In this Sunday’s Gospel reading, Christ heals a woman who has been bent over for eighteen years, making her stand up straight. However, the synagogue leader condemned Christ, saying that he was doing work on the Sabbath, which was forbidden according to the Old Testament law. However, Christ references the Old Testament law that permits an animal to be untethered and taken to water on the Sabbath. He argues that, if it is allowed to show mercy to an animal on the Sabbath, how much more could he show mercy on the woman on the Sabbath.

In this healing and exchange with the synagogue leader, Christ demonstrates how he fulfills the law. He completes it in its true purpose. In this example, he fulfills the true purpose of the Sabbath — mercy.

In today’s Epistle reading from Ephesians 2, we read more about Christ’s fulfillment of the law. This passage says that Christ broke down the dividing wall of hostility separating the Jew and the non-Jew, abolishing the law in his flesh. Fr. Gregory explains that this is a reference to the wall that around the Old Testament temple, which separated Jews from non-Jews. 

Through Christ, the walls between we humans have been broken down, and we are a new community of Christians. Fr. Gregory encourages us to view one another in light of this new family, as true brothers and sisters.