Saint Luke 13:10-17
All of us know that, more often than not, things are not what they appear to be at first glance.
Anybody who has taken their car in for what looks like a simple repair and have emerged $900.00 poorer knows this.
Anybody who has had any home maintenance done knows that it takes three times longer and is four times more expensive than originally thought.
And all of us know how perilous a trip to the doctor can be. You go in with one ailment and you come out with ten more you didn’t even know you had.
So we might take comfort from today’s gospel. At least here we know what is going on and what to expect.
The characters are all well cast. There is the bent-over woman in desperate straights. There is Jesus the Rabbi and healer. And appearing as the villain is the leader of the synagogue.
As I have continually pointed out in our Bible Studies, we must be careful with this. In light of Anti-Semitism and the violence it has brought broad generalizations about any group can get us into very deep and turbulent water.
Anybody who has taken their car in for what looks like a simple repair and have emerged $900.00 poorer knows this.
Anybody who has had any home maintenance done knows that it takes three times longer and is four times more expensive than originally thought.
And all of us know how perilous a trip to the doctor can be. You go in with one ailment and you come out with ten more you didn’t even know you had.
So we might take comfort from today’s gospel. At least here we know what is going on and what to expect.
The characters are all well cast. There is the bent-over woman in desperate straights. There is Jesus the Rabbi and healer. And appearing as the villain is the leader of the synagogue.
As I have continually pointed out in our Bible Studies, we must be careful with this. In light of Anti-Semitism and the violence it has brought broad generalizations about any group can get us into very deep and turbulent water.
To make matters a little more difficult (And more fun!) what if this story about Jesus is one of those things that aren’t what they seem at first glance.
I was pretty much on the glide path to an easy, breezy sermon until I was led to an article by Ben Mattlin who graduated cum laude from Harvard at 21, is the author of several books and, as a freelance financial journalist, has had articles published in numerous newspapers and magazines. Mattlin is a husband, father of two daughters and a quadriplegic from birth.
His article, “A Disabled Life Is a Life Worth Living,” may give us new insights into the woman and the best gift Jesus gave her in today’s Gospel.
I was pretty much on the glide path to an easy, breezy sermon until I was led to an article by Ben Mattlin who graduated cum laude from Harvard at 21, is the author of several books and, as a freelance financial journalist, has had articles published in numerous newspapers and magazines. Mattlin is a husband, father of two daughters and a quadriplegic from birth.
His article, “A Disabled Life Is a Life Worth Living,” may give us new insights into the woman and the best gift Jesus gave her in today’s Gospel.
Mattlin writes:
Growing up with a disability, I often became isolated. Feeling devalued by my peers, with no confidence in my future, I experienced intermittent but profound depression. One can take only so many surgeries, so many bodily betrayals, so much rejection, before wanting to give up. Even today, I can pivot from utter terror over an itch I can’t scratch or a bite of food I can’t quite swallow, to almost unbelievable joy if I manage to clear my throat unassisted or zoom my motorized wheelchair through a crowded street. As disabled people, we are endlessly buffeted by circumstances beyond our control.1
That paragraph gives us an idea about what the disabled woman in the synagogue was feeling and it wasn’t good.
The words we heard to describe her today were that she was plagued by “a spirit that crippled her for eighteen years.”2 Other translations of this passage try to diagnose from a distance saying (and I am not making these up) she was bothered by: “arthritis”3 or, as J. B. Phillips suggested in his paraphrase: “some psychological cause.”4
We all know what it’s like when we are suffering with anything. It doesn’t matter if what is bothering us is physical or psychosomatic. When something is wrong, it can bend us low in body and spirit. And most of all, as Mattlin points out it can leave us feeling isolated. We can feel this way in the midst of a crowd or even when we are surrounded by friends and family.
The point is that Jesus sees her. He interrupts his preaching and gets to healing.
Jesus not only sees her but calls her forward - which she probably hated because it drew attention to her infirmity.
