The woman with the Bent Back

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.--Luke 13:11-13

The story begins with Jesus teaching in the synagogue. That's cool; that was a job that was permitted on the sabbath, unlike things like cooking, cleaning, doing farm work and what have you. You could be kind and move your livestock to water and feed them so long as you didn't have to light a fire and cook the food.

Enter a woman, most likely an older woman, one who most probably had no husband, son, brother, father or other male relative to look after and escort her out in public. There isn't even a mention of a slave accompanying her. We don't even get to know her name other than the description "woman with the bent back."  Of course, there are many other stories of unnamed women -- Jarius' daughter, the woman with the hemorrhage, the Syrophoenician woman, the woman with the alabaster jar, the woman at the well, the unnamed followers of Jesus who along with Mary Magdalene supported Jesus and his ministry. The woman with the bent back is another in the cast around whom pivotal deeds and teachings swirled and appeared.

If you saw this woman walking around you would see that it wasn't easy to move when bent over like a human question mark. She had been bent this way for eighteen years, a  number that is represented by the letters of the word chai, Hebrew for "life." It must have been a hard life but she coped as best she could even to walking to the synagogue to worship on the sabbath as the law commanded.

I wonder what she thought when Jesus summoned her to him in the synagogue. To be summoned by a male stranger, even a teacher, was almost as unheard-of as a Jewish woman with male relatives or even male servants walking around in public. Was she startled? Afraid of what the teacher might say or denounce? Anxious that she would be singled out even more than her deformity already did?  Curious to hear what he wanted?  Wanting badly to run away but being totally unable to do so? In think perhaps all these ran through her mind in the space of a heartbeat or two. Still, she did as Jesus asked and approached him, probably with fear and trembling and perhaps resignation because I doubt seriously that she had any hope of anything in her life changing substantially.

What a surprise she got. For the first time in eighteen years she could stand erect. Muscles that had been cramped and bones that had been twisted straightened in a flash. For the first time in eighteen years she could see not just people's feet but their faces and eyes. perhaps it was a mercy not to have seen them when she was in her former shape; it might have caused more grief had she known of the glares of distaste for a handicapped person to dare to be seen in public, the quick glances of pity and the upraised looks of "Thank God I am not like that one!"  At any rate, here she was, standing tall and proud, cane or staff tossed aside and hands raised in thank giving to God as the officials turned their backs and berated the one who, through the power and mercy of God, did the deed that set the woman free. The synagogue officials overlooked that entirely; they were too busy pointing fingers and proclaiming the unrighteousness and sabbath-dishonoring of someone who dared do a healing on the sabbath instead of waiting decently until the next day. They left God out of the equation in their attempt to protect God and the laws God had given on Sinai.

Jesus cured the woman's bent body, restored it to health and functionality. People with disabilities and deformities are still present in society yet many of us avert our eyes or move slightly away as if it were some kind of contagion we must avoid. In that way we're not really much different than the people on the street the woman with the bent back passed so many centuries ago. To the ancients, and even to some modern people, such illnesses and deformities are manifestations of sinfulness and unclean-ness. If only they believed, if only they acknowledged their sins, if only they said the right words everything would be made right and all would be well. Jesus didn't ask for her conversion first before healing her, though. He didn't ask for her acknowledgment of sin before she could be cured. Instead he put love of God and love of neighbor ahead of purity laws and even the literal reading of the commandment to "Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy."

Sometimes doing good is a more important -- and more holy -- sabbath act than sitting in church and listening to sermons about how to obey the law. Somehow an act that appears to be work on a day dedicated to rest, re-creation, restoration and reverence can be a response that enables another to experience the mercy and grace of God. Perhaps something done with kindness and attentiveness to a need can change another's whole life, even if done on the sabbath.

Just ask the woman with the formerly-bent back.