The Freed Woman
A man was driving down the street when a sign at a house caught his eye: NEW BMW! $500. Well. . .he thought it might be a joke, but why not check it out. So he went to the house and sure enough, a woman was selling a brand new BMW for $500. The man was understandably curious, “I’ll take it, but why are you selling this great BMW for only $500?”
“Well,” the woman said. “My husband just ran off with his secretary, and he told me I could have the house and the furniture as long as I sold his BMW and sent him the money.” (AOL)
I guess she had the last word, didn’t she?
And Jesus got the last word with the synagogue ruler. Didn’t you feel just a little bit like cheering by the end of the story? Preach it, Jesus! Go get ‘em.
We all want to get the last word, don’t we? In our story, the synagogue leader tries hard to get the last word by making an appeal to the law. “Don’t you people know it’s the Sabbath? Come some other day to be healed. Not today. Not today.”
He says, “not today.” But Jesus nails him. “Get real, buddy, what you’re really saying to this woman is, don’t come any day, because you’re not worth bothering with. Go away.” You care more about your ox or donkey than you care about this woman, this daughter of Abraham. I think if Jesus were saying this today, instead of ox or donkey, it would be something like a BMW. You care more about the symbols of your material wealth and power than you care about this woman.
And there’s nothing that the guy can say, because Jesus nailed it. He does care more about other things than this woman.
There’s a commercial that I’ve been seeing on TV lately, where a man goes to the door to meet the pizza guy, and he says, “I just love your chicken wings. Love, love, love.” Behind him, his wife comes up and says, “How can you use the word ‘love’ four times in a sentence about chicken wings, and only once a year with me?” Both the husband and the pizza guy are speechless.
Now, I know that our Bible story is not about marriage. But it is about relationships. It’s about how people in positions of power work to keep other people down, instead of treating them as people and lifting them up. And that can happen anyplace where people are in relationship: marriage or in the family, at work, among friends, and as the story shows, it can even happen at worship.
When a relational system becomes hard and rigid and entrenched, possessions and power often take precedence over people. The crunch point of this story is about that very thing. This is a story about healing. It’s about victory over demonic spirits. But where Jesus really sticks it to the synagogue rulers is at the point of their own bent priorities.
The synagogue leaders are working hard to believe that their lives are straight with God; but it has become a pretense. And the law has become like a matador’s cape. They wave it in front of people, but then they step aside. Nobody’s there.
There are things you should do and things you shouldn’t do on the Sabbath, they said. You shouldn’t work, and you shouldn’t make someone else work either. But hidden behind the matador’s cape lies an even stronger unwritten emotional law: Don’t knock over our carefully organized apple cart. Don’t do anything that will expose our crooked souls. And of course, that is precisely what Jesus does by healing the woman with a crooked back.
The story makes it clear that the woman who was bent over, was well known to the people in the synagogue. Most likely she came all the time. It also seemed well known that the source of her condition was demonic. But who took the time to care? Who bothered with this second-class, demon-oppressed woman? At best she was tolerated. At worst, shunned.
This presents a great challenge for any of us who are in any position of power. Parental power, the power of an employer over employees, the subtle power that exists in the pecking order of social and religious groups. You may not think you have much power. But think about it: who are the people who look to you for affirmation, for nurture, for strength, for guidance. Do they get it from you? Or is it all chicken wings and BMWs?
This story is a mirror showing what Jesus is doing in the world—both then and now. It is a visual description of his liberating power, and how people respond to that power. So, it’s not just about a woman with a bad back and a synagogue leader who got up on the wrong side of the bed. The bad back is a great illustration, though. Some translations say that she is actually doubled over. Pretty severe back pain, hmm? The reason why I say it’s a great illustration is because we know about back pain. Many of the things that the Bible talks about seem hard to relate to, but not a back problem. Most of us know that aching feeling that says we strained a muscle or stress has gotten to us and it’s settled in the back. We know what it is like not to be able to turn over in bed or get in and out of a chair easily. A back problem affects every part of our life. Our job, our sleep, our ability to relate to people in a civil sort of way.
Think about this woman’s experience as a symbol of what God is doing in you and in the world. Then, watch what Jesus does with this woman and try to put yourself in her place. He calls her up front (which by the way is not a place women belong in the synagogue). Then he says, “Woman you are set free from your ailment.” Then he touches her. She straightens up and begins to praise God.
When Luke says that the woman stood up straight, the Greek root word is “orthos” which you will recognize as the root of a lot of English words as well. Orthopedic. Orthodontic. Orthodox. All of these suggest bringing into alignment that which is out of place. Bringing things in line with what is acceptable and true and right.
Jesus straightened the woman’s back. And his intent is to straighten out people’s lives as well. To mend what is broken, to set free those who have been in bondage. How that works out depends not just on the power of Jesus but also on the response of the people involved. The woman responds with praise and thanks. The synagogue ruler responds with anger and resentment. The one goes free. The other remains in bondage.
That’s when Jesus plays his best card. He calls the woman a daughter of Abraham. Now, that’s not a phrase that the synagogue leaders would use. They were very proud of being called sons of Abraham. But, as we’ve seen before, women didn’t really count in those days, especially when it came to the life of the synagogue or the temple. To be a son of Abraham meant to embrace all the faith and the history of the people of God—to be a part of it; it meant to also embrace God’s future for the people of God. To be a son of Abraham meant to “be somebody.” To be in the kingdom of God. Women weren’t really involved with all that. Add to that the fact that this woman was crippled, which to them meant she was a sinner (remember from last week with the blind man?), and she was demon-possessed to boot! Triple whammy! But Jesus says to her, Lady, you are somebody. You are important. You are a daughter of Abraham. You are set free to be what God has meant you to be.
The story makes it clear that religious institutions can be oppressive and damaging to people. Especially to people who are already wounded. Maybe, like the bent woman, you have experienced that kind of oppression. Life has not treated you well. The events of your life have worked together to create a kind of paralysis, like this woman experienced. Maybe for you that paralysis is not physical, but emotional. You just can’t move off square one. Can’t seem to get your life straightened out. And the people around you, the ones you thought might provide some care, have written you off. Other things are more important.
Eighteen years. Eighteen long years it’s been for that woman. How long has it been for you? How long have you waited for someone to care, for someone to do something to make things different? How long have you been bent over by guilt, shame, by loneliness, or something else?
Jesus is here. The same Jesus who healed that woman, is here. The synagogue ruler is long gone. But Jesus is still here. And he’s calling you. Maybe you don’t think he could possibly mean you—but he does. Maybe you’re afraid of how the people in your life will respond. Jesus will take care of that.
Daughter of Abraham. . .Son of Abraham. . . you’re free to go. Stand straight and tall. You are healed.
The next step is yours to take. Like I said earlier, the outcome of an encounter with Jesus doesn’t only depend on Jesus’ power. It also depends on your response.
There was a young boy who tried to trick a wise old man. The kid came to the wise old man with his hands behind his back and said, “Old man, I have a bird in my hand—is it alive or is it dead?” His plan was this: If the old man said “Alive,” he could crush it and prove he was wrong. If he said “dead” he would open his hands and let it fly away.
The old man said, “It’s what you want it to be.”
It’s what you want it to be. So, in a sense, you do get the last word. Your life is in your hands. To say yes or no to the freedom that Jesus offers. It’s what you want it to be.