Reflection fro the Volunteers ofTeam GKI Jogjakarta
29 November 2010 GKI Gejayan
“Menegakkan Orang Yang Tidak Dapat Berdiri Tegak” Luke 13:10-17
Pre-reflection:
Allow me to deliver a warm regard from fellow volunteers from GKI Batam until Bali.
In the subsequent disasters of Wasior, Mentawai, and Merapi it was clear that this time the volunteers really put their lifes on the line:
1. In Wasior the constant rain increased the potential of another flood and threatens the lifes of the TGKI volunteers.
2. In Mentawai storm and tidal waves from the Indian Ocean endangers the lifes of TGKI volunteers looking for remote villages.
3. In Merapi eruption and volcanic cloud repeatedly threatens the life of TGKI volunteers.
1st: An Anonymous Woman Who Was Hunched and Cannot Stand Up Straight
The ill women's name was not mentioned, anonymous. Like most refugees of Merapi, also anonymous to the volunteers. Already for 18 years this woman is "sick until she bent her back" with the result of "can not stand upright" anymore. The bearers of feminist theology can certainly assume that this passage gives a firm basis of biblical theology as a foundation for the topic about women and gender[1]. But in general, we can safely say that this humpback female symbolism, represented by the class of people who did not receive love, care and attention, or those who are marginalized and anonymous. Whether they're healthy, sick or dying, present or not in the synagogue, they have absolutely no meaning for everyone there, Only for Jesus they mean something.
The refugees of Merapi certainly met these criteria. Many people pay attention to refugees not because they are refugees, but for the interest and satisfaction of those who assist them. Unless they are serious, in many places the parties that help only comes in the first few days. They just put up tents, each rivet their insignia, even there were many tents with a red cross sign, but without the presence of doctors, nurses or medicine. In one of the Mentawai islands’ west coast there are political parties that put their flag up, waving majestically, with no one who are willing to devote themselves to aid the disaster victims. In Wasior, a few days after the flash floods, came so many parties and volunteers. However, when the water receded most of them had already left. Kompas.com on 16 November 2010 wrote, a month after flash floods, the only volunteers who stayed are just GKI and PMI. 118 Ambulance Foundation reported that up to this day the only functioning health facility in Wasior is the "Humanitarian Movement of Indonesia Emergency Hospital." When so many parties viewed the victims as meaningless, Team GKI is trying its best to regard them as fellow human, friend, and brothers. As Jesus put it, they looked like a hunchback woman who means nothing to anyone except to Him. GKI-Humaniarian viewed helping and giving relief to disaster victims is an act of caring for Christ Himself. In Matthew 25:34-40, Jesus said, who gave food, drink, visit and liberate the poor and suffer from this, actually cared for Jesus himself. Jesus continually demonstrated a firm and clear partiality to the poor, and vice versa towards people who are not poor.
This nameless anonymous female came to the synagogue not asking for any healing. It seems, apart from unable to stand up straight, she also can not speak freely. Perhaps it was desperation after repeatedly failing to ask something from men. This woman was "muted" by the society. It's like the refugees who were promised by the government that their cows will be purchased by the government, but never actually happened, so they sell their cows cheaply. Cannot wait and loosing their spirit, or as tens of thousands of refugees who were are concentrated given food to eat, but have to wait in line for hours so they can eat, the refugees had enough and left the stadium Maguwoharjo.
2nd : Jesus Uprighted the Women who can't Stand Upright
But Jesus called the hunchback woman and announced her recovery and laid His hand. Immediately the woman recovered. Now she can stand upright. Of course now the views of this woman changed in perspective, she can now see wider and further compared to the time she was hunched. The woman was grateful and glorified God for healing and the renewal she experienced. Not only can she stand up straight, but now she can also freely talk. She is no longer muted. Those who experienced divine power as a subject will be filled with gratitude, even if initially they did not ask nor imagine receiving such grace. Conversely those who have experienced divine power as an object can not be grateful just like the nine out of ten blind men healed by Jesus.