When she has made her way through the crowd straining to look up but mostly seeing only ground, feet and sandals she comes to Jesus. I don’t think he was towering over her as the others were but rather he stooped low and became as bent over as she was so that he could look her in the eye and see her face.
Maybe for the first time in what seemed like forever she was eye to eye with another person and then this person touched her.
“‘Woman, you’re free!’” he said and then. “He laid hands on her and suddenly she was standing straight and tall, giving glory to God.” 5
The place goes wild and so does the religious leader. His complaint is that this could have waited. This is the Sabbath! The woman’s disease was not life threatening. Neither she nor Jesus would be heading out of town before sundown because travel was forbidden and after dark it was dangerous. They would both be around tomorrow. Couldn’t this have waited?
Of course it could have!
The words we heard to describe her today were that she was plagued by “a spirit that crippled her for eighteen years.”2 Other translations of this passage try to diagnose from a distance saying (and I am not making these up) she was bothered by: “arthritis”3 or, as J. B. Phillips suggested in his paraphrase: “some psychological cause.”4
We all know what it’s like when we are suffering with anything. It doesn’t matter if what is bothering us is physical or psychosomatic. When something is wrong, it can bend us low in body and spirit. And most of all, as Mattlin points out it can leave us feeling isolated. We can feel this way in the midst of a crowd or even when we are surrounded by friends and family.
The point is that Jesus sees her. He interrupts his preaching and gets to healing.
Jesus not only sees her but calls her forward - which she probably hated because it drew attention to her infirmity.
When she has made her way through the crowd straining to look up but mostly seeing only ground, feet and sandals she comes to Jesus. I don’t think he was towering over her as the others were but rather he stooped low and became as bent over as she was so that he could look her in the eye and see her face.
Maybe for the first time in what seemed like forever she was eye to eye with another person and then this person touched her.
“‘Woman, you’re free!’” he said and then. “He laid hands on her and suddenly she was standing straight and tall, giving glory to God.” 5
The place goes wild and so does the religious leader. His complaint is that this could have waited. This is the Sabbath! The woman’s disease was not life threatening. Neither she nor Jesus would be heading out of town before sundown because travel was forbidden and after dark it was dangerous. They would both be around tomorrow. Couldn’t this have waited?
Of course it could have!
They all could have reconvened at the same time the next day when the leader put the keys in the synagogue doors to open the place up but there were too many variables.
What if the woman went home and thought about how her life would change if she was healed and somehow decided for the status quo? What if her family had become so used to her the way she was that they talked her out of going back? What if her friends told her she had taken up enough of the rabbis’ time and wasn’t worthy of any more attention?
What if the woman went home and thought about how her life would change if she was healed and somehow decided for the status quo? What if her family had become so used to her the way she was that they talked her out of going back? What if her friends told her she had taken up enough of the rabbis’ time and wasn’t worthy of any more attention?
No! There were too many other options and all of them were bad! For Jesus there was no time like the present!
Besides, he points out that if could lead their ox or donkey to water on the Sabbath. “So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound—- think of it -—for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?”6
Here is what I think embarrassed the people the most.
Jesus knew that the wealthy among them could keep from disobeying the rules by being able to hire someone. They could afford to employ some outsider to do their work for them. Light a candle. Make a hot dinner. Take care of all their chores. They could pay someone to do it for them.
While the poor - which were most of the people present that day - could not. If they needed a hot dinner, or a candle lit, or one of their animals fed and watered they had to do it themselves.
They may have tried their best but more often than they wished necessity trumped legality. They probably disobeyed strict Sabbath rules every week not because they wanted to but because they had no other choice.
So, why not do this good work now? Why not restore this woman to her rightful place in her community at this very moment? Why wait? Act!
That is how it is with God. Jesus shows us that God is always acting on our behalf but it may not be in ways that we think.
Besides, he points out that if could lead their ox or donkey to water on the Sabbath. “So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound—- think of it -—for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?”6
Here is what I think embarrassed the people the most.
