Last week my youngest son Blake and I went to Getsome Coffee for our weekly one-on-one time. There were two men at the table beside us. One was an older guy in business casual. He had white hair and was carrying several extra pounds. The other was close to my age. He was wearing a t-shirt, shorts, and running shoes. From behind, his shoulders to waist created a distinct V. His shorts revealed that his right leg wasn’t the one he was born with. When they got up to leave I asked him a 3-word question. Iraq or Afghanistan? “Iraq.” I said “thank you for your service, and your sacrifice.” He shook my hand and walked out. 1 look at his condition, it wasn’t too hard to figure out how he got that way. Army haircut. Great physical shape. Prosthetic leg. He didn’t need a uniform to tell he was a soldier.

She also had a problem but the cause of her condition wasn’t obvious at all. Whether standing or sitting, she was slouched, her back permanently curved like a candy cane. Her crippling condition gave her a knees-down view of the world. The only people she could look in the eye were children, or beggars lying in wait for anyone who might pass by and drop a coin in their cup.
No one seemed to know what had happened to her, and no one seemed to care. She had been this way for a long time. The length of years it takes for an infant to become an adult. 2 years shy of two decades. Most people who saw her in the street, the store, or the synagogue had never seen her any other way. Her condition might have been bent and broken but after 18 years, it was ‘normal.’ I guess if we live with anything long enough it becomes “normal” no matter how unhealthy it is.
18 years earlier something awful had happened. Maybe the man she fell in love with turned out to be a monster. Maybe she was bent over now because He had beaten her down back then, in body and spirit. Maybe a moment of anger led to a lifetime handicap. Maybe it was an aggressive kind of arthritis that caused her spine to be curved. Maybe she was poor and didn’t get the nutrition she needed to have strong healthy bones and her bent over back was caused by osteoporosis. Maybe it was a diving accident when she was swimming as a teenager or a sudden stabbing pain that shot through her as she did something as simple as bending down to pick up a basket full of clothes. We don’t know what the catalyst was behind her condition but we do know this; whatever it was, it left her with a bent over back and a permanent perspective that went no further than a few feet in front of her. Her eyes, and probably at some points her soul, was downcast. Do you know anyone like that? They may not have a permanently disabled back but their gaze never goes above ankle level. Hurt, brokenness, disease. Rejection, depression, despair. Injuries to body and spirit can bend us until it feels like we’re going to break. Those things can change our perspective. If you look down long enough you begin to wonder if there is even a reason to look up. For 18 years that had been her world.

Maybe if they had known what happened to her it would have made a difference in how they saw her. Maybe if they knew they wouldn’t be so quick to complain when they got stuck walking behind her. If they knew, maybe they would kneel down when she spoke to them so she could see their faces instead of their shoes. I wonder if we would be more compassionate if we knew what happened to people. I wonder if people would be more compassionate if they knew what happened to us.

I find her a remarkable woman because in spite of her suffering she was a regular at the synagogue. Her bent-low body never caused her to stop bowing before God. Her understanding of worship was bigger than that. Her view of God’s goodness and worthiness to be worshiped wasn’t limited to how healthy and wealthy He made her. That’s not to say she didn’t have questions, doubts, even anger, but it is to say she never allowed her broken condition to break her faith in the goodness of God.

Maybe that’s why she was willing to step forward when Jesus called out to her. It might not have seemed like much but He asked her to take a step she’d never taken before.
It was a Sabbath day and she was at the synagogue. At some point Jesus saw her, I mean really saw her. I think it was like a motorcycle enthusiast hearing a Harley, or an avid reader spotting a new book store. He was like a professional shopper seeing a “Sale” sign or a hunter slowing down to look at deer in a field that every other driver drove by without noticing. When Jesus saw this woman who was a captive to her curved down condition, He couldn’t help seeing her. He always noticed brokenness and in this scene he turned his attention (and everyone else’s along with it) to this woman whose name we do not know. (I think one of the reasons the Gospel writers sometimes leave out the names is so we can fill it in with a name that fits. This isn’t just a woman. This is every bent over, busted up, downcast woman. It’s every person who has been bent low for 18 years or 18 months or 18 days or 18 hours. She’s everyone who has been crippled in body or bound in spirit, whose gaze has been permanently fixed on the floor. Maybe the name that fits her today is yours.) Jesus calls her to come forward, inviting her to move from where she is to where He is, to take a step from her broken past and crippled present into a future that is all of a sudden full of new possibilities. He asks her to step forward, and she does.

The first thing Jesus does is make an announcement: “Woman, you are free from your infirmity.” In proclaiming release for this woman held captive by her crippled condition, Jesus does exactly what He said he was going to do in Luke 4 - proclaim freedom for the captives, and the language He uses here is that of release. He reaches out, touches her, and instantly she straightens up and begins to do from an upright position what she had done even when she was bent low - praise God.

You would think everyone would have been praising God at this point. Not so. Some folks were so upset that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath they couldn’t celebrate the miracle. Apparently this woman’s back wasn’t the only thing in the synagogue that was bent out of shape. It doesn’t make any sense but the synagogue leader wasn’t happy at all. The woman couldn’t straighten up without Jesus and the religious leaders wouldn’t straighten up with Him. The defender of the spiritual status-quo and his faithful followers were more upset about a threatened tradition than they were uplifted by miracle of mercy. It’s sad when religious folks can’t celebrate what happens when Jesus shows up.

I’ll tell you who was celebrating - a woman who had been bent-low longer than some of the people in this sanctuary have been alive. She was celebrating. And so were the people who found joy in her miracle.

This is a great story! I love it. I love it because it shows the compassion of a Savior who always takes notices of the brokenness He came here to heal (Luke 4). It shows that Jesus had power over whatever spirit had gotten its ugly grip on this woman. I love this story because it’s didn’t just happen to an unnamed woman in a synagogue back then, it continues to happen with people like us in places like this whenever Jesus shows up at our place worship. He’s still doing the same things today. Still noticing the broken in body and spirit. Still refusing to walk past them. Still calling people to take steps they’ve never taken before - steps forward, out of the broken past and crippled present into a future full of new possibility when Jesus shows up.

As we saw in our Article of Faith earlier in this service, in the Church of the Nazarene we believe in healing. Maybe today Jesus is taking notice of you because you’ve been bent over too, either in body or spirit. Maybe today is the day for the source of your downcast spirit or broken up body to be defeated by the healing power of Jesus Christ.

At this time our pastoral staff is going to come to the front. We invite anyone who would like to be prayed for to do today what this woman did then - step forward. We’re not going to do anything crazy - just a touch with the oil of anointing, and a prayer of faith offered on your behalf with the expectation that the same Jesus who couldn’t walk past a need there and then, won’t walk past a need here and now. (Prayers for healing)

Benediction: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.” Eph 3:20-21