Bent and Bound

No one could see her . . . in the back of the gathering, crooked and low.

Doctor Luke tells another story in his gospel of Jesus coming against the Law-keepers who accused Him of caring for misfits, especially on the Sabbath.

Love came against the Law one Sabbath day . . .

And behold there was a woman who for eighteen years had a sickness caused by a spirit, and she was bent double and could not straighten up at all.  Luke 13:11

How did she get Christ’s attention . . . sitting in the back, behind the segregation of men first, where she couldn’t be noticed?

By being broken, desperate, and present. 

When Jesus saw her, He called the nameless woman over and said to her, “Woman you are freed (untied) from your infirmity.”  He laid healing hands on her crooked spine, and immediately she stood erect, and glorified Him . . .

After nearly two decades of talking to the ground, she stood upright.  In the last year of Jesus life on earth, she stood straight for the first time to look into God’s face, eye to holy eye.

The indignant ruler of the synagogue told the others there are six days of the week to heal, but never on the Sabbath.  Jesus told the hypocrites any day is a day to call a broken one to Himself.

She may have thought of the times she was told to stand straight, and answered with an “I can’t” . . . like we do.

Tied to the “I can’ts”

Some of us are like the baby elephant tied to a stake from the time he can walk trained to be voluntarily bound.  He grows into a massive mammal that can uproot trees, but still believes he is bound to the stake he grew up with.

We can break free from the stake of our past, from the present vices that hold us from experiencing true freedom.

Why did God record one story after another of wounded lives being restored?  So we could know it’s real, and for us.

Not only when Jesus walked Galilean earth, but now, while He walks the universe looking for the one in the back.

The woman in the Bible couldn’t live a full life until Jesus straightened her out.

One Sabbath, long ago in a place called Bensalem ( meaning, son of peace) I was the unseen in the back pew of a church.  Bent low in my shame, until Jesus called me to Himself, and told me I could be free.

There is an enemy of our soul whose mission is to bind and destroy.  Do you have a burden that has you bent and low?

Jesus wants to straighten out our life, look into our face, and say “You are loosed” . . .

 . . . and she began glorifying God . . . Luke 13:13