By The Rev. Craig A. Phillips, Ph.D.
The Gospel of Luke narrates Jesus’ healing of a woman with a spinal deformity that had caused her to hunch over for 18 years (Luke 13:10-17). I can identify with this story as I have had spinal surgeries, and I know how debilitating back issues can be. Perhaps you do too.
At the time of Jesus many medical issues were blamed on the presence of an evil “spirit.” Severe illness and hardship separated people from society. At times they were even blamed for the fact that they were sick or infirm, as if they willed themselves to be sick. Sickness and illness alienated people from the very communities of which they were a part. Healing brought them back into fellowship with one another.
This story takes place in a synagogue in which Jesus was teaching. In the gospel of Luke, we don’t find Jesus teaching in the synagogue all that often. But when he does, things happen. We should be careful when we read of the conflict between Jesus and synagogue leaders. Each had carefully thought-out ideas about what it meant to be faithful to God. Where the synagogue leader may have wanted to observe Jewish law literally, Jesus focused on the spirit of the law and its effects on human persons. Both positions were honorable and worthy of respect.
Jesus saw the woman and called for her to come to him. The woman did not immediately approach Jesus. Perhaps she had grown used to her condition and the fact that she was ignored or pushed to the margins of the community in which she lived on account of her illness. Jesus then set her free from her condition. She was healed! She not only was healed but as a result of her healing she was restored to the life of the community from which she had been separated by her illness.
The first time we read of Jesus teaching in the synagogue is in the 4th Chapter. Jesus takes up the scroll of the prophet Isaiah and reads the following words.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor (Luke 4:18–19 NRSV).
Then he drops the bombshell: “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Jesus has just identified himself with the mission of the Messiah. Is Jesus the Messiah? Well for Luke and for us Christians today the answer is yes. But the crowd, surprised by this claim, erupts and Jesus is driven out of the synagogue.
Jesus, in other words, by healing the woman is fulfilling his mission — his purpose — not only to proclaim but to enact God’s rule — God’s Reign— by setting the oppressed free. In this case the woman is freed from the spirit that has oppressed her for 18 years. And she is set free.
In response to the healing, the leader of the synagogue became indignant because Jesus had cured the woman on the sabbath day. The synagogue leader announced that healing someone on the Sabbath was not in accordance with proper observance of Sabbath rest. That sort of thing, the synagogue leader said, can wait till the day after the Sabbath when normal work resumed.
In our English translations of the text, we miss the urgency of the argument between Jesus and the leader of the synagogue. The synagogue leader literally says, “There are six days on which it is necessary for work to be done.” The key word in Greek is the word that means “it is necessary.” Jesus replies with the same urgency. He says literally, “Is it not necessary that this woman be freed from her bondage on the Sabbath Day?” Both Jesus and the leader of the synagogue assert what is necessary –what each thinks must be done—what each thinks is right.
The Sabbath was designed by God as a day of rest for all creatures, human and animal. On six days one can work, but on the seventh everyone must rest. It is a day of justice on which no one was to work, human or animal. Some things still had to be done on the sabbath, but only if they could not be classified as work. That is where the difference of opinion arises. What exactly counts as work on the Sabbath and what does not? Jesus observed the Sabbath. So, it is not the case that he did not care about Sabbath observance. He pointed out to the synagogue leader that everyone “loosens” or “frees” their animals on the Sabbath so that they can eat out of the food trough. That does not count as work. So, what is the harm on “loosing” or “freeing” this woman from the bondage of her illness. As far as Jesus was concerned, what better thing could be done on the sabbath than to bring healing to a person in need of healing. That after all was part of what Sabbath peace, rest, and justice really meant.
Since the earliest church, Christians who follow Jesus have understood that bringing healing to the world is part of their vocation. The Christian movement began in an isolated part of the Roman Empire, but in three hundred years it became the official religion of the Roman State. What happened? Some point to the exemplary way that Christians faced persecution. Their resolute faith attracted others to the faith. Certainly, this was an important factor that helped the church to grow. But there is perhaps another more potent reason for that growth. Social historians now point to the fact that it was the way that Christians cared for the sick and infirm during times of plague that had the greatest influence on the growth of the church. When plague hit, wealthy Romans fled the city and went to their country estates. But Christians remained in the city and treated and cared for the ill even at the risk of losing their own life.
In our Baptismal Covenant of the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, godparents, newly baptized adults, along with the entire congregation, promise “to seek and serve Christ in all persons loving your neighbor as yourself.” In the gospels that tell the story of Jesus we see that throughout his earthly ministry he cared for the “little ones,” the “last,” those who were “lost,” the “least” and even for the dead whom he raised to life. Healing is about making people whole. It’s about bringing people who have been forgotten or pushed to the margins for whatever reason back into community.
I invite you to think about what you can do to bring healing and wholeness to the world in which you live. What can you do to bring wholeness and healing to the lives of those around you? Or in the words of the Baptismal Covenant, “how can you seek and serve Christ in all persons loving your neighbor as yourself?”
That is the task to which Jesus calls all of us who seek to follow him.
The Rev. Craig A. Phillips, Ph.D. is a retired Episcopal priest and Professor of Religion. He currently teaches as an adjunct Lecturer at St. Anselm College in Manchester, NH. His blog may be found at https://craigphillips.co.