The Bent Over Woman, Disability, and Sabbath

Sermon Given August 21, 2022
Texts: Isaiah 58: 9b-14, Luke 13:10-17

I wonder what this woman’s life was like. The Gospel says that she had been bent over for eighteen years. I’ve always imagined her as an older woman, the people I’ve met who have curved spines are almost exclusively elderly people. But spinal curvature happens in childhood as well, we’ve just developed treatments so many children who have spines that are curving don’t end up bent over. This woman could very well have developed this curvature as a child. This would put great pressure on her internal organs. Her chest and lungs would have been affected as the rib cage squeezed. Every day came with physical pain. 

Her back affected her relationships with others. She probably didn’t get married, and I imagine pregnancy and giving birth would have been dangerous, as it would put a strain on already squashed lungs. Husbands and children helped provide great stability to a woman’s life in the patriarchal culture she lived in, so to be without them left her vulnerable. She did likely have family or friends who could help her out with basic needs. I don’t think she was all alone. Her back would have made it difficult to do things like carry water from the well or other necessary tasks of daily life. I think she had a support system and was cared about by her community. I don’t think she was an outcast. 

Then she shows up at the synagogue on the Sabbath, like she’d done probably since she was a little girl. As she walked in, she could hear the guest preacher talking so she slipped over to her seat. But as she settled in for another Sabbath, the preacher called out to her. He wanted her to come over. How did she know he was calling to her? How did he address her? “Woman with the walking sticks?” “Bent over woman?” “Woman in the back near the door?” Whatever he said, she recognized he was speaking to her and she came forward. He said, “Woman, you are set free”, then put his hands on her back and chest, helping her to stand up straight. Her chronic pain disappeared, her lungs were better able to fill with oxygen. She had a new freedom to do those things she was never able to do before. Praise gushed from her mouth. Everyone was shocked and in awe. She was healed. 

Everyone but the leader of the synagogue that is, he was pissed. Here’s where my sermon about division last week helps us out. Remember, people were divided between whether Jesus was the Messiah or a snake oil salesman. The leader had invited Jesus to speak in order to hear him out, he was trying to make the decision for himself, but then Jesus disrupts the service, he brings this great ruckus, he diverts the purpose of the gathering from worshiping God to creating a show. The leader of the synagogue probably knew this woman for years, he knew her condition. What if Jesus was a magician, not a Messiah?  What if Jesus created this show, walked away, and her straight spine was a temporary thing? How much would this woman hurt when she woke up the next morning with her spine back to where it was before?  If Jesus was legitimate, he could heal anytime, he wouldn’t require a crowd. He could have easily come back the next day with less people there and done this in a quiet manner. In the leader’s mind, a legitimate Messiah would have respected the gathering, not made waves and created a spectacle during it. 

But Jesus wasn’t trying to make a show. He saw a woman who was in pain. He saw her and he wanted to help. He wanted to help liberate her, to help her be able to establish a more stable pain free life. Jesus wasn’t trying to use her as a spectacle, a great show to declare how great he was. He was moved with compassion and lived into the true meaning of Sabbath, a day of liberation, of rest, of renewal. He was giving her new life, and what was more Sabbath-like than that?

I want to take a pause for a second because like most healing stories in the Bible, damaging rhetoric has been used to talk about them. People will say that this woman’s faith set her free, and to an extent that’s true. She showed up to worship. She trusted Jesus when he called her forward. But there is a harmful flip side to that statement. That is, if she didn’t have enough faith, she would never be healed. There are people today praying for healing who are constantly being told they just need to strengthen their faith and get right with God. That’s not what this is about.  She was given a gift. We thank God for the gift she was given. That gift should not be used to shame other people’s bodies. 

The human body is complex. There are all sorts of disabilities that affect people. Many have treatments and aids that help. Glasses and hearing aids alleviate weak eyes and poor hearing, they are disability related aids. Some disabilities don’t have treatments. If we become old enough, we’re all likely to experience some disability, whether that’s cognitize, mobility-related, or disease driven. Disability is a normal part of human life.

One question that I’ve explored recently: Is there disability in heaven? I think about all the beautiful people I’ve met with disabilities. 

