance.
It’s nothing new. It was happening 3,000 years ago. In
2 Samuel 6 there is an interesting story about King David. The Ark of God had been out of Jerusalem for a long time, and finally David arranged to have it brought back to the city of Jerusalem. As the priests were carrying the ark into the city, David got so excited that the Bible says he, "danced before the Lord with all his might!" I don’t know exactly what that means, except I suppose David was so full of joy he just got happy feet.
One of his wives, Michal, saw him and despised his behavior; she got all bent out of shape. She mocked him and, in words dripping with sarcasm, accused him of being "undignified." I love David’s reply. He didn’t let her rob his joy; he just said, "I will celebrate before the Lord and become even MORE undignified, because my dignity isn’t as important as celebrating the goodness of God" (
2 Sam. 6:12-22).
Sam Jones was a Methodist Evangelist who lived and preached in the late 1800s. He was known to be extremely plain spoken. Once he was preaching about how some people refuse to get enthusiastic about God because they are afraid they might lose their "dignity." He said: "Dignity is the starch of the shroud. The more dignity a fellow has the nearer dead he is. I expect to be as dignified as some of you when they put me in my coffin."