There appeared a woman
with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years.
She was bent over, unable to stand up straight.
—Luke 13.11
Jesus is always looking for where it hurts.
She is bent in a perpetual bow, eyes down.
He touches her, and she rises.
Of course the ruler objects. It’s the Sabbath.
Better to leave her suffering than disturb the order.
This, too, is where it hurts.
Grace lifts up; the ruler presses down.
He’s bent over his rules, unable to see.
Jesus opens his eyes: Sabbath is for setting free.
Always watching, the Beloved is,
for what hurts, and what keeps us hurt,
for where it hurts and also why.
Satan and his rulers tolerate only those healings
that don’t disturb the kingdom in which, sorry,
that’s the way it is, some people just have to suffer.
The Beloved contradicts. Not just his miracles,
all his ordinary acts are disruptive.
Sometimes the rule is where it hurts.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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