Jesus knew that the wealthy among them could keep from disobeying the rules by being able to hire someone. They could afford to employ some outsider to do their work for them. Light a candle. Make a hot dinner. Take care of all their chores. They could pay someone to do it for them.
While the poor - which were most of the people present that day - could not. If they needed a hot dinner, or a candle lit, or one of their animals fed and watered they had to do it themselves.
They may have tried their best but more often than they wished necessity trumped legality. They probably disobeyed strict Sabbath rules every week not because they wanted to but because they had no other choice.
So, why not do this good work now? Why not restore this woman to her rightful place in her community at this very moment? Why wait? Act!
That is how it is with God. Jesus shows us that God is always acting on our behalf but it may not be in ways that we think.
Ben Mattlin continued in his article:
Indeed, some people find life after disability more intense, more deeply appreciated than it was before. My lifelong experience, with disability, has made me a creative problem-solver, and, ironically, perhaps, a diehard optimist, if only because I've had to be. It's taught me a great deal about patience, tolerance and flexibility. My disability is part of who I am.7
But Jesus tells us that our shortcomings do not have to define us which is what people do all the time.
Good, well-meaning people have read this story and preached this story and come away with the conclusion that only a touch from Jesus will do the trick. Let Jesus touch you and you will be healed.
But what if this isn’t about Jesus’ healing? What if this is about Jesus’ acceptance and restoration to being a part of the community from which you have been separated?
Mattlin attended a funeral for another quadriplegic friend where the young minister (It could have been an old minister too) said that his friend was "a free spirit, trapped in an unresponsive body. Now that spirit is truly free."
Good, well-meaning people have read this story and preached this story and come away with the conclusion that only a touch from Jesus will do the trick. Let Jesus touch you and you will be healed.
But what if this isn’t about Jesus’ healing? What if this is about Jesus’ acceptance and restoration to being a part of the community from which you have been separated?
Mattlin attended a funeral for another quadriplegic friend where the young minister (It could have been an old minister too) said that his friend was "a free spirit, trapped in an unresponsive body. Now that spirit is truly free."
We were told he'd gone to a place where he could walk again. His dad added `”Walk? He's probably playing basketball in the nude.” The words stung. Mourners need to believe their loved one has gone to a better place. Yet what was the message here? Death sets you free and cures disability? Was he better off dead than disabled? I realize I'm biased. I have never ridden a motorcycle or done half the other physical things my friend used to love, but I do know one can live a pretty full life with a disability.
How limited is this vision of life, and of the afterlife? Are there no wheelchairs in heaven? I'm not buying it. For me, if there is a heaven, it's not a place where I'll be able to walk. It's a place where it doesn't matter if you can't.8
How about that for an idea? What if this isn’t about keeping the Sabbath laws but rather Jesus telling us that there is a place where we all are welcomed no matter what? Wheelchair or no wheelchair, infirmity or no infirmity we will be welcomed. In the Kingdom of Heaven and in our community on earth it doesn’t matter what you can or can’t do Jesus wants all to be welcomed.
Wheelchairs in heaven? Mull that one over for a while. I still am.
___________
1. Mattlin, Ben. “A Disabled Life Is a Life Worth Living.” The New York Times, October 5, 2016. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/05/opinion/a-disabled-life-is-a-life-worth-living.html.
2. St. Luke 13:11. (NRSV) [NRSV= The New Revised Standard Version]
3. St. Luke 13:11. (MSG) MSG=The Message]
4. St. Luke 13:11. (PHILLIPS) Phillips, J. B. The New Testament in Modern English. (London: HarperCollins, 2000. )
5. St. Luke 13:13. (MSG)
6. St. Luke 13:16. (NKJV) [NKJV=The New King James Version]
7. Mattlin, loc.cit.
8. Mattlin, Ben. “Valuing Life, Whether Disabled or Not.” NPR Morning Edition. NPR, December 7, 2005. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5042181.
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