Jesus Heals the Crippled Woman - Luke 13: 10-17

Now he 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.

Commentary

In some denominations, they have what is called an altar call. Right in the middle of Sunday service, you are invited to come up to the altar, confess your sins, and be healed by the laying on of hands by the pastor. I have never belonged to that kind of church, nor have I participated in an altar call. Too public for me, and how do I know I am going to be healed anyway?

But I think that today's reading is in its own way, an affirmation of the altar call. I want to concentrate our attentions on that crippled woman.

First of all, what was she doing there anyway? By the Jewish purity laws she should not have been there. Because of her aliment she was considered impure. And her impurity was considered to defile any who came in contact with her. No, she should have been at home alone, not in the synagogue, and certainly not during a service.

Why was she there then? Because she wanted to be healed is the obvious answer, but that's only half of the answer. The full answer is that she wanted to be healed enough to become a public spectacle. She wanted to be healed enough to show up where she didn't belong and wasn't wanted. She was willing to show up in her dreadfully crippled state. And she wanted to be healed enough to believe against all logic that she WOULD be healed. Imagine the shame that would have fallen on her if she had made all that effort, and when finally standing in front of Jesus, nothing happened. No miracle, no healing, just a crippled woman standing in front of the countries then most famous healer, and she is immune to his healing. She has nothing to do but shuffle back home as best she can, in shame.

WE know that isn't the way the story turned out. And having the benefit of four gospels worth of such stories, we know there was no real risk of it having turned out that way. Or do we. It is not in this story, but the typical words of Jesus are, “YOUR faith has healed you.” Jesus never claimed it was HIS faith that did the healing. He always claimed to be limited by the faith of the person he was healing. So the obvious question for us is “How does Our faith measure up?”

We are so used to modern psychology, that we tend to forget just how recent a phenomenon it is. We don't hear much in the Bible about mental illness. Mostly because in those days it was not an acknowledged part of human behavior and understanding. There were good people, and bad people, and, for really extreme cases there were people possessed by demons. Now we understand not only how we are shaped by our experiences, but also how we can, with work and assistance, grow beyond them. Today, we understand that our sins of greed, and hatred, and pride and jealousy, are also, to a good extent, illnesses, from which we can be healed. Jesus can heal these sins just as surely as he healed the woman in this story. So why are we still the way we are?

I think the crippled woman tells us very clearly. First, we have to want to be healed. Second, we have to admit that we need healing, and finally we must have the faith that Jesus will heal us. Without all three, we are stuck.

Lord grant us the ears to hear.