Now he was teaching
in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath.
And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her
for eighteen years. She was bent over
and was quite unable to stand up straight.
When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, ‘Woman, you are set
free from your ailment.’ When he laid
his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising
God. But the leader of the synagogue,
indignant because Jesus had cured on the Sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, ‘There
are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured,
and not on the Sabbath day.’ But the
Lord answered him and said, ‘You hypocrites!
Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the
manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter
of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this
bondage on the Sabbath day?’ When he
said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing
at all the wonderful things that he was doing. (NRSV)
It seems whenever Jesus came to
town something always got stirred up; and generally it was the religious
leaders who took exception to the
stirring. The account of the woman
being healed on the Sabbath is no exception.
A question that we will explore today is: Which sickness got cured….her physical
health, or spiritual?
In that story there is little
room or sympathy for the religious leaders – they’re jerks! I know that doesn’t sound very pastoral or
kindly…but, let’s face it, how can you love the rules more than the healing of
a woman who has been so crippled that she can’t even look up the past two
decades? They were jerks!
The real
question is: what made them jerks? We really want to know this, so we
don’t act like that. Correct me if I’m
wrong here, but would you want somebody to write the story of “our synagogue”
and two-thousand years from now have some upstart call your pastor a jerk? So….what made them act like jerks? Short answer:
they were so obsessed with keeping the rules and making sure everyone
else kept the rules they lost all sense of compassion for people.
Rules
do things to people. You can get so
immersed in rules, and being a rules-keeper, that you can do some pretty silly
stuff.
I
read about some Odd Laws Still on the
Books:
· In Blackwater, Kentucky, tickling a woman under her chin with a
feather duster while she’s in church service carries a penalty of $10.00 and
one day in jail. (maybe that would be worth it?)
· No one can eat unshelled, roasted peanuts while attending church
in Idanha, Oregon.
· In Honey Creek, Iowa, no one is permitted to carry a slingshot to
church except a policeman.
· No citizen in Leecreek, Arkansas, is allowed to attend church in
any red-colored garment.
Those are some pretty silly laws…however,
they’re no less grotesque than the rulers of the synagogue were in Jesus’ day. Their rules-keeping, legalistic mentality had
so clouded their minds they couldn’t see the needs of the most needy person
among them.
Consider the Contrast of the Woman and the Rulers
This Jewish
woman was one of their own. She was so
bent-over, and had been for such a long time that, for the rulers at least, she
probably just faded into the background.
This was among the most powerless of people…not a mover and shaker in
the community.
The text suggests she must have
suffered from a curved spinal column.
That was the physical reality; the spiritual reality was that Satan had
“bound” her. She was bent and
bound!
There was a lady like that in a
church I served years ago. Ms. Peggy had
crippling arthritis; her hands were gnarled and twisted and she walked
stooped-over as the woman in our Bible passage.
And just like the crippled woman, Ms. Peggy was a fixture at the North
Main Street Church. She didn’t let her
physical condition get in the way of her spiritual nourishment.
The rulers or leaders of the
synagogue were quite a different matter.
The woman was powerless and faithful; the rulers of the synagogue were
powerful and faithless. As previously
noted, they had responsibility for the widows, the powerless. Yet the chief ruler could only bring criticism
for Jesus healing her. They kept their
bylaws, but ignored the greatest commandment to love God and neighbor.
When Jesus saw the pitiful
condition of this woman he had compassion on her – the kind of compassion that must
do something. He initiated
the healing. The woman didn’t even ask;
Jesus reached out and touched her. And
when the rulers objected, Jesus put them to open shame by using the lesser to greater logic of pointing-out
how they would’ve done that and more even for the animals of their
household. Certainly a woman of their
own flock deserved care on the Sabbath
Consider the Contrast of Reactions to the Woman’s Healing
The woman had been crippled for 18 years.
When Jesus healed her there was no doubt that it was that same woman
they’d seen each week at synagogue. When
this woman stood up straight for the first time in 18 years it must have been
quite a sight!
Luke says that she glorified
God. Can’t you see it? Like days gone by when you’d see someone running
down a church aisle because they’d been tapped on the shoulder by the Holy
Spirit, this woman lifted up un-crippled hands and straight arms without pain
for the first time in two decades! She
didn’t care who was looking! She sang
hallelujah, off-key or on…it made no difference!
The people rejoiced.
I can imagine that; if Ms. Peggy
had suddenly gotten healed it would’ve caused a revival at North Main Street
Church!
The rulers got ticked!
What a contrast! It just proves that control is power-vested. These men, in charge of everything, with the
legal right to discipline and punish wrong-doers, were so threatened by the
popularity of Jesus..all they could think of was the fact that he was breaking
the rules. They brought no worship,
offered up no praise to God because Jesus healed this poor sister of
theirs. They could only think of how
Jesus’ popularity was growing, and theirs was shrinking! Matthew’s gospel (chap. 12) tells us that it
was after this that they started to plot how to kill Jesus.
If you follow the timeline of
Jesus’ movements, this was the very last time Jesus entered a synagogue before
going to the cross. It kind of makes the
point about crossing the line once too often with God. There is a time when He finally says, “OK, your will be done”…and God
finally washes His hands of trying to save you.
To Remember
So this woman was healed on the Sabbath…some big crime, eh?
A young child drew a wonderful picture of a church. The stick people figures going in the front
door were bent and dejected.
Emerging
out the back door were other, larger, straighter stick people. The child’s Mom asked what the meaning was. The little girl replied
That’s how it is to go to see Jesus; when you go in you’re all
broken-down…He straightens you up and you feel much better!
The woman needed more than physical healing. And she needed more than spiritual
healing. And when she met Jesus, both
happened!
There are abused and powerless people all around us in this
community. Our job is to look for them,
find them, and heal them. They are
crying out in their hearts a phrase that is often repeated in the Scripture; it
is the phrase/question which is frequently on the lips of a sufferer: How long, O Lord?
Our job is to speak for those who cannot speak, to seek those who
cannot help themselves, to minister where the hands and loving touch of Jesus
are needed. That is what describes the
ministry of a church.
How many bound and bent people do you know? And, this week, will they see in
you the One who can make them straight?
Robert W. Pelton
in The Door. Christian Reader, Vol. 33, no. 5.
