“Looking at Passing Feet?”
Luke 13:10-17
Our Gospel story for this morning is about a woman who “was bent over and could not straighten up at all.”
Isn’t that an interesting way to be identified?
She has no other name that we know—history has named her, judged her and labeled her by her appearance…by what’s wrong with her….by her situation.
Anyway, it’s the Sabbath—the holy day—and the Jewish people have come to the synagogue and Jesus is teaching.
And like every first century synagogue, the men are in front and the women are in back.
And somehow Jesus notices this woman—bent over, or in the Greek “doubled over.”
She probably has a cane in one hand and her head toward the ground.
She is probably used to going unnoticed.
She has been living this way for 18 years…
…slumped…
…bent…
…hunched.
Do you know what happens when you spend 18 years looking at the ground?
I don’t know much about it, obviously, but you’ve got to miss a whole lot that is going on around you.
In fact, if you spent 18 years looking at anything, you would miss a whole lot of life going on around you.
But this woman who is bent over, the Scripture says, was crippled by a “spirit.”
Do you know what that says to me?
That says that there was a time in this woman’s life, before this happened to her, that she could look up or straight ahead…that she could look people in the eye.
At some point in her life she had been stronger, maybe even healthy.
But something had happened to her, and whatever it was, she couldn’t leave it behind.
It could have been an illness, but I don’t think that’s what this is about.
“Crippled by a spirit” indicates that there is something that has gotten ahold of her or has assumed power over her…
…or has taken over her life.
And that “something” is causing her to live life in a crippled state…as less than…with something she has to make her choices around.
It’s so powerful that it dictates her actions; how she speaks, where and when she goes, how she acts, how she thinks of herself and how she thinks of others.
When a spirit has crippled you, it can take everything from you.
Have you ever seen someone walk around, stooped over—with bad posture—slumped shoulders, and eyes that will not look you in the face?
I see a lot of people like that.
Some of them come to our food pantry.
Over the years, I’ve known a lot of teenagers who look like that.
When I lived down in Mississippi, I would come along a lot of older African American people who looked that way.
What might cause a person to be like that?
Low self-esteem can cause a person to walk bent over.
Guilt can be such a heavy load to bear that it might cause a person’s back to bow.
Abuse can make people hunched over.
Human beings can do unspeakable things to each other.
Ever seen a puppy that has been severely abused?
People can look like that as well.
I’ve told this story before, but it’s been a while:
When I was in college, I was walking across campus one day when I came upon an older woman who was in one of my classes.
She also went to the same Bible study I did on campus.
We got into a conversation that day and for some reason, at some point, this woman said, “I believe in Jesus and I believe in heaven, but I will never be there.”
I was really shocked by her statement and this started a really long conversation.
It turns out that as a child she had been abused by her father.
He would molest her and hurt her and tell her she was no good.
And then, when she got older she married a man who was just like her father.
He hurt her and told her she was no good, and she believed it.
She had internalized it.
It had become who she was.
So, she felt so bad about herself that she couldn’t imagine going to heaven.
She wasn’t good enough; she wasn’t worthy of such love.
I think that is the state of mind of the woman in our Gospel Lesson.
Have you ever felt as if you weren’t good enough or that you weren’t worthy of being loved?
I think a lot of us have.
Maybe some of us still do.
J.B. Philip’s translation of the New Testament reads that the woman had been “doubled over due to some psychological cause.”
This is the bent over woman.
She is everyone who has ever struggled to rise above the pain of oppression, low self-worth and the judgment of others…
She is everyone who has ever struggled with illness, addictions, loss of value, loss of a spouse, or self-esteem or innocence…
…she is anyone who has been told “You can’t” and believed it…
..she is anyone who has lost hope.
And as she makes her way to her seat on that balmy Sabbath morning, Jesus calls to her.
And Jesus doesn’t shout out: “Hey, YOU! Crippled lady in the back row!”…
…or any other label that she or anyone else has used to identify her.
Jesus called her in a way that she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that He was talking to her…
…it says, “Jesus saw her,” and then, “he called her forward.”
Jesus saw her for who she was.
Jesus knew her, knew her utmost secrets.
Jesus saw her in all her humanity, frailty.
He knew what she had gone through, what she thought of herself…
…what others thought of her…
…and Jesus loved her with a love that is crystal clear, unconditional, the most beautiful thing in all the world!
And when she comes to Jesus…
…at the place of peace, of sanity, of love, of acceptance…
…she hears Jesus say: “you are free from your infirmity…
…you are free from your oppression…
…free from judgment…
…free from shame…
…you are no longer under the power of this thing that has controlled your life for so long…
…you are free to be who you are and not who others tell you, you are…
…you are free to live in the grace and mercy of the One Who loves and cares for you and knows everything about you.
You are free to love yourself, accept yourself…
…you are precious, you are cherished…
…You are adored!”
Then Jesus “put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.”
The leader of the synagogue doesn’t like this because Jesus has healed someone on the Sabbath, but Jesus calls him a “hypocrite.”
And then He turns to the woman and He calls her “daughter.”
Daughter!
He looks at the crowd with their mouths still wide open and lovingly reminds them that this woman, the one who they have made to feel “less than” for all these years is as much a part of them as the leader of the synagogue.
He reminds them that the Family of God is not about is not about shaming people into community, or marginalizing those who struggle…
…it’s about bringing all people to the center.
I don’t know if you are bent over today…
…I don’t know what may or may not have a hold on you, or how far out into the margins you may feel.
I don’t know what you struggle with, or what it is in your life that has claimed power over you.
But I do know this.
We all, to some extent, live “bent over” or “bent double” lives.
And it may or may not be in the form of a debilitating disfigurement—in fact, no one may be able to see that you are bent over at all…
…but Jesus knows it.
He has seen you in the back of the room with your cane.
And that’s alright.
He loves you.
And at this very moment He is calling you to “stand up straight.”
And when Jesus calls you—to the “you” inside…
…to the “you” He created…
…to the “you” that He died for…
…to the “you” that He loves no matter what…
…what He is offering you is life; life that is rich and full and free.
We don’t have to live bent over to anything or anyone or any label ever again, because the One Who knows the truth about us sees all of it and still calls us His son or daughter!
Let us pray:
Oh, Jesus, lover of our souls.
We thank You that we do not have to be anything other than ourselves for You to love us beyond measure!
We thank You that You have come to save us from ourselves, from our insecurities, from our trauma’s, from the Satanic spirit that seeks to hold us captive.
We accept Your free gift of salvation.
We accept Your love for us.
And we will, with Your help, learn to love You, love our neighbor and love ourselves because You have first loved us!
In Jesus’ name.
Amen.
