"Who among you, if your son or ox falls into a cistern, would not immediately pull him out on the sabbath day?" // Luke 14:6
My cousin walked into my aunt’s kitchen with a look of concern on his face, “There is a calf down in the stream bed—I think it is stuck in the mud.” It had been a snow-heavy winter in the upper midwest, and now with spring finally setting in, the water from the melting snow was pooling above the thawing ground. And this Easter afternoon, as my children had done their annual Easter ride in the truck with their cousin around the farm, they had spotted the calf.
My uncle, the male cousins, and my husband all looked at each other. This was not how they had envisioned their Easter celebration, but even on Easter Sunday, the animals had to be cared for, and we folks visiting from the city were ready to help. When the men came back in, several hours later, they were caked with mud, tired, and hungry and ready to celebrate Christ’s Resurrection.
As we ate our Easter dinner, we talked about how the rescue of the calf was like the saying of Jesus to the Pharisees from today’s Gospel (see Luke 14:1-6) and not an unfitting activity when spiritually interpreted.
God saw us stuck in the mud of our sin and fallenness, took on the messiness of human life, and pulled us out, raising us to the level of His “sons”—or for us, His daughters. Further, His descent into hell happened on the Jewish sabbath, and He rose on Sunday, which is the new day of rest and our Christian sabbath.
Sister, that is the point of this Gospel. Any day is the right day to be rescued by God, to receive His love, to accept your place as His daughter. I know this message seems so simple, and we have heard it again and again. But do we really know it in our hearts? Do we believe that we are worth being pulled out of the mess, worth being made daughters of God? Go back and read today’s Gospel, imagine yourself in the place of the man whom Jesus healed, and embrace this gift of daughter ship He has given you.
Susanna Spencer holds a master's in Theology from the Franciscan University of Steubenville and is the Content and Theological Editor for Blessed is She. She is a freelance writer, editor, and speaker living with her philosopher husband and four kids in Saint Paul, Minnesota. She loves reading theology, attending beautiful liturgies, cooking delicious food, and casually following baseball. She is the author of the Gospel Studies including Seek His Kingdom: A Meditation on Matthew; narrator for Found: Advent With the Good Shepherd and Rescued: Lent With the Lamb of God; a contributing author to our children’s devotional prayer book, Rise Up; and Theological Editor of the Blessed Conversations Studies. Find out more about her here.
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