My Aunt DonnaVe had schizophrenia. I didn’t really know her that well because the majority of my life she lived in Seattle, but the last few years she lived close to my parents in Iowa in a nursing home. I had always pictured schizophrenia as Hollywood portrays it, dark, paranoia inducing images that haunt the brain, and there are certainly people who experience it in those ways, but hers was different. Aunt DonnaVe would take bits of the conversation and weave beautiful imaginative stories that became her truth. She was fun and bubbly, and if you didn’t care about the accuracy of what she was telling you, she could take you on an inventive re-imagining of her life with a smile and deep joy. I hope she’s still weaving together stories in heaven. 

We have close family friends whose eldest son had a stroke in the womb. He has a paralyzed arm and weak leg, he walks with a limp. He also has a cognitive disability and no volume control. He’s hilarious and comes up with the best one liners. He is so completely himself, his presence invites you to be yourself too. I love being around him, though I don’t see him that often. I hope he’s still himself in heaven. 

One of my pastors growing up has a son with Down’s Syndrome. I remember people asking if this son would have Down’s in heaven. The pastor simply said, “Downs is literally part of his DNA. Who would he be without it?” 

There are so many beautiful and amazing people who will be completely and totally themselves in heaven. I hope there isn’t complete erasure of parts of people in order to fit them into a heavenly mold. I hope their uniqueness remains. But I do hope there isn’t pain and suffering. I hope suffering is truly no more. 

 I don’t think Jesus healed this woman because she had a disability. I think he healed her because she was in pain. I think what Jesus is doing here is showing God’s vision for the world. God dreams of a world where pain is alleviated, where people have security and stability in their lives. That doesn’t mean that disabilities are eliminated. That means that we have the resources to help each other live the best lives possible. We have the ability to talk about disabilities with those who have them and work towards ways of helping relieve pain together. God’s vision is to live into a world where pain, be it physical, emotional, relational, or spiritual is talked about and addressed, caring first and foremost for the dignity of those experiencing it. The point of Jesus’ healing ministry is to help us envision and live into a world with less pain, with more treatments, aids, and support for all bodies. 

This ministry is lived out all days of the week, but especially on the Sabbath. With the Sabbath, God created a day of rest and restoration. God’s vision for the world is Sabbath. Isaiah today points us towards that vision. In God’s Sabbath, there is no evil. The hungry have food. The afflicted have their needs met. The gloom of the world disappears into the light of God. We are called into days of rest, not just to care for our bodies, which truly do need and benefit from  lazy days, but also to imagine what a world at rest looks like, to picture God’s hope for us.

We’re not great at rest, especially in our country. In fact, we’ve designed a society where rest is more of a privilege than a right. I worry about how hard we all work, our children included. I worry about the shaming that happens of those who take time for themselves. I don’t see the forty hour work week as a reality for most people in our country. I see many more people, of all income levels, working many more hours, with more and more doing something work related six or seven days a week. We continue to push ourselves to do more, yet the push towards more takes a deep toll on our bodies. We weren’t designed for this. We were designed to take breaks, to enjoy unproductive time together, to take moments to just be ourselves. 

How can we live into Sabbath in this culture? What does a day of restoration look like for us? How can we build this into our lives? 

It’s easier to find time when not constantly trying to get enough money to survive, or constantly having to work on homework or doing both, trying to survive and study, but even those who have to work every day can find Sabbath. There can be pieces of rest built in. You can still set aside some time, try to find even just one day a month, where you are thoroughly unproductive. You can choose to engage in those practices that help you feel renewed and restored. You can do things just because they feel good. You can take those moments to bring your pains to Jesus and trust him to help lift you up, relieving the pressure off your own spine. Sabbath is a form of pain relief. It helps us be more ourselves, more of the unique people God made us to be. 

Our work, our mission, all of what we do ultimately culminates in Sabbath. It is our deepest desire. To be able to live in those moments where pain is reduced, where we feel whole and complete, where we don’t need to be anybody but our true authentic selves, this is the dream for humanity. This is why we were created. The woman who was healed on the Sabbath calls us into our own Sabbath identities, as people who see each other in our full dignity, who help each other live into that dignity, and who embrace each other for the quirky, unique individuals we are, the people God delights in. May we delight in and care for each other as much as God delighted in and cared for this woman. Amen.