As some of you know, our family used to live in the South. Some people think I have a Southern accent. I tell them that’s just because practically everything in the USA is south of Vermont.
They have a different way of life down South, as you may have encountered at one time or another, maybe while you were driving through on your way to Florida. Did you know that true Southerners say that Florida is as far north as you can go in the United States?
Well, one time when we were living in South Carolina I went to our local Piggly Wiggly on a Sunday. That’s a grocery store just in case you didn’t know.
I tried to buy a bottle of wine only to find out when I got to the checkout counter that I could not make the purchase because it was Sunday. Piggly Wiggly was open on Sunday. They had wine on their shelves. But I could not purchase it because it was Sunday.
That’s called a Blue Law. And all the time we lived in the South, I never figured out why Blue Laws were blue.
Now to me, that’s an example of legalism. Some kinds of legalism are just inconvenient but there are other types that are just plain dangerous. We are going to read about the latter in our text for today from Luke 13:10-17. Listen for God’s word to you…
Now he [Jesus] was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. 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. 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. 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.” 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 away to give it 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?” When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.
I want to examine with you five characters in this story, starting with the crippled woman.
The Crippled Woman
I wonder: what defines you? What defines me? Illness? Problems? Obstacles? Or are we ultimately defined by who we are in Jesus Christ?
In this story from Luke’s Gospel we meet a woman. And the first thing we are told about her is that she had, literally, a spirit of infirmity.
Generally speaking, it seems that the Jews of old believed that physical illness was caused by something in the spiritual realm. And on this occasion, Jesus seems to have agreed with his fellow Jews. More on that point in a moment…
But Jesus did not always agree that physical illness was caused by something in the spiritual realm. In John 9 we read…
As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.”
So, some people, like the disciples, in the first century, thought that physical illnesses were caused by something in the spiritual realm. And lest we think that strange, let us remember that even doctors in our own time talk about psychosomatic illnesses, literally—illnesses caused by the psyche (soul) working on the soma (body). Jesus viewed some illnesses this way, but not all.
This woman in the synagogue had a spirit of infirmity for a long time. 18 years is a long time to struggle with any infirmity. This woman must have had chronic pain in her life.
I have told you before about my friend, Tim Hansel, who lived with chronic pain for most of his life. Tim’s pain was the result of a mountain-climbing accident in 1974 at the age of 33. He fell into a crevasse on the Palisade Glacier in Northern California. Tim walked away from the incident but woke up three days later in excruciating pain. The doctors found numerous fractures, crushed discs, and promised Tim that he would live with traumatic deteriorating arthritis for the rest of his life.
And yet, as I have told you before, I have met few people in my life as full of joy as Tim Hansel. He wrote a book about his experience of living with chronic pain. He titled it: You Gotta Keep Dancin’. The title alone says much about Tim’s positive attitude that helped him cope with difficult circumstances. Tim was not simply someone who survived chronic pain, he thrived in spite of it.
Tim’s life verse was Nehemiah 8:10, “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” And he didn’t just quote it, he lived by it. If you look up Tim Hansel quotes on the internet, the number one quote is this one: “Pain is inevitable, but misery is optional. We cannot avoid pain, but we can avoid joy.” More than anyone else I have ever known Tim Hansel chose joy in spite of his circumstances. If he could do it, why can’t we?
Luke tells us that the woman in our story for today was “bent over” and “unable to stand up straight”. Modern day scholars have flagged this story as one unique to the Gospel of Luke that indicates this Gospel may have been written by a doctor.
The Gospel of Luke is the first of a two-volume work that continues with the book of Acts. This is made clear by the introduction to both books. And in the book of Acts there is a “We Section” in which the author of Acts makes clear that he is one of the traveling companions of Paul. The Early Church was convinced that this traveling companion was Luke, whom Colossians 4:14 identifies as a doctor.
So, Luke, as a doctor, paints a picture for us here of a woman completely dominated by a spirit of infirmity, bent over, unable to stand up straight.
And yet, that is not how Jesus defines this woman. He calls her simply: “a daughter of Abraham”.
I wonder: are you defined by who you are or whose you are? Are you defined by your physical circumstances, your limitations, or by your spiritual relationship to the people of God, and to God himself, through his Son Jesus Christ?
Satan
The second character I want us to examine in this story is Satan. Jesus says that Satan bound this woman for eighteen long years. Jesus specifically identifies the spirit of infirmity that crippled this woman with Satan.
The name, Satan, appears only 47 times in the Bible, 14 times in the Hebrew Scriptures and 33 times in the New Testament. The name means “the adversary”.
The name, Satan, appears more often in the book of Job, in the Old Testament, than anywhere else. Job makes clear that Satan is a heavenly being, an angel. Intriguingly, Satan is the one who, among other things, inflicts illness upon Job.
Jesus uses an interesting word to describe what Satan did to this woman. Satan bound her. Jesus uses the same word in a parable in Mark 3. There we read…
And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said [about Jesus], “He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.” And he [Jesus] called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.
Satan is strong. Satan bound this woman with infirmity for eighteen years. But here is the good news: Jesus is stronger. Jesus is the one who can bind, who can tie up the strong man.
Revelation 20 gives us a vision of this ministry of Jesus, this ministry of binding the strong man, and what it accomplishes…
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and locked and sealed it over him, so that he would deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be let out for a little while.
