On the sabbath

Haiku for the religiously observant.

On the sabbath day

the afflicted woman came.

She asked no favours.

Eighteen years of pain,

with body bent and twisted;

Jesus called to her.

Freed by Jesus' words,

standing upright, rejoicing;

giving praise to God.

Religious leaders

speak to defend the sabbath

from such outrages.

Six days for working!

The seventh's not for healing;

come another day!

Get real, says Jesus.

Common sense and compassion

must rule ev'ry day.

Living is empty

if love no longer shapes us;

Embrace its freedom.

The crowd rejoices;

opponents are put to shame.

Don't mess with Jesus.

© Ken Rookes 2016

Entitlement

Arriving in his home town

Jesus entered the coming-together place

and addressed his people.

A wave of amazement washed over them,

and then receded almost as quickly.

No special favours, he told them.

Like it was with Elijah and Elisha,

it won't be the local people who receive the words,

or the blessings.

It'll be the outsiders, the strangers,

the foreigners and other no-hopers.

Hardly surprising, then,

that a new wave was generated;

one of anger and outrage.

This one took its time passing,

as the throng rode it malevolently

to the cliff at edge of the town;

sweeping the offender before them.

There, to their credit,

they had second thoughts,

and let him walk away.

Which proved to be a good thing

for us outsiders, strangers,

foreigners and other no-hopers.

© Ken Rookes 2016
My apologies. I posted this last week, but for some reason it saved as a draft and didn't post.