Unbent, Unbound, Set Free
Luke 13:10-17
“Bent double.”
That’s what the Greek text says—
that the woman is
“bent double.”
For 18 years,
this daughter of Abraham hasn’t been able
to look people in the eye
without straining her neck.
For 18 years,
she hasn’t
seen much
but her own feet.
And the dirt
underneath them.
I had a professor who,
while preparing to preach on this text,
once spent an entire day
walking bent over.
I tried it for just a bit.
I went from the room
where my computer is at home
to the kitchen for a cup of coffee.
Even that short amount of time
was painful and frustrating.
You’ll be glad to know
that I’m not going to ask you
to get up
and walk around bent over
this morning.
But you ought to try it sometime.
It’s a good way
to experience this passage.
For now, just imagine—
not being able to stand up straight
for 18 years.
Imagine
not being able
to look people in the eye.
Imagine
being unable to guess
what people were thinking
because you can’t really
see their faces.
What would that do
to your soul?
How easy would it be
for your spirit
to get bent down,
as well!
In Teaching a Stone to Talk,
Annie Dillard tells another story
about being “bent double.”
It’s the story of the Franklin expedition,
launched in 1845
to find a northwest passage
across the high Canadian Arctic
to the Pacific Ocean.
Apparently, the expedition had
quite a fantastic beginning:
fine English china,
sterling silver flatware,
silk scarves,
crystal goblets,
a pump organ,
and a twelve-hundred volume library.
Unfortunately,
all one hundred thirty-eight explorers
were lost.
And for years,
the Inuit natives of the region
happened across various horrific scenes--
members of the expedition
who had set out across the ice pack
for help.
They had died on the ice
with their silk scarves around their necks
and their backpacks stuffed
with sterling silver flatware—
proper items
for English gentlemen,
but useless
for an Arctic journey.
We carry useless items around as well, don’t we?
Sometimes they are actual things—
too much stuff in our lives—
and sometimes it is simply the material
in our spiritual backpacks:
heavy expectations
of where we thought we’d be
at age thirty-five
or fifty
or sixty-three;
the cumbersome baggage
of how life is ‘supposed’ to work out,
of how we imagined a marriage would be,
of what we think a family should look like,
of how we imagined our children would grow up.
And then, there are
the money worries,
the health worries,
the trouble at work,
the fact of maybe not even having work.
So many burdens in life can beat us down
and bend us over….
and over…
and over still more…
until finally,
like the woman in the story,
we need to be healed.
But wait!
Did you notice?
The woman is not the only person in this story
who is bound
and imprisoned.
After the healing,
there is a controversy
over what has happened.
There are folks who are furious
that Jesus is healing on the Sabbath.
Some people are always
scared to death of freedom, especially when we’re talking about
somebody else’s freedom!
There will always be people
who denounce any sign of grace;
people
who get all bent out of shape
when freedom breaks loose.
For such people,
it is stern legalism
that bends them double.
And maybe sometimes
this even happens to us in the church.
Our religion…
or our misunderstanding
of our religion
bends us in on ourselves.
Christians are
not supposed to do this
or be like that!
You should have done
it this way in the church.
If I don’t get my way,
I’m leaving!
Sometimes religion
can bend us double.
So many reasons
we get bent in on ourselves.
And for whatever reason
we need to be healed.
Well, let’s look at the healing.
The healing is
very interesting.
It’s different
from many of the healing stories
of Jesus.
Notice that the story doesn’t say anything
about the woman
having any faith.
There’s nothing
about the woman
asking to Jesus to heal her.
The story doesn’t even say
that she knew
who Jesus was.
Jesus just
sees her.
And then,
he heals her.
“Woman, you are free
from your infirmity.”
Jesus requires nothing of the woman:
no profession of faith,
no confession of sin,
no acknowledgement of her need,
no falling on her knees.
Isn’t that remarkable?!
Nothing!
She has to do nothing!
It is grace, pure and free.
“Woman, you are free from your infirmity”
The leader of the synagogue
doesn’t get it, poor fellow.
He stays
bent out of shape.
But the woman stands tall,
praising God.
What does that kind of healing feel like?
What does it look like?
Try imagining whatever
has you bent over
or bent out of shape—
grief,
anger,
religion,
physical pain.
Or maybe you’re not thinking
about you
today.
Maybe you’re thinking about
someone else or a whole group of people
bent down.
Okay.
Have you got a situation in mind?
Now hold that hurt,
in your heart and mind
as you listen
to this story that preacher Jana Childers tells.
It’s the story of a little girl
who lived in a rural community.
Her family’s house was very small
and, though this happened
not terribly long ago,
she went to a two-room school.
She had loving folks around her and,
occasionally,
a good teacher.
But, still,
this little girl
had a sad life.
She had a cleft palate
and the money for the repair
just wasn’t there.
By the time she was seven,
this little girl knew
how the world worked.
She had heard the phrase,
“only a mother could love that”
and she knew exactly
what it meant.
One day
somebody visited the school
to performed
speech and hearing evaluations.
When it was her turn,
the little girl
went into the classroom
that had been set aside for the exams.
“Just stand over there by the door,”
the woman said
from her desk
at the far end of the room.
“I’m going to test your hearing first.
Turn your back,
face the door
and tell me
what you hear me say.”
“Apple,”
the woman said in a low voice.
“Apple,”
the little girl repeated.
“Man,”
the woman said.
“Man,”
the little girl repeated.
“Banana.”
“Banana.”
“Okay,” the woman said,
“Now I’m going to say a sentence.”
The child knew
that the sentences
were usually pretty easy—
she wasn’t the first kid in the class
to take the test, after all.
She’d heard the other kids
talking about their sentences.
“The sky is blue.”
“Are your shoes brown?”
Still, she listened very carefully.
So it was
that standing with her face against the door,
she heard the woman’s whisper
quite clearly,
‘“I wish you were my little girl.”
(“The Kyphotic Woman,” sermon on Luke 13:10-13, “30 Good Minutes,” Program #4816, First air date February 6, 2005, http://www.csec.org/csec/sermon/childers_4816.htm)
Can any of us doubt that
the little girl
heard these words
as words like those from God,
as words that made her
stand taller
and feel stronger?
The same God
who spoke to that little girl,
who loved her and made her stand taller,
spoke to the woman
who was bent double.
And the same God
speaks to us
and to those whom we love.
Hear this good news—
God’s love is way bigger and stronger
than anything that is beating you down.
You can stand tall!
You don’t have to do anything
to earn that love.
You don’t have to have to
be a certain age
or a certain race
or a certain gender
or a certain sexual orientation
to earn that love.
No particular education is required,
no particular abilities,
no particular strength……
That love,
that call
is for all of us.
Stand tall!
Walk in the freedom and the love of Christ!
We, too, are unbent, unbound, and set free!
Thanks be to God!