Different from the woman, the head of the synagogue became upset. It is quite unclear whether he was upset to Jesus, or the woman, because he said to the crowd. "There are six days for work. Because of it, come on one of those days to be healed and not on the Sabbath." It's like the incident in Mentawai. When Team GKI see so many babies and children lost their parents in the recent tsunami, with the church of Mentawai, GKI-Humaniarian immediately realized the building of an orphanage which will be managed by the Church of Mentawai. However, the action was a little regrettable because GKI did not want to work in coordination. A planned consortium intends to build a comprehensive Mentawai and is putting together a master plan to empower Mentawai. It's like the head of the synagogue, which adhere to the order to the extent that he can no longer see the action to uphold people who can not stand up as a virtue which actually can not be delayed.
The head of the synagogue was not angry because of the healing itself, but because of momentum. This woman has been ill for 18 years, so what's wrong with waiting a couple more days to be cured? Infants and children orphaned in Mentawai already lost their parents, why not wait until the master plan is implemented?
Why should it be done on holy days like the Sabbath and in a holy place like a synagogue? The head of the synagogue is indeed obliged to maintain the discipline of the Sabbath Day, he enforced a discipline that was a given. On other words, he took the Sabbath for granted. He never thought out of the box or made enlightening comparisons for an obsolete doctrine, at least to find out whether God agrees with his opinions or not. The ability to test the “given” and the “taken for granted” is an invaluable ability to move to the sublime spiritual perspective. Sacred times and holy places do not determine the actions and attitudes that carries God's will. On the other hand the time and places that are not holy and sacred may not always determine the actions and attitudes which are against God's intentions. Abraham at Sodom and Gomorrah, Jonah in Nineveh, Paul in Athens everything is in place and time that is not holy, but they all carry God's intentions.
3rd: Enlightenment for the Many
Finally, it is the time for Jesus to enlighten. He challenged the rigid discipline of the head of the synagogue. Jesus confronts him with a simple comparison. "Don’t you all let your ox or donkey on the Sabbath off their pen and took it to a place a drink?" Of course it was assumed that the head of the synagogue and every person present at the synagogue, never apply the law of the Sabbath on oxen and donkeys. Giving Water to the oxen or donkeys and cattle out, and putting them into their pen, was never thought of as a violation of the Sabbath. So Jesus showed how inconsistent the doctrine was to the leader of the synagogue about the Sabbath law, even how unfair it is the comparison between giving water to the cattle and human healing. In the eyes of Jesus, the woman who can not stand up straight and can not freely speak is as holy as the synagogue or the Sabbath, because she is also a descendant of Abraham. On this woman applies God's great promises to Abraham. Her dignity as a woman is higher than any cows or donkeys; she is much more precious because she is a descendant of God's chosen people.
The enlightenment Jesus did go well. "His entire opponents felt ashamed" and the public "rejoice in all the glorious things that were done by him." Feeling ashamed for one’s own naiveté is a wonderful characteristic. That means that his opponents are aware of their mistakes. Those who can afford "to know shame" and able to recognize the problem yourself, can be fixed. Instead those who are "shameless" and not able to recognize the problems in themselves can never fix his mistake. The enlightenment by Jesus is important, because in other stories about Sabbath, Jesus' opponents were even more eager to kill Jesus? That the public is "glad about all the glorious things that were done by him," is also a good sign that the enlightenment of Jesus had achieved great success.
This passage expresses the Gospel of Jesus about enlightenment in helping people who can not stand upright. May we remain steadfast in doing work for Christ. Amen
KS: Sunday, 28 November 2010
[1] The women in this world can no longer “stand up straight” for centuries even up to this day, for they are living in the men’s world. These women are threatened by men starting from the field of battle to the vicinity of the bedroom. In addition, women are conditioned to be unable to “stand up straight” by the modern culture today, faced with cosmetic surgery, fashion, excessive diets, body modifications, hair modifications. Trafficking has always take women as victims. The unpaid women labour, abused and raped, killed, all are women.
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