You Are Set Free

Luke 13:10-17

August 24, 2025

 

In the last years of my mom’s life, she walked bent over. She had very little strength left in her upper body, and she could not hold herself up straight when she walked. There were a multitude of reasons for this. She had osteoporosis. She had a complex and difficult back surgery in the early 2000’s that never seemed to help, and the recovery from that was so awful that she gave up on trying to get her full strength back. There were many reasons as to why she was so bent over, but I remember watching her and thinking, “I don’t want that to be me.”

I am my mother in many ways, and that makes me happy most of the time because she was funny and smart and a great mom. But if I’m lucky enough to live another 30 years, I don’t want to be bent over and stooped like she was. I want to avoid that if possible. So, I exercise. I’ve started swimming again. I take my vitamins, and I try to be conscious of my posture – although that’s going to take a lot more effort on my part. I’m trying to avoid becoming my mother in that way because I know that she was in a lot of pain in the last years of her life. Her back hurt. Her knees hurt. She just hurt. And I wish she would not have had to live with that.

My mom was probably really stooped for maybe five years – although my memory may be off – and that caused her ongoing pain. If five years of this was bad, I cannot imagine 18 years. I cannot imagine 18 years of pain, never being able to straighten up, never being able to look up and around. I cannot imagine 18 years of having only one view – your feet and the ground below you.

18 years. That is how long the woman in this passage from Luke’s gospel was bent over, unable to stand up straight. To be fair, the scripture does not tell us specifically that the woman was in pain, but having watched my mother, I can well imagine she was. Being so dramatically bent over, in a constant stooped position, unable to straighten even a little bit, must have been painful. You can’t be bent over that severely for almost two decades and not have some pain as a consequence.

The passage notes that she was bent over due to a spirit that crippled her, which may have been a spinal disease or another physical ailment that was not understood. Yet this crippling condition did not prevent the woman from coming to the synagogue on the Sabbath. She came to worship and to honor the Sabbath as she had probably been doing all her life. There’s nothing in the text to indicate that she came for any reason other than that. But on this sabbath day, everything changed. Everything changed because Jesus was there

Jesus was in the synagogue teaching, and he saw this woman. Verse 11 reads,

“And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years.”

As I understand it, women were not allowed to be where the men were. Women did not approach rabbis. And as I’ve already said, there is no indication from the text that this woman came looking to be healed. There were no family or friends advocating for her. There was no one trying to get Jesus’ attention, and she was not trying to get his attention. She appeared, which sounds almost magical, but I don’t believe it is a reference to magic. She appeared because Jesus saw her. Maybe he was the first person to truly see her in 18 long years. Maybe he was the first person to really see her in her whole life. If it seemed that she just appeared there, it may be because when Jesus saw her, others finally saw her too.

When Jesus saw this bent over, crooked, stooped woman, he called her over, and said to her,

“Woman, you are set free from your ailment.”

Then he laid his hands on her, and she immediately stood up straight! Her spine released, her back unfurled, her shoulders squared, and she stood straight. And the straightening of her spine freed her not only from pain but freed her to praise God with a joyful voice. She stood straight and began to praise God.

This should be where the story ends. This should be where we insert our “Amens” and “Alleluias” and move on giving thanks ourselves. But her praise was interrupted by the leader of the synagogue. In the wake of this healing, his response was not joy but outrage. He is indignant that Jesus healed this woman on the Sabbath. The Law is clear – healing on the Sabbath could only happen in critical, emergency situations. Yet what was critical about this woman’s circumstance? She was bent over for 18 years! One more day would not have made a difference. The leader was furious with Jesus, but he did not confront Jesus directly. Instead, he vents his ire on the woman and the crowd gathered.

“There are six other days of the week. Come to be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”

In other words, don’t mess with the Sabbath. There were specific rules as to what could happen on the Sabbath and what could not. A non-urgent healing that could have happened any other day did not qualify as a legitimate Sabbath healing. The leader knew this. The crowds knew this. The woman knew this. Jesus knew this. But it was on this day, this Sabbath day, that Jesus saw her. He saw this woman when clearly others had not. Her condition most likely made her invisible to the larger society, just as can happen today. But she was not invisible to Jesus. He saw her. And when he saw her, he saw her need, and he healed her. He chose to help, Sabbath or no Sabbath.

Jesus’ response to the leader and the crowds was immediate as well.

“You hypocrites! Does not each of your on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham who Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?”

Commentators note that Jesus’ argument is based on the Hebrew qal v-homer model, which is “from the lighter to the greater.” If you feed and care for your donkeys and oxen on the Sabbath, then you should be free to care for someone in need on the Sabbath as well. Even if that need is a chronic condition. If not now, when?

This is not the first time that Jesus butted heads with the religious professionals over what should and should not be allowable on the Sabbath. He has healed others on the Sabbath. His disciples gathered food on the Sabbath. Was it that Jesus did not care about the Law or did he not care about the Sabbath?

It seems to me that Jesus cared a great deal about both the Law and the Sabbath, but he understood what others did not. He understood the intent of the Law. He grasped the deeper reason for the Sabbath. The Law was not given as a means of binding the people, restricting them. It was given as a gift. It was given to free them, to free them from what keeps them from being in relationship with God and with others. The Sabbath was not meant for restrictions but for rest. What better time to be healed than on the Sabbath? What better time to be freed than on the day when everyone came together to worship and give thanks to God? What better day was there to be set free?

What would it mean to us to hear these words today? What would it mean to leave this place, this sacred time, this holy hour, and be freed from what ails us? To be freed from the burdens that weigh us down and stoop our shoulders and bend us toward the ground? What would it mean to be told, “You are free.”?

Think again about the woman’s perspective for those 18 years. She was so bent over that she could really only see her feet and the ground below her. She could not make eye contact with anyone. I imagine that she became quieter and quieter as a result, silencing her voice because who would listen? She lost the ability to see the sun and the sky. She lost the ability to see anyone around her. She was invisible. So, consider what you carry this day. What is keeping you bent over? What is preventing you from using your voice? What is isolating you from others? What burdens you and keeps you from standing straight and praising God?

I am a religious professional, and I know how easily I can slip into the mindset of the synagogue leader. I want things done in a certain way and in a certain order. There are some things that should happen in worship and some that should not. When Jesus freed the woman, maybe he also wanted to free the leader too. Maybe he also wanted to free the crowds. There is no better day to be set free than today. There is no better time to be set free than this time.

So, here is the good news. You are set free. You are set free from what binds you. You are set free from what stoops your shoulders and bends your spine. You are set free from what makes you invisible. You are set free from what keeps you from praising God, from using your voice. You are set free. I am set free. We are set free. The good news of the gospel sets us free to live and love as God calls us to live and love. The good news of the gospel sets us free to be the people God created us to be, to be fully and truly human, just as Jesus was fully and truly human. We are set free to be compassionate, to heal, to hope, to share, to care, to live, to love. We are set free. Thanks be to God. Go and tell others this good news. Go and set others free too.

Let all of God’s children say, “Alleluia.”

Amen.