Rev. Cn. Richard Hogue Jr.
Today’s gospel reading inspires a great deal of thought for me. At first glance, it can seem that Jesus is simply dismissing the laws of God’s covenant, though nothing could be further from the truth. It helps me remain hopeful in these times, and it leaves me with some lingering questions. Let me frame this story in its time and setting before I get into those.
Jesus is on his way towards Jerusalem, it is the Sabbath, a Saturday in an unnamed village in a local synagogue. Jesus is preaching in a liturgical setting after prayers and readings of the Law and the Prophets. Perhaps he was invited to do so by the leader of the synagogue. The faithful were gathered, likely with men sitting on one side of the building and women on the other. It is a sacred space, and a sacred time.
“And just then…” This woman had a spirit of weakness or sickness, as some translations put it, crippling her for eighteen years. She is completely hunched over, unable to walk upright, probably sitting in the back corner of the women’s area, though there’s no way to be certain. This illness of her spirit had progressed so far through her body that she could not change her spine’s position. Her life would be unimaginably difficult. Bent over, unable to change her condition, she would be permanently incapacitated. Jewish thought in this time distinguished humanity from animals by our verticality, being closer to the angels and heaven than lowly beasts, allowing us to develop speech, foresight, and intelligence.[1] She would not be considered unhuman, but it would be a degrading loss of a major indicator of her humanity.
Jesus looked at her not only with pity, but with hope, an intent of healing. While the details aren’t there, after he called, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” he would have had to either go to her in the space or she to him, crossing all sorts of imaginary boundaries to heal her with the laying on of hands. Mercy became a verb in this moment, mercy that liberated her physically and emotionally. “Immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.” She was restored, raised up instantaneously. Satan’s binding of this daughter of Abraham was undone, like Isaac’s unbinding by Abraham when God declared that the sacrifice of children was never to happen again in Genesis, and now she joyfully praised that God.
But the leader of the synagogue was indignant, he considered it work to heal on the Sabbath. Now before any of us Christians get it twisted, the leader of the synagogue’s view was not held by all Jews. Sadducees and Essenes did hold such restrictive views, but Pharisees were more relaxed on that point, which Jesus would have been counted among in his day. For those of you who may find that surprising, think about why Jesus is always around Pharisees, all the stories of their arguments, and how Jesus dresses in the prayer shawl just as a Pharisee would have in this time. The nature of healing on the Sabbath was lively debate in Jesus’ time, with different perspectives from different Jewish communities, somewhat like how we as Christians have many denominations and differences now across a wide range of issues. Jewish teachers of the law permitted shepherds to water their flocks on the Sabbath, so long as they didn’t commit to work entirely on a day of rest and holy observance. The leader of the synagogue clearly falls into the more restrictive camp, quoting scripture at the crowd repeatedly, seething. But he does not mention Jesus or the healing that just happened, perhaps out of impotent rage, perhaps out of cowardice, perhaps both.
Yet for Jesus, this wasn’t a human transaction resulting in healing, which would be work, this was divine deliverance.[2] Just as the sheep would be let out of the gates, or a donkey untied from a manger so it wouldn’t suffer a day without food or water, Jesus unbinding this woman is mercy to the living that could not wait. This idea of deliverance flips religious obedience on its head, and like the Exodus of the people of Israel from Egypt, or the return of the Jewish captives from Babylon, the Sabbath is empowering, an act of life giving love that frees this woman, and by extension all of us, to live a full life, rather than one of subordination.
It’s strange Jesus didn’t just address the synagogue leader who he upset, he addressed anyone who may disagree with him, “You hypocrites!”, shutting the matter down entirely. They would either agree or be ashamed. The people rejoice alongside the woman, celebrating the reign of God in that sacred time and space. This is a glimpse into God’s will for us all.
As wonderful as all of this is, as hopeful as it makes me, I cannot forget the times I live in, the upheaval and deep uncertainty, fascism and shows of force bending and binding the whole world to the will of a few. So, I cannot help but notice one missing piece from the gospel. While the woman is clearly healed of her stooped posture, I must wonder if the spirit of weakness, or sickness, left her entirely. Certainly, one can say it is implied in the story, but inference and explicit statement are not the same, and I find it more and more dangerous to make assumptions these days. When I read this story with my worried eyes and a troubled soul, it gives me pause. What is it to heal the body, but not the soul? What is it to address symptoms, but not the disease? We always ask that on a personal and physical level, but what about for our church, our city, our county, our country, our world? What is it, not too simply unbind, but to liberate, to deliver people to fullness of freedom in Christ’s name?
Ambrose, bishop of Milan, thought that the bent-over woman represented the church. Bonaventure thought she represented the soul bent around the pursuit of worldly possessions. St. Jerome thought she represented the sinfulness of humanity. Whatever the case, whatever we each make the symbolism of this story, I hope it leaves us with more questions in our faithfulness to God and Christ’s liberating power in our daily life. But there is one clear answer: we must be faithful to our deliverer who untied us from our binds to this world. We must rejoice in our salvation. This leaves us with some further questions. As the body of Christ, what we do with our liberation? How might we be a joyful and prayerful presence in our own time? How might we be healers, leading people into the joyful way of life and freedom? How are we witnesses to the unbinding of all God’s people, present to God’s power here and now? And, if we are the ones who are too bent over to change, what must happen and where must we go to receive Christ’s healing power? Whatever our answer, as an individual or as a community, let us pray and act so we can find and show the way. Amen.
[1] Bovon, François, et al. Luke 2: A Commentary on the Gospel of Luke 9:51-19:27. Fortress Press, 2002. p285.
[2] Ibid, p288.
Richard,
Almost two months later I’m finally responding to your early August sermon. The trigger was last week’s reading from Jeremiah 8:18-9.1
“Is the Lord not in Zion?” and so on”
John Koenig and I have been having a discussion on the meaning of Zion – does Jeremiah and Isaiah believe Zion is a physical location in Jerusalem or do they believe Zion is a spiritual presence that exists anywhere/anytime when God and his people are in sync? The reading would seem to say, at least to my ear that they believe the latter and it relates to Jesus’s clearly breaking the commandment on the sabbath by healing the crippled women. It seems they are all saying that it is the spirit of the law, the covenant that is key.
What say you?
BTW ‘Zionism’, a political movement is a different thing.
Jim Greer
I agree that “It seems they are all saying that it is the spirit of the law, the covenant that is key.” I this is why the debate was so real then, and I love that it still has us puzzling a bit over it now. It makes the emphasis of the passage all that more important.