Set Free [Proper 16 - Luke 13:10-17]

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson

Luke 13:10-17

 

Set Free

 

This is not the first time Jesus teaches in a synagogue.  This is not the first time Jesus teaches himself into some hot water in a synagogue.  The first time he stood in the pulpit, back in his hometown of Nazareth, the gathered assembly, the audience of his sermon, tried to throw him off of a cliff.  That is admittedly a pretty extreme reaction…to a sermon.  More typically, offended listeners might just walk out in the middle of the sermon or send a strongly worded email the next day.  These folks tried to kill Jesus.  That is a rough debut.  But you know what they say, if at first you don’t succeed…  And so Jesus tries again; this second attempt is what is described in today’s Gospel passage.  This time, the second time around, does go better; this time Jesus is only heckled by the leader of the synagogue – presumably the very person who invited him to speak.  So, while not flawless, it is an improvement. 

 

One could argue that the leader of the synagogue could have, probably even should have, handled things differently.  But, as the Gospel tells us, he was indignant.  And indignance can, at times, get the better of people.  And so rather than politely scolding Jesus in the privacy of his office or withholding the Lord’s appearance fee, the leader of the synagogue attempts to embarrass Jesus in front of everyone.

 

It wasn’t, at least at first, so much what Jesus said; it was what he did.  In fact, the problem starts when Jesus stops.  Jesus stops because of the woman.

 

We don’t know much about this woman.  There is no mention of her name.  We don’t know her occupation, what she was wearing, whether or not she was even in the market for a healing.  She just appears.

 

And Jesus notices her.  This does not surprise me.  The preacher, trust me, always notices.  We have a very good view from the front.  This thing is like a tree stand.

 

What we do know about this woman is that she is crippled.  We are told that she found Jesus eighteen years into her affliction.  The Gospel writer is not interested in the medical diagnosis and so the exact identification of her ailment is yet another detail we cannot know about his woman; but what the writer does note is that her condition bears a spiritual component.  The woman was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight.  But there was more to her burden than just her physical hardship.

 

In fact, Jesus never even says that he heals the woman; even though, by the end of the story, she stands up straight, he doesn’t use the word “heal” to describe what he does in this passage.  Jesus instead uses the phrase “set free.”  Jesus sets her free.  Liberation, release, salvation: that has always been Jesus’ mission.  In his first sermon, the one that got the people so worked up, Jesus declared that his divine mission on earth was “to proclaim the release of those in captivity” and “to let the oppressed go free.”  This is Jesus living out his mission. 

 

From the perspective of the leader of the synagogue this woman was a problem that could solved later.  Her condition was non-life threatening.  She had been bent over for eighteen years.  And so what was one more day?  Why violate the Sabbath when there is a tomorrow?  And if it was just about the bent back, you could argue that the leader has a point.

 

But to Jesus it wasn’t just about a bent back, it was about what that physical condition meant for this woman’s life.  And it meant a lot.  The Gospel writer could have simply told us that the woman was crippled.  For us that is sufficient information; in other healing stories we are given nothing more than that general description.  Crippled to healed, no matter the ailment, is significant, is still a miracle.  But Luke makes a point of providing a description: she is bent over and cannot stand up straight.  And this detail is no accidental inclusion, no throwaway line; the writer tells us because her bent over, bowed down body is a metaphor for her lot in life.  Because of her condition, her status in her society is low.  Her state is public humiliation.  She cannot stand tall; she cannot lift her head up high.  Because every day, for eighteen long years, life has beat her down, to the point that she cannot muster enough of a sense of dignity and worth to stand up for herself.  The burden she carries is so immense that it is burying her alive.

 

But even though she comes in low, Jesus sees her.  Of course he does: she appears before his eyes while he is preaching.  That is obvious, so obviously Luke does not need to mention it.  And yet he does.  Because when Luke says that Jesus saw her, what he is really telling us is that Jesus saw her, like truly saw her.  And for a person who was a walking ghost, socially invisible, that mattered; being seen was part of the miracle.  And because Jesus took the time to see her, to really see her, he knew she needed to be, not just physically healed, but set free.

 

And so he sets her free.  But she has to take the first step towards freedom.  I think it is interesting in this story that when Jesus sees her, he does not go over to her.  Instead he calls her to himself.  It seems that it would make more sense for Jesus to make the effort, to take the extra steps, to cover the ground between them.  She was, after all, the one who was crippled.  Jesus was an able bodied man in his early 30’s.  And yet Jesus asks her to come to him.  And that seems curious. 

 

But I think, for Luke, this curious little detail is very important.  Jesus, you’ll remember, was standing at the front of the room.  He was teaching.  Everyone present, the woman, the leader of the synagogue, the folks in the pews, was looking his way; he was the center of attention, the one in the spotlight.  And so what Jesus does, by calling her over, is that he brings this unseen woman into the light; he makes sure she, who was invisible, is seen.  He makes sure that she, who was marginalized, is brought to the forefront, she who was low was placed up on a pedestal.  Jesus restores this forgotten woman to the heart and consciousness of her community.  Jesus makes sure he is not the only one who sees her, really sees her.

 

This is more than a healing story.  This is a salvation story.  And Jesus tells us that when he explains to the leader, and to the crowd, that what he did in their presence was set this woman free from her bondage: “to proclaim the release of those in captivity” and “to let the oppressed go free.”

 

But he did do it on the Sabbath.  And he could have waited – or so argued the leader of that synagogue. 

 

We cannot be sure to what extent the leader was concerned with the Sabbath in this case.  The Sabbath is included in the 10 Commandments; Sabbath observation was essential in the preservation of Jewish identity throughout history, including during the Roman occupation of Jesus’ time.  And so maybe this man felt it was important that he defend such a vital institution.  Maybe that really was what made him indignant.

 

But maybe there was something else, something deep and unspoken that caused his outburst.  Because this man did, as Jesus points out, care for his animals on the Sabbath, untying them and leading them to water, which seems to require at least as much effort as Jesus spent setting this woman free.  And, you’ll notice, Jesus doesn’t condemn the man’s actions.  It is good to provide animals with water seven days a week.  They get thirsty. 

 

But if we can care for an animal on the Sabbath, why not our sister?

And if an animal, bound for a few hours, should be set free, why not a person bound for eighteen years?

And if an animal can be loosed on any day of the week, including the Sabbath, why should Jesus not set this precious child of Abraham free, even on the Sabbath?

 

This woman, with her bent back and broken life, was not an interruption or an inconvenience or task for another day.  She was a person, created in the image of God, worthy of love, more precious than even a commandment.  And when she stood up straight and looked the leader of the synagogue in the eyes, I suspect he saw her humanity, probably for the first time, and was ashamed.  And because confession and conversion are really hard and really painful, he lashed out at Jesus – because Jesus exposed something about him that this powerful man knew, deep down in his bones, was wrong.

 

We’ll never know what happened to the leader of that synagogue.  But I hope Jesus also took a moment to see him, slumped low in shame.  And because sometimes I am indignant, and sometimes I am judgmental, and sometimes I am rigid, and sometimes I am even blind to the image of God in front of my face, I hope that, after the story ended, and the crowds returned home, I hope Jesus that set him free too.