Does anybody besides me, remember the old expression: “Don’t get all bent out of shape? I haven’t heard that one in years…
But it comes to mind, when reading or listening to, the Gospel text for today.
For sure, this woman was “all bent out of shape!”
For eighteen long years she had been crippled, nearly two decades of shuffling through life, head down, looking at peoples’ feet … looking at the ground, not being able to look up at all!
Today we would probably call it “osteoporosis,” or “chronic arthritis” or “spinal stenosis?” But Luke presents it “in the manner of his day” when he blames the woman’s affliction on a “spirit”…obviously an “evil spirit.”
Eighteen years can be a short amount of time OR it can seem like forever.
Eighteen years can “fly by” when life is spent in happiness. It can be a “joyful time” when involved with the good things in life. It can be a “thrilling time” when you are reaching and accomplishing your goals.
It can be a “learning time” when you are exploring the “challenges and joys” of raising a family. It can be a “rewarding time” when you are advancing in your job and enjoying the success and the accolades of others.
Eighteen years can be a “growing time” when you are surrounded by family, friends, neighbors, and people at work that help you through the difficulties of this life.
But eighteen years can also be “an extremely long period of time”…
Eighteen years can seem “like forever” if you are consumed with the pain of “a bent back” and “broken body.”
It can be a very “difficult time” if you have to struggle every single day with mobility. It can be “an eternity” to a mind that is stuck on despair.
The picture of this little woman is awful. She was badly crippled up, bent at the waist, shuffling steps and probably depressed in spirit. Everything she did was done with a tremendous amount of difficulty. It was not fun-being her.
The neat thing is that she continued to keep the faith. There she was in the synagogue – every Sabbath day… Like clockwork, she was there. She would NOT give up!
But someone else was also “bent out of shape,” on that self-same day. That would be the leader of the Synagogue. The big cheese!
He was actually just as “bent out of shape” as the crippled woman who struggled to worship at his synagogue.
His particular “ailment” was of “heart and mind,” caused by his “theological rigidity” and a “lack of compassion for other people.”
His was “a condition” that made it possible for him to “stand right in the middle of God’s glory and power” and think only about “the proper rules of the synagogue!”
Both the “crippled woman” and “heart-twisted synagogue ruler” came together one Sabbath day – with JESUS.
As a visiting Rabbi, Jesus was asked to teach on that Sabbath (almost certainly by the synagogue ruler himself.)
“The teaching” normally would have consisted of the Rabbi COMMENTING on the assigned texts for that day with traditions, stories, and instruction.
WHEN ALL OF A SUDDEN: Jesus calls this woman “down front and center” like she is the next contestant on the Price is Right!
By doing so he had broken EVERY law of propriety for synagogue worship. Men never acknowledge a woman in public – women were considered property and not worthy of “human identity” in a patriarchal society.
When Jesus called her to “come on down” that was considered “a sacrilege” and could CONTAMINATE the entire synagogue.
“You’re free from your infirmity,” he says. And at his touch “SHE IS!”
WOW!!!
She stands straight for THE FIRST TIME in eighteen LONG years.
He laid his hands on her – another serious “NO! NO!” – only husbands could touch a woman and “it had to be” his wife and never in public.
And that’s when we see how “bent out of shape” the synagogue leader really was.
“INDIGNANT” is the word Luke used to describe him. To put it more colorfully, he “freaked out- BIG TIME. He blew up. Had a conniption and a hissy fit all at the same time…”Shhh … We’re in the synagogue” – ‘Work’ on the Sabbath cannot be tolerated, especially HERE!
So Jesus sticks a hat pin in this “puffed-up, self-important religious authority.”
“You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water.”) Nice comparison, Jesus! (By the way!)
THE WOMAN was healed, no longer bent. However, the leader of the synagogue certainly was still all “bent out of shape.” Jesus has just performed a miracle: in front of his very eyes. And he could seemingly care less!
Jesus you are not playing by MY rules!
So, when was the last time – YOU were all “bent out of shape?” Had a “conniption or a hissy fit?” Or “blew up” big time? OR “freaked out?”
It’s not fun is it?
You know what? It’s probably never worth it!
NEVER.
Amen.