11th Sunday after Pentecost
Text: Luke 13:10-17
Pastor Jean M. Hansen
Jesus saw her. Jesus saw the bent-over woman, but she didn’t see him. She might have heard him, or even heard of him, but she didn’t see him. Well … I guess she might have seen his feet, but that’s all, because she could not look up.
Consider that … 18 years of not looking up, of being unable to straighten her back, of being completely bent over. We can imagine that she walked on pathways familiar to her, looking for landmarks on the ground to find her way. She never looked into people’s eyes, and the fact of the matter is that they probably avoided her, thinking that her condition was a punishment for sin, or that she was inhabited by an evil spirit. It’s likely that she experienced chronic pain. In fact, she endured two types of pain – the pain of being ignored, isolated and the pain of having a debilitating physical condition.
Jesus saw her. He called her over. That’s surprising because women did not enter the area of the synagogue where men sat. She was not only unwelcome there, but not familiar with the space and could not look up to see the way in. She had to take careful steps into the unknown to respond to Jesus. When she arrived in front of him, only able to see his sandal-clad feet, it’s interesting that Jesus did not ask if she wanted to be healed or if she had faith that she could be healed.
He simply said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment,” not your sins are forgiven, or you are healed, but SET FREE. She had been bound for 18 years – hurting, ashamed, limited, excluded – and now she is free! Jesus then laid his healing hand on her, and she immediately stood up, looked into the most grace-filled eyes she had ever seen, recognized the source of her healing and praised God.
Now, you would think that such a thrilling moment would have led to everyone praising God, but, no, there’s always that one guy. This time it was the leader of the synagogue, who seemed to be afraid that there would be a stampede of people wanting to be healed. That just could not happen, according to him, because it was the Sabbath, that sacred day when no one was supposed to work and what constituted work had been meticulously defined, and evidently included healing people, or at least in his mind it did.
It’s interesting that he yelled at 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.” He did not confront the woman, or Jesus. Maybe he felt threatened by Jesus and could not be bothered by the woman who, in usual circumstances, would not have approached a rabbi. In any case, he does not want more undeserving sinners to approach Jesus, causing further defilement of the Sabbath if he healed them. Heaven forbid that they should have a reason to praise God!
This Synagogue Leader, and most others who led the Jewish faithful, misunderstood the purpose of the Sabbath, which was for it to be a day of rest, of praising God and of enjoyment. Instead, the day had become one filled with worry lest a Sabbath rule be broken. The rules were so restrictive that, as one commentator noted, a donkey had a better chance of being treated well on the Sabbath than a person, since caring for valuable livestock was acceptable, while healing a person was not. So, Jesus called that leader on this discrepancy and made it clear that there was no better day than the Sabbath to restore someone to wholeness. What better act of worship could there be? In the end, Jesus’ opponents were put to shame, we read, and the entire crowd was rejoicing at the wonderful things Jesus was doing.
As for the woman, Jesus called her “Daughter of Abraham”, reaffirming her status as a member of the community of faith, a person set free by God’s grace. We too have been seen and freed by that grace. In fact, all who are hurting, excluded, have had limitations placed on them or are crippled by undeserved shame and unseen by the world, have been seen by Jesus.
Let’s consider some questions ask by Pastor JoAnn Taylor, “What cripples you, and keeps you stuck? What miracle have you given up asking God to work in your life? How is Jesus calling you to stand up straight, to be released from your bound-up spirit?” Then she continues, “No matter what is binding you, trapping your soul in a box of ‘shoulds’ or ‘musts’, Jesus came to release you from that prison. Jesus is calling you to himself, so he can put his hands on you and raise you up to new life in him. Let your life be filled with gratitude and praise and offer others the same release from bondage that Christ gave to you.” (1)
How does that happen? How do we offer others the release from bondage that we ourselves have received? As is always the case, Jesus is our guide. Jesus saw her. Jesus called her over. Our world is filled with people who, like her, long to be seen and acknowledged.
The Laundry Ministry is not just about paying for people to wash their clothes and bedding, it also is really seeing the person standing there, considering the path they took arrive in that place that day and acknowledging them as a child of God. The same is true at DLM when we provide a meal and help people acquire groceries, clothes and other forms of support. Just as Jesus saw that bent-over woman, we need to consider that the people in front of us are “bound-up” in ways we do not fully understand, but perhaps our actions are helping to unbind them.
Yesterday was Akron’s Annual Pride Festival and Equity March in which our congregation participated as a way of living out our Welcome Statement which is published and summarized each Sunday. We are committed to loving our neighbors as ourselves, which we know means offering help to anyone in need, and in this case the need is for member of the LBGTQ+ community to be seen, accepted and celebrated as the people God made them to be.
Our community is filled with elders who feel trapped by the challenges aging has created in their lives. Will we see them and be bearers of freedom and support?
We are empowered by Jesus to be his eyes and hands in the world, to bring release from bondage to people’s lives. If we wanted to sum this all up in a simple phrase it would be, “Those whom Jesus sees, Jesus frees.” AMEN
(1) “A Pastor Sings” by JoAnn Taylor, August 24, 2019, www.pastorsings.com