Did you see the TV Series –“The Toughest Place to be a............”?
A London binman with semi-destitue Indonesian binmen in Jakarta;
A Cornish Fisherman in Sierra Leone;
Sussex firefighter in Brazilian forests;
Devon dairy farmer with subsistence cattle farmers in Kenya;
A London Cabbie in Mumbai.
Being in someone else’s shoes is not something we can easily do.
It may be fun, challenging, or exciting, to receive insights into a different life!
Swapping jobs is one thing, how about bodies? How might we fare if we had to suffer the disability of the woman in the Luke's story:
"On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all."
Many of us at one time or another have something which restricts us -
My (Will) recent knee ops and subsequent rehab.
The woman in the reading didn't have just a temporary restriction, not just an awkward few weeks;
but a lifetime of pain and discomfort.
Not just physically - which is bad enough
But also emotionally & socially because of the stigma attached then to illness & disability.
The woman in this snapshot from the Gospel story is bent over so much that she cannot straighten herself at all.
She cannot turn herself to see the face of the one who calls her;
she hears only the sneering, pitying, or pitiless voices of people in too much of a hurry to care,
she sees only their scurrying feet.
She is good for very little; maybe she survives only by begging alms from fellow Jews on their way to worship.
But………….. She is there in or near the synagogue, part of the worshipping community; part of the body of faith.
Whatever some people thought of her, let’s hope that there were those who also showed her compassion & help.
She is not bitter.
Though her perspective is awry, it is not distorted with respect to her neighbour.
For all the neglect she has suffered she does not cry out for grief
she does not give voice to her complaint;
though she is bent and twisted, she has resisted the temptation to gratify her anger.
She does not presume to beg of the Teacher; instead he calls her over to him.
When Jesus places his hands on her, she straightens up immediately and praises God.
When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, ‘Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.’ Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.
What was it about that poor woman that moved Jesus so?
Surrounded by throngs of people, in the midst of such controversy, he saw her. Was it the poverty of her spirit, the humility of her demeanour?
Possibly she has understood something that few understand about themselves.
"Woman, you are set free from your infirmity”
Jesus does more for this woman than simply heal her; he accepts and forgives.
This is the healing she hoped for; this the peace she has longed for through the many years she has begged alms in the vicinity of the synagogue.
What was it about Jesus that moved him to have compassion on the woman obscured by the questioning crowd? Why did he pick her out?
More remarkable even than the woman’s faith is that of Jesus, living out his prophetic role.
Had he seen her before?
Was it in search of this crippled woman that he came to synagogue that day?
It may well be as we hear nothing of the teaching that he gave.
Like Isaiah and other OT prophets who, at times, were ignored or discounted or regarded with contempt, Jesus is but a "foolish carpenter" from the provinces - yet his foolishness shames the wise.
Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people,
‘There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.’
The Lord answered him,
‘You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water?
Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?’
When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.
A despised crippled woman was the last person that anyone else would have been thinking of on their way to worship; the last person they might have expected the speaker to single out from the crowd.
If - as is likely - he had seen her before, He will have been praying for her. And through His praying he will have come to know her.
This was Jesus’ remarkable faith: and it is to be our remarkable faith also.
How often do we pray that the Lord will guide us to the most unlikely recipient of our love?
How often are we prepared to pay attention when he answers us?
Do we have ears to hear?
Do we have hearts to hear?
I often say, ‘Be ready for the opportunity God will present to you’; ‘Be alert for the person God will throw across your path this week’.
But here is a deeper challenge: ‘Don’t wait for God to show you someone - go looking, like Jesus did!’
Be proactive with prayer so you get to know them first - you get to know people through praying for them.
We want to be loved, but we are less ready to give the love that others also need. Like the woman in the Gospel story we all feel neglected at times, some more justifiably than others.
Jesus is able to love because he has more than enough to share. Secure in the knowledge of his Father's love, he loves and loves.
Let us pray that, in recognition of his great sacrifice for us, and of the abundance of the Father's love in giving so costly a gift, we too might love, even as he has loved us.