"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. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, "Woman, you are set free from your infirmity." Luke 13:11-12
This passage is part of a bigger discussion of how Jesus challenged almost every cultural norm of his time. In these particular verses, Jesus sees a woman who was at the synagogue to listen to him, but who most people barely notices.
In that time men and women were separated during worship and only the men were allowed in the presence of the Rabbi, the teacher leading the discussion. This woman was not even second class; because of her infirmity she was most likely fourth or fifth class at best. The people had grown accustomed to her condition much the same way we grow accustomed to people sleeping on heating grates, park benches and under bridges. Perhaps the first time you visit a big city you're stunned by the poverty among the wealth and skyscrapers. But given time and constant efforts to look the other way, the homeless eventually fade into the background.
The reason I want to be more like Jesus is because Jesus sees the sins I've grown accustomed to. Jesus doesn't have the blind-spots I have to life and sees what I've been overlooking in my life. He sees people's needs, their brokenness and their pain which my heart has grown deaf to.
But then… He does something about it. It calls her out to the center and heals her. Notice he doesn't just say the words, he touches her. The human skin has the most nerve ending of any organ in the body and we cannot survive without human touch. It speaks volumes about our humanity and connection. He says it, then he does it. The whole worship service comes to a screeching halt because of this woman everyone else has been overlooking.
I know I have blind-spots in my life, but I find that the more I'm around Jesus he them to me through his own actions, not ridicule and rejections, but simply the way things could and should be.
I want to be more like Jesus because I've got blind-spots.
How about you? Do you want to be more like Jesus, or more like yourself?Email Subscription:
Oh, my goodness…for me, the answer to your question is a “no-brainer”! Most assuredly, I want to be more like Jesus. Isn’t it amazing that when I say that, however, I actually am saying that I — basically very conservative yet sometimes liberal in my actions, dress, and thoughts — am saying that I want to be a revolutionary like Christ? But more than just amazing, at least for me, that I should say that is the fact that I can answer your question so definitively and resoundingly with a “Yes!” without any reservations, including the considerations of the numerous consequences inherent in living such a “revolutionary” life. And this is because of the Spirit indwelling me and because of my pastor’s sermons and the Bible study classes which he has taught. During most worship services that I have attended for the last four years in my home church, my pastor has not only defined and taught about the Jesus that I have chosen to emulate; but he has also remind me continually, along with those in the congregation, that Jesus is the role model upon Whom we should pattern our lives and that we must strive to become more holy, strive to be more like Jesus. You don’t learn that 1 + 1 = 2 unless someone teaches you; and when you are sitting in a class of advanced trig, you are glad someone did. You don’t learn that you are to be more like Jesus unless someone, who himself is trying to be the same, reminds you to do so; and when someone hugs you and thanks you for the compassion you shared with them during a particularly trying time, you are glad that someone taught you to share Jesus’s compassion with others, that someone told you about “love one another” and doing “unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Although we cannot help but refer to Jesus as a revolutionary and the living of His lifestyle as revolutionary, I can’t help but think that the woman herself was a revolutionary. For eighteen years her faith had brought her to the synogue where both her gender and her infirmity caused her to be overlooked, ignored, and ridiculed; yet she continued to come. Why? Because she had courage, courage of conviction. Because she had the courage to do what, in her mind, was right, courage of conviction. Because she combined her courage with her faith and was able to “stand tall” by doing what she knew was right — she came to church. Courageously, she determined that no one, no one, was going to keep her from honoring and glorifying her God. Perhaps, she even knew that what matters most to God is the heart not a bent and deformed body, which we will one day shed. She endured the scoffing and the ridicule and came to church, refusing to allow people and their prejudices and pettinesses to keep her from worshiping her God. Oh, for each of us to have even just a smidgen of that woman’s courage so that we could “stand tall” in doing what the hole in our heart tells us is right and, therefore, live according to the Gospel rather than unkind, insensitive words and gossip. How amazing that her courageous act of going to church for eighteen years in spite of her infirmities to honor and glorify God, actually was used by Christ to bring honor and glory to His Father. Oh, that our acts of worship would and could be used to honor and glorify God.
Sometimes, revolutionary acts merit headlines. Sometimes, revolutionary acts, especially in this world today, can be as monumental and yet as simple as a smile, a hug, an offer to pray with someone, a wishing of a blessed day to a stranger, and the uttering of the words “Thank You.” How easy to overlook for words in the Luke passage — “…and she praised God.” How reolutionary for a woman to dare to talk to God in public. How revolutionary for this woman, who had been crippled for at least eighteen years, to thank God for His grace in healing her rather than her saying to God, “What took You so long?” Not only did this woman have the courage to do what was right in coming to worship God, but she had the courage to say what was right — “Thank You, God” — and, in doing so, acknowledge both the sovereignty of God and the “rightness” of His most perfect timing. Oh, what we can learn from this woman, who seems to have so little but has so very much. Wonder how many people like this woman are present in “our worlds” whom we consciously choose to ignore, much to our detriment and to the diminshing of our lives?
It’s not easy. I know that. It’s not easy to “stand tall” when others are constantly “putting you down.” “Been there; done that,” but I am trying to do better; and it is through examples like this woman and the words of my pastor that I am becoming more courageous in “standing up” for God and for what He expects of me and for what He considers to be right; and I am doing thