Year C

Luke 13:10-17

The Rev. Denise Vaughn

The Healing Gift of Salvation

Let’s just imagine for a moment that we are on the edge of the crowd that has followed Jesus so far. We haven’t heard everything he has said, nor possibly have we understood all we’ve heard, but we think we might have the general drift and find his words and actions both compelling and alarming. Alarming because we remember his passionate and scary words spoken in the verses just before our Gospel today, “Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth”? No, I have come to bring fire and division to the earth”. Jesus’ anguished reflection on his ministry and the division that comes from following him forms a bridge to a series of warnings that he will address to the crowds in the days ahead as he makes his way to Jerusalem. Yet, even after hearing this hard teaching we decide to go with Jesus into the synagogue on this particular Sabbath to hear more. As we enter, we see as everyone there possibly does, this poor woman who has been crippled for eighteen years.

She was probably a well-known local woman in a town possibly a lot like Vidalia where people would know who she was and how long she had been like this. The precise cause of her condition is unknown. Some commentators believe that her disability had psychological causes, as some probably would have thought then. Jesus speaks of her being in Satan’s bondage and needing to be set free. His words and her condition call to mind an Old Testament word associated with sin: awon found in the book of Genesis and Job. The word itself means “hidden sin or to be twisted or bent over because of sin.” Is she at fault? At this point, it doesn’t matter she needs healing so Jesus calls to her, and he touches her by laying hands on her. Touching says symbolically that Jesus did not care that those he healed are viewed as unclean as this woman or that he is concerned with the threat it brings from the religious authorities.

Her response is to stand up straight and begin praising God. Throughout Luke’s gospel, we clearly see that forgiveness and healing straightens one up. Jesus blesses the life of this woman and in doing so, he reveals to us again what is at the heart of his ministry. He came to show us the saving compassion of God and we see this compassion at work in the healings scattered throughout the Gospels. The compassion of Jesus for suffering humanity, and his outrage at the limited sense of God’s compassion projected by the leader of the synagogue runs through this narrative, and the rejoicing of the crowd, in contrast, illustrates again to us the divided response to the ministry of Jesus. It is a ministry that brought division as here we see Jesus in the familiar position of opposition to the Jewish religious authorities. These figures represent the status quo that Jesus’ healings would disrupt. For them, “doing good” is not the point.

The leader can only see an offense against the Sabbath in this beautiful moment of healing and Jesus does not conceal his scorn. “You hypocrites!” he says. Is this not what the Sabbath is all about: the fullness of life in obedience to God’s will? If we would rush to rescue our animals that are in need even if it is the Sabbath, so much more should we rush to rescue, restore and heal a daughter of Abraham. When the fulfillment of the law would harm rather than heal, as in today’s Gospel, burdening people and causing them to stoop rather than to stand upright, the law must be challenged because it is not true to the God of life, the very one who gave the law. For Jesus the care of human beings is itself a religious virtue that takes precedence over rites, rituals and the social systems that these bring about.

So the house is divided: his adversaries are put to shame and all the people rejoice. Such is the effect of the presence of Jesus and a sign of the in-breaking of God’s reign over the forces of evil and sin. This healing event dramatizes that the way things have always been is shattered by the words and deeds of Jesus. This story says something to us about Jesus’ identity and authority and about the character of God as revealed in what Jesus does. Immediately following this story in the next paragraph we hear him ask; “What is the kingdom of God like?” and “To what shall I compare the kingdom of God?” The healing of the afflicted woman seems to anticipate these questions and provide for us a picture of what the reign of God looks like. And Jesus’ ministry provides a foretaste of the coming kingdom where the world is healed and repaired in the reign of God.

This unnamed woman becomes a testimony to the freedom of the people of God from anything that robs God’s people from a full life. Bodies, minds and spirits held captive by the power of sin and evil are liberated from sickness. There will be no conflicts between what is good for one and what is good for all. If this is the future God is preparing for us how might we contribute to bring in this reign, now? This is our calling and mission as followers of Christ. We have been called to bring God’s healing reconciling love to the world and healings like the unnamed woman help us to see the connection between healing and the pastoral and prophetic witness to which each one of us has been called as Christ followers. Yet, we cannot bring this healing love to the world without seeing our own need of healing because each one of us is in need of this forgiving, healing touch of Jesus.

We are like the woman bent over and unable to look up and see the sun knowing only the dust and dirt underneath. We are like the religious officials when we put the powers of this world before our neighbor. We must ask Jesus for his forgiving and healing touch, a touch that reveals a God who straightens us up and mends our souls, our bodies and minds, as we mend creation. We are the inheritors of the gift of the healing of the bent-over woman who stood up straight and began praising God. So let us give thanks for the new world God continues to usher in through the power of the spirit of the risen Christ, and through us, a kingdom that will not be shaken. For only then we will know full life. Let us prepare our hearts and minds to receive the gift of God’s healing touch and may we praise the God whose love knows no bounds.