Luke 13:10-17
“A Healing Religion”
This morning I want to talk about a method for biblical study and interpretation. You can do this yourself, but you can also use this method with a small group. The method is called: see, judge, act. It was used by a Roman Catholic bishop several years ago. See means to examine the text, then make a judgment about what values and principles are involved, and lastly take appropriate action. See, judge, act. When we look at the whole passage, we see that there are two parts. The first part is about Jesus and the woman. The second part is about Jesus and the rules of the synagogue. The two parts interpret each other.
In the beginning, Luke tells us that Jesus is teaching in a synagogue on the sabbath when he sees a woman who, the text says, has a spirit of weakness. She has been bent over for eighteen years. It is not like he was teaching about something and then sees the woman and she interrupts the lesson. His interaction with her is the lesson. The woman has been bent over for eighteen years. Maybe she was in an accident, maybe she had a disease, we don’t know what happened. Luke does not speculate. The text says that Jesus sees her, he calls to her and says: “Woman, you are freed from your infirmity.” Then he lays his hands upon her. He touches her. Think of John Lewis who said: “If you see something, say something.” Luke adds, “do something.” The AA motto, walk the walk, and talk the talk. Let your words and your deeds go together. In a word, integrity matters. Jesus saw her, spoke to her, and touched her. Even in this time when we are aware of the need for safe distance, there can be a place for appropriate touching. Luke is asking us to make a connection between integrity and health, whether it is personal wellness or relational well-being and social health. Integrity and health go together.
The text says that after Jesus touched the woman, she immediately stood straight and praised God. I know that different members of the congregation have different ways of understanding this text. Whether we want to interpret the text literally or metaphorically, the woman who has been afflicted for eighteen years, who has been a nobody for eighteen years, is now a somebody. Her existence has been validated and she praises God.
But at this very moment, the story of healing becomes a story of conflict. The woman stands straight in verse 13, and in verse 14, the ruler of the synagogue becomes indignant. Why? Because Jesus healed her on the sabbath. The ruler of the synagogue tells the people that Jesus could have done this any other day of the week, no problem, but he did it on the sabbath in the sanctuary. The ruler of the synagogue is not upset because Jesus healed her, he is upset because he healed her on the sabbath.
Now, we are moving from seeing to judging. New questions present themselves. When is religion a source of oppression, and when is it a force for liberation? Who has religious authority? How are they using their authority? What gives them authority?
Howard Thurman was a pastor, teacher, and mentor to many people, including Martin Luther King, Jr. was co-founder of the Church for the Fellowship of All People. Thurman wrote a book I want to recommend to you. It’s called Jesus and the Disinherited. In the Preface, he writes: “The significance of the religion of Jesus to people who stand with their backs against the wall has always seemed to me to be crucial. . . Why is it that Christianity seems impotent to deal radically, and therefore effectively, with the issues of discrimination and injustice based on race, religion, [gender] and national origin? Is this impotency due to a betrayal of the genius of the religion, or is it due to a basic weakness in the religion itself?”
She had the spirit of infirmity for eighteen years. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29 describes her plight: “When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes, I alone beweep my outcast state, and trouble heaven with my bootless cries, and look upon myself and curse my fate.” When is religion a source of oppression and when is it a source of liberation? What does the religion of Jesus have to say to people who stand with their backs against the wall? In light of, the controversy about abortion and women’s health care these are not idle questions. It is not accidental or coincidental that Jesus healed this woman in the sanctuary on the sabbath day. He wanted to pick a fight with the religious authorities.
Jesus saw the woman, he spoke to her, and he touched her. We know the importance of personal contact. We know the importance of helping people in times of need. Jesus was very clear. In Matthew 25, he tells us: “I was hungry and you fed me; I was naked and you clothed me; I was a stranger and you welcomed me; I was sick and you visited me; I was in prison and you came to me.” We know the importance of personal ministries and personal contact. That’s where ministry begins. But that is not where this story ends. There, is a pedagogy of action that calls for social transformation.
The deepest ethic of our tradition is the ethic of love. Jesus affirms that the unnamed woman is a “daughter of Abraham.” She is worthy of respect. She is a person. Think of the sanitation workers in Memphis wearing a placard: I am a human being. I encourage you to go online and read the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It has been called the Magna Carta of Indigenous peoples. Walter Echo-Hawk, a distinguished legal scholar, says: “The Declaration invites us for the first time to recognize indigenous rights as human rights” (In the Light of Justice, p. 7).
Jesus sees the woman, speaks to her, and touches her, but it does not mean to condone her situation or accept her condition. To love her means to stand in solidarity with her, Howard Thurman says: “The first step toward love is the common sharing a common sense of mutual worth and value.” He urges us to “Take the initiative in seeking ways in which [we] can have the experience of a common sharing of mutual worth and value” (page 90) with others. Once this mutual discovery is made, new relationships can be formed and systems can be changed and we can live effectively in the chaos of the present moment with the high dignity of persons worthy of love and capable of loving others.