I love what Jesus says in John 10:10, contrasting the work of Satan with his own work. Jesus says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
Jesus
And that leads us to the third character we need to focus on in this story. That is Jesus. Here we see Jesus as teacher, healer, and exorcist.
How does Jesus accomplish this healing? He does it so simply. He speaks five words in Greek, eight words in our English translation: “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” Then Jesus lays hands on the woman. And the cure is immediate and total.
I like what William Barclay says about this…
Jesus’ action in this matter makes it clear that it is not God’s will that any human being should suffer one moment longer than is absolutely necessary. The Jewish law was that it was perfectly legal to help someone on the Sabbath who was in actual danger of his life. If Jesus had postponed the healing of this woman until the morrow no one could have criticized him; but he insisted that suffering must not be allowed to continue until to-morrow if it could be helped to-day. Over and over again in life some good and kindly scheme is held up until this or that regulation is satisfied, or this or that technical detail worked out. He gives twice who gives quickly, as the Latin proverb has it. No helpful deed that we can do to-day should be postponed until to-morrow.
I like that statement. But I would go even further than Barclay. I would say it is not God’s will that we suffer at all. I think Jesus’ healing ministry reveals this. I think the perfection of God’s creation at the beginning of Genesis also shows the same thing.
So why is there suffering in the world? Well, most of the suffering in the world, I think, can be traced to two sources. One is to Satan, as in the case of this woman’s suffering. And the other source of the vast amount of suffering in the world is human beings. We cause most of the suffering in this world.
So why has God allowed Satan and human beings to cause suffering? I think C. S. Lewis gave the best answer to that question when he wrote:
God created things which had free will. That means creatures which can go either wrong or right. Some people think they can imagine a creature which was free but had no possibility of going wrong; I cannot. If a thing is free to be good it is also free to be bad. And free will is what has made evil possible. Why then, did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. A world of automata—of creatures that worked like machines—would hardly be worth creating. The happiness which God designs for His higher creatures is the happiness of being freely, voluntarily united to Him and to each other in an ecstasy of love and delight compared with which the most rapturous love between a man and a woman on this earth is mere milk and water. And for that they must be free.
The Synagogue Leader
The fourth character we see in this story is the synagogue leader. Luke gives us two key words that really describe this character. He was indignant about Jesus healing this woman. And Jesus calls him a hypocrite. The hypocrite literally means someone who wears a mask. It was the word used of actors in a Greek drama. So, Jesus is telling us that this synagogue ruler is wearing a mask. He wants to look religious, but he really lacks a right relationship with God and others.
William Barclay describes the synagogue ruler this way…
The president of the synagogue and those like him were people who loved systems more than people. They were more concerned that their own petty little laws should be observed than that a woman should be helped…
Strangely enough, this worship of systems commonly invades the Church. There are many church people—it would be a mistake to call them Christian people—who are more concerned with the method of church government than they are with the worship of God and the service of men. It is all too tragically true that more trouble and strife arise in Churches over legalistic details of procedure than over any other thing.
In the world and in the church we are constantly in peril of loving systems more than we love God and more than we love men.
Unfortunately, this kind of legalism is still alive and well today. Greg Asimakoupoulos writes in Leadership magazine…
On a warm spring evening in May 1998, Christopher Sercy was playing basketball with a few friends half a block from Ravenswood Hospital [in Chicago] Three teenage Latino gang members looking for a black target approached and shot young Sercy in the abdomen. His frantic friends carried him to within 30 feet of the hospital and ran inside for help. The emergency room personnel refused to go outside to assist the dying boy, citing a policy that only allows them to help those who are inside the hospital. The boys called for nearby police to attend their wounded friend. When the officers arrived on the scene they proceeded to call for an ambulance, but refused to carry the boy inside. While passersby pled with the officers to get the boy into the hospital, he lay in a pool of blood unconscious. When, after several minutes, the ambulance had not yet arrived, the police gave in and carried Sercy into the emergency room. By then, nothing could be done to save his life.
As is often true, when we legalistically insist on the letter of the law, the needs of others are overlooked. By holding to standard operating procedures, the “royal law of love” was pinned to the mat. Initially, hospital administration vehemently defended their ER’s lack of involvement. Only after a barrage of community outrage did Ravenswood Hospital reverse its policy of treating only those inside its doors.
It was Jesus who observed “Woe to you teachers of the law, you hypocrites. You give a tenth ... but you have neglected the more important matters of the law--justice, mercy, and faithfulness.” (Matthew 23:23)
The Crowd
What is our response to this story?
Luke tells us there were two responses when Jesus finished speaking. “When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.”
What is our response to Jesus? Are we put to shame by his words and deeds? Or do we rejoice at the wonderful things Jesus is doing.
Orthodox theologian Alexander Schmemann says,
One can love religion like anything else in life: sports, science, stamp collecting. One can love it for its own sake without relation to God or the world or life. Religion fascinates; it is entertaining. It has everything that is sought after by a certain type of person: aesthetics, mystery, the sacred, a feeling of one’s importance and exclusive depth, etc. That kind of religion is not necessarily faith.[1]
What will we choose today? Religion or relationship? Old wine or new wine that bursts the skins? Rule-keeping or following a Person? Bondage or freedom?
The choice is ours.
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