“Now Stand Up Straight”

Luke 13:10-17

August 22, 2004

St. Paul United Methodist Church

Rev. John A. Fleming

I heard about the doctor who called one of his patients when the check that she wrote to him was returned. His medical practice was small. His staff included just himself, a nurse, and a receptionist. So he sometimes made phone calls, like the one that he was making to one of his patients, a Mrs. Taylor. Like her, many of us have had the experience of, how shall we say, flexible checks. Susie and I bounced a couple not long ago. So he had her on the on the telephone. He said this to her, “Mrs. Taylor, I am sorry to tell you this, but the check that you wrote to me was just returned.” There was silence on the other end of the line for just a minute. She hardly hesitated, and then she said, “Oh, that is all right. The arthritic pain that you treated me for has returned too.” And with that she hung up the phone.

This morning, we meet a woman who, for eighteen years, had a pain in her back that was so bad that it did not allow her to stand up straight. Unlike the woman in the little vignette that I just told, her pain never left her, not even for a moment, in those eighteen years. Luke is the only one who records this encounter, this healing on the Sabbath day. You may remember that Luke, this gospel’s writer, was a physician. So it is not at all surprising that he would include a healing story while Matthew Mark and John left it out. I am sure that the good doctor enjoyed the healing stories. In our Bibles, there are seven instances of Jesus healing on a Sabbath day. Such a thing happens three times in Mark’s gospel, twice in John’s gospel, and twice in Luke’s gospel. One of those times in the lesson that I just read for us. What I want you to hear is this. I do not think that this is a story about breaking the rules on a Sabbath day. When Jesus healed the woman, her friends rejoiced, but when the leader of the Synagogue saw what happened, he was angry. This story ends up showing us who, really, had the crippled spirit.

Let’s look at the details of this story. Consider this woman. For eighteen years, she had been suffering from a pain in her back. We do not know what caused the pain. What we do know is that the pain was so bad that it caused her to stoop over. Which meant that she had to always look down, never up, and that she could not stand up straight. My guess is that she was in constant pain. Most likely she could not lift her grandchildren or sit anywhere for any amount of time comfortably. Luke tells us that it was a spirit that crippled her for all those years. That, of course, was the answer people were given, in those days, when someone had a problem that no one could explain or understand. It still happens today. The experience has probably happened to you. Maybe you made an appointment with your doctor, went to a waiting room, was called back for the exam and to ask what brought you in on that particular day. After listening to your heart and your lungs and checking your reflexes, a puzzled look may have come upon your doctor’s face. If you doctor cannot figure out what is wrong, he might say this to you, “You have a virus. It will have to run it’s course. There is nothing really that we can do about it. Your bill is one hundred dollars. Please pay the receptionist on your way out. In the days of Jesus, they told you the same kind of thing. They might have said, “I’m pretty sure that it is a demon. Go and see your rabbi. Your bill is one hundred shekels, please pay the receptionist on your way out.”

So the woman could have had a demon. But it is also possible that Luke was trying to tell us something else about her. It could be that he was trying to tell us that there was something crippling about this woman’s spirit. The way people react to suffering is always different. I wonder if this woman bore her pain silently, with a gentle appreciation of those around her. I wonder if she heard of someone else with her kind of pain if she showed exceptional compassion to them. I wonder if when she was asked how she was doing, if she said, “Oh, I am fine. Today is a good day.” Was it that way? Or was she more vocal about her pain. She could have been angry or bitter about it. Who could blame her for that. I guess we will never know how she daily dealt with her pain.

Luke tells us this. He tells us that Jesus was in the Synagogue, teaching, as was his custom. I mean to tell you, this was Jewish heritage at it’s finest hour. Luke tells us that Jesus saw her from where he was and that he called her over. When she arrives in front of him, he says to her, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” I wonder which ailment it was? Was it her back or her spirit? It turns out that it was both. Jesus placed his hands on her. She immediately stood up straight and began praising God. That is the best cure for a crippled spirit that I know.

When you are feeling angry or bitter, hurt, misunderstood, cut off from your friends, and miserable with yourself, stand up straight and begin praising God. As you prepare to do that, remember good things. Recall that you are a precious child of God and that God loves you very much. Remember the good friends and the good people who surround you. Remember the power of God that overcomes obstacles. Remember the promises of scripture. How about this word from Paul’s letter to the Roman church, “All things work together for good for those who love God and who are called according to his purpose.” Remember this line from another part of that letter, “Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.” Nothing. Not death, not sin, not even pain and suffering. So let your spirit stand tall and praise God,

I don’t know about you, but I am glad that this woman did not retreat into isolation and take a long sip out of a cup of resentment. Instead she came to church. Week after week, worship service after worship service, she showed up. I am glad that she kept coming, that she kept seeking relief from God and healing for her spirit. I am glad that she did not give up on

God. There is something else. I think that she found worshiping in her church with her friends what she really needed the most. My mother, the English teacher, loves poetry. Somewhere I came across the words of one of her favorite poets, Emily Dickinson. These are her words, “We never know how high we are, till we are asked to rise. And then if we are true to our plan our statures reach the skies.” I do not want you to go home without hearing this. It is not just back problems that stoop us over. You already know that. It is other things like guilt and shame and busyness and stress. So here is this woman, serving as an example for all of us, beckoning us to stand up under whatever has kept us down. Here we are, all of us, who, because of who we are, or who we were or because of something that happened, we have been labeled. We have marginalized or demonized or ostracized or anything else that ends in “ized.” After Jesus touches our lives in some real way, we can stand up straight again. You never know how high you are, until you are asked to rise. Please listen. That is one of the lessons of this story. No matter what has happened, Jesus can touch our lives and make them better.

I also want you to know this. I appreciate the people in her church. After all, it must have been hard on them to see her in the condition that she was in. It must have been hard for them to live with someone in their midst who was hurting. The only thing that they could do was to pray, but praying for someone is a powerful thing. They know this lady and they love her. I think that we can catch a glimpse of that love in their reaction to her healing. They saw her, once bent over, now standing tall and praising God. They must have watched with amazement. Then, they must have laughed. Tears probably came to their eyes. Perhaps the women hugged. Men might have slapped each other on their backs. Smiles were on their faces. Then, I hope, they began to praise God themselves. After that, they must have gone up to her to congratulate her. At least, that is how I would picture the scene. Then maybe some of them went up to Jesus to thank him and then to show him some of their ailments. “Jesus, I’ve got this sore shoulder. Is there anything that you could do for me?” Everyone is rejoicing, laughing, weeping. They are all overcome with joy.

Well, not everyone. Luke tells us that the leader of the synagogue was not pleased with what had happened. I suspect that there were others, in leadership positions in the church who felt like he did. He was not happy at all. I think that his arms must have been folded in disgust. But instead of confronting Jesus, the one who actually did the healing, he turned to the crowd and said, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days, not today, not the Sabbath.” The Sabbath is a day to worship. It is a day of rest. And here is Jesus, stirring up the crowd, taking away from the worship service, and teaching them about a God who forgives and heals and sets people free no matter what day it is. He heals this woman. Simply put, Jesus breaks the law! So I think that the leader is mad. After all, this is his turf. He is responsible for these people. I understand that better than some. He does not want the members of his church to be hoodwinked by a carpenter into disobeying the commands of scripture. He cannot keep it inside and so the celebration has to stop for them to see their upset spiritual leader. Someone in the crowd may have thought, “What is wrong? Can’t you see that our sister’s been healed?” I do not know. Maybe he is frustrated because he could not do anything about her pain. Perhaps he thinks that he is losing face with his congregation. I think that I know how he feels.

Friends, the law matters. There is such a thing as right and wrong, good and bad responsibility and accountability. There are Ten Commandments not ten suggestions or ten pretty good ideas. There are commandments and Jesus has just broken number four. There are such things as the beatitudes and the disciplines of discipleship. The rules are important and they are significant and they are to be taken seriously. We break them at a risk to ourselves. We must teach these things to our children and do our best to live with them and by them. You see, rules aren’t the problem. The problem is when the rules become more important than a person. That is the reason that Jesus talked about donkeys and oxen. Anyone with any compassion at all, would lead such animals to the stream for a cold drink on a hot day, Sabbath day or not. And here, says Jesus, this woman, is a child of Abraham, meaning that she is one of us. Isn’t she more important than animals? Sure she is. Of course she is. That is the point. People must always be more important than the rules.

Let me close with this. I heard of what happened late one night on a Greyhound Bus. The policy of the bus line is to not allow pets on their buses. So, late one night, at a rural truck stop in Florida, a Greyhound bus driver, kicked an 80 year old woman off of his bus. She was returning from a short trip where her family helped her to celebrate her birthday. One of her gifts was a puppy named Cookie. She hid Cookie for as long as she could. His bark gave him away. The driver heard that sound, went to where the woman was sitting, reached for her luggage, and escorted her to the door. She was eighty miles from her house and it was three o’clock in the morning. A security guard at that truck stop called the sheriff’s office and they were quickly on the scene. The guard did not know what to do with the woman, so he wanted them to take her away, which only added to her birthday celebration. She said this, “I saw the bus pull away. I saw police cars pull up. I was crazy with fear. I knew that I was going to jail for possession of a pooch!” But instead of jail, one officer bought her a sandwich and something cold to drink, and he drover her home. Would you like to guess what happened to the bus driver?

Go home with two things today, friends. First, whatever it is that bends you over, stops you from standing up straight, perhaps a crippled spirit, look to Jesus, stand up straight, and begin praising God. And then this, rules are important, but they are never more important than people. Let us pray.

(Special thanks to a couple of preachers who helped me to see some things in this passage. Thanks to the story tellers who provided the opening and closing stories in the sermon. And for the one who pointed out the Dickinson quote. May God bless us all and may he help us to stand up under the weight of this world.)