"Woman, Thou Art Loosed"

14^th Sunday after Pentecost (Ordinary Time/UM Kingdomtde)

August 25, 2013

Luke 13:10-17

Introduction

Today we have the healing of a “bowed” woman when Jesus was teaching at a synagogue during the Sabbath day. It has al the marks of a typical miracle story. But it also tells of a clash between Jesus and the religious leaders during his time. The story shows us that Jesus, in the words of Bishop Emerito Nacpil, got “in the horns of a dilemma” and how he was able to extricate himself from that dilemma.

I. The marks of a miracle story (Luke 13:10-13)

Miracle stories always have three parts: 1) the human situation, which shows us the human need for the healing of sickness, the deliverance from demons, the feeding of the hungry, & c.; 2) the action of Jesus, which includes the healing of the sick, the expulsion of unclean spirits, the provision of food for the hungry, & c.; and 3) the people’s reaction to the miracle, including wonder, fear, or awe.

The healing of the “bowed” woman is told only in the Gospel of Luke, with his emphasis on “the last, the least, and the lost”:

1) The human situation. The woman was “bowed together and utterly unable to lift up herself” (v. 10). Perhaps the woman has severely hunchbacked by a condition called kyphosis. The text also clearly states that the origin of the woman’s condition is demonic in origin: she had had a “spirit of infirmity”. There are certain cases in the Bible were the text was clear that the sickness was caused by unclean spirits. However, there are also certain cases where the Bible is silent on the origin of the disease, which may well have natural causes. The woman has also been sick for eighteen years—a very long time.

In any case, the bent woman is a picture of the human condition of sickness. There are those who are sick because of natural causes; others because of the oppression of evil spirits. And there are those who have been infirm for several years. All of these are in need of help from Jesus.

2) The action of Jesus. Jesus does not wait for the woman to come and ask him to heal her. By his sovereign will he tells the woman to come him. He declares, “Woman, thou art loosed from thy infirmity!” (v. 12). The Greek word used for “loosed”—απολελυσαι,  apolelusai—has an image of being released from captivity. According to Jesus, this woman has been bound by Satan for eighteen years (v. 16); but with one word (and laying his hand upon her), Jesus has loosed her from her infirmity!

3) The reaction of the people. When Jesus laid his hand upon her, “immediately she was made straight, and glorified God” (v. 13). Upon being loosed from her infirmity, the woman gave glory to God, which the natural human response upon an encounter of supernatural healing.

II. Opposition along the way (Luke 13:14-16)

The “ruler of the synagogue”, upon seeing that Jesus healed on the Sabbath, was very “much displeased”. A synagogue ruler (in Hebrew, rosh beth-knesset) is not the rabbi. Rather, he is the administrator of the synagogue, the one in charge of the synagogue’s operations. Nowadays, he is called “president of the synagogue”. The synagogue ruler reasoned that since healing is considered “work”, which is forbidden in the Sabbath, one cannot heal on the Sabbath. In effect, the synagogue ruler is accusing Jesus of Sabbath breaking!

However, a closer inspection of halakah, Jewish law, reveals that it is not prohibited to heal on the Sabbath. One passage that appears to forbid healing on the Sabbath is:

You must not…induce vomiting, or straighten an infant['s limbs], or set a broken bone. If one's hand or foot is dislocated, he must not agitate it violently in cold water but may bathe it in the usual way, and if it heals, it heals. (Tractate Shabbat 147a, Babylonian Talmud)

In fact, traditional Judaism permits the breaking of the Sabbath if it involves the saving of a life, which takes precedence over all the commandments:

An objection is raised: How do we know that the saving of life supersedes the Sabbath? R. Eleazar b. 'Azariah said: If circumcision, which is [performed on but] one of the limbs of man, supersedes the Sabbath, the saving of life, a minori, must supersede the Sabbath. (Tractate Shabbat 132a)

III. Jesus’ answer to the opposition. (Luke 13:15-17)

Jesus answered the accusation of being a Sabbath-breaker with a two-pronged approach.

1) First, he called the synagogue ruler a “hypocrite”—John Wesley explains, “For the real motive of his speaking was envy, not (as he pretended) pure zeal for the glory of God” (Note on Luke xiii:15). Then Jesus reasoned that people can untie their farm animals and take them away to water—without breaking the Sabbath! (v. 15).

This is not a point from the Torah, but common sense. The closest parallel in the Torah is a little more shocking: it’s about helping an animal owned by an enemy!

If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again. If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under its burden, thou shalt forbear to pass by him; thou shalt surely release it with him. (Exodus 23:4-5, Jewish Publication Society)

2) Next, Jesus reasoned, If animals can be untie (loosened) on the Sabbath so that it can drink, how much more the woman, who is a human being, be unloosed from Satan for eighteen years, even if it’s on the Sabbath!

This is the difficult thing about being a hypocrite—one is free to speak dishonesty, even if it’s self-contradictory, because one does not have the obligation to tell the truth!

Conclusion: Giving glory to God (Luke 13:17)

The Gospel reading ends with the multitude, seeing that all of his adversaries were ashamed (for Jesus exposed their hypocrisy), rejoicing “for all the glorious things that were done by him” (v. 17). Miracles give glory to God if we acknowledge that it is he who performs miracles. God is not glorified when we pretend to give him glory but are envious of others instead. God is given glory when we help and save lives; as the Mishnah says,

Whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world. (Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:9)

Icon courtesy of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (GoArch.Org)