Luke 13:10-17 (NRSVue)
10 Now
[Jesus] was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11 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. 12 When Jesus saw
her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.”
13 When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began
praising God. 14 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.” 15 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 to
water? 16 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?” 17 When
he said this, all his opponents were put to shame, and the entire crowd was
rejoicing at all the wonderful things being done by him.
Reflection
The woman who
was crippled and bent over did not ask to be healed. I want you to stop and think about that for
just a moment. The Bible says that she
just “appeared” while “Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues
on the Sabbath” (Luke 13:10-11). Jesus is the one who sees her. Jesus is the one who call out to her. The woman did not ask to be healed.
This is somewhat astonishing because, seemingly, all of the other times that Jesus heals someone, they have called out to him in faith; like in Luke 5:12-16 where a man covered with a skin disease sees Jesus, comes to Jesus and begs Jesus for healing. Or, in the least, family or friends approach Jesus and ask that someone they love be healed, like the guy who was lowered through the roof in Luke 5:17-25. That guy did not ask to be healed, but his friends did. In all of these other healing, Jesus is asked if he could please heal.
The woman did not ask.
Jesus simply looked over and saw her as she hobbled, bent over and unable to stand straight; bent over and unable to meet anyone eye to eye; bent over and unable to raise her hands up to God in worship. She did not seek out Jesus. She simply came to worship on the Sabbath, presumably as she always did.
Maybe, she had not recognized her need for healing at this point in life. She had suffered for so long that, maybe, she considered her bent over nature as completely normal. The Bible says that she had been crippled for “eighteen years” after all.
By the way, eighteen is the number that represents bondage in the Bible, and it is a long time. In Judges 3:14 we find that, for eighteen years, the people of God were under the thumb of the Moabite king as they tried to settle in the promised land. A whole generation was oppressed. And, again in Judges 10:7-8 we find that God’s people were in bondage to the Philistines, and serving them for eighteen years. Eighteen years is a long time.
The woman joined in the struggles of her own people as she found herself in bondage to her crippling existence. Maybe, bondage is just what happens to the people of God, and there is little to be done about it. How can we forget that even in recent history the Jews were in bondage to the evils of the Nazis? Maybe, she just figured that being in bondage is just what happens to people like her; like abused children who just accept the bodily strikes and involuntary confinements that abusive adults dole out. Given that, maybe she did not even think to seek healing.
Maybe, it had little to do with her people’s history and she just figured that it was old age. I cannot tell you the number of people who have missed signs of heart disease such as pressure in the chest or frequent numbness and pain in the arm. All of these people tell me that they just assumed that it was old age, and they did not seek to be healed. Neither did she seek to be healed.
Maybe, she has just slowly become accustomed to the evils of her body. The Bible states that she was afflicted by Satan. Jesus called her “a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years” (Luke 13:16). She was afflicted by the accuser, the personification of the forces of chaos. The forces of chaos had entered into her very body and made things literally out of order. Her back was bent. Her spine was way out of line. Her muscles would not allow her to straighten. And, she was used to it.
We get so used to the forces of chaos in our lives and we just resign ourselves to the way it is. “It is what it is” we say to ourselves and others. “It is what it is and there is nothing to be done about it.”
The woman did not even think to ask to be healed, and quite often neither do we. It is what it is.
But, the Bible says that “Jesus saw her” (Luke 13:12). He saw her inability to stand straight. He saw her inability to stand up and raise her hands to God in praise on the Sabbath. He saw her in ability to rest on the Sabbath. “Jesus saw her” and Jesus sees you.
Jesus disagrees with us. He disagrees that “it is what it is.” It is not what it is. Chaos is not the way God has ordered the world. People are not intended to be bent over. Children are not intended to be abused. People are not intended to be starved under the guise of war. People are not intended to be held hostage to substances. People are not intended to lose little ones in natural disasters. People are not intended to suffer in this very beautiful but also very painful and chaotic world.
“It is not what it is.”
The world right now is not as it was made to be.
And, this woman could not stand the way she was meant to stand.
And, this woman could not rest. Her arched back would not allow her to stand or sit or stretch out and lay in any comfortable way. The chaos of this world does not allow us to stand up straight and proud, or sit without anxiety, or sleep without fear. In the chaos of this world, we cannot rest and this woman certainly could not rest.
And, God notices when we are not resting. “Jesus saw her” (Luke 13:12).
“Jesus saw her” and Jesus sees us. He notices when we cannot rest. He notices when our lives are bent out of shape. He notices, and this noticing does not lead to judging us for our lack of rest.
I know this to be true because judgment was thrown Jesus’ way for not resting on the Sabbath. When Jesus did some work on the Sabbath and healed the woman, the leader of the synagogue was “indignant because Jesus had cured on the Sabbath, [and he] 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’” (Luke 13:14).
Jesus does not accept any sort of judgment concerning the failure to rest. No one gets to throw out criticisms for failure to rest because even those who pretend to rest on the Sabbath do not cease to work completely.
“You hypocrites!” Jesus shouts back (Luke 13:15). “You pretenders!” “Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it to 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?” (Luke 13:15-16).
This leader noticed when his animals needed water and he took them to rest by the “still waters” as the beloved Psalm 23 puts it, as he should. How could he not see that this woman was bound and needed rest as well? Was he too blind to see? Did he look at her bent nature and think to himself, “It is what it is.”? Maybe, he did not even notice her problem at all.
But, God notices. God notices when we cannot rest. However, God does not judge us like this leader. God knows that the punishment for not stopping on the stopping day is not getting any rest. (That is what “Sabbath” means by the way: “The Stopping Day.”) The punishment for not resting is getting no rest. And, when we do not rest, we suffer, and Jesus sees when we suffer. Not only does he see; Jesus has compassion when we suffer and cannot rest.
“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” (Luke 13:12-13).
Do you need healing and rest? Jesus sees you. Jesus calls out to you.
Can your eyes see those around you who need healing and rest? What would Jesus have you do? Jesus sees them and calls out to them as well.
When we cannot rest, when chaos has invaded our bodies and made our lives to be out of alignment, Jesus notices. He calls out to us, and we are invited to step forward to be healed and find some rest. Maybe, we too might stand up straight and begin to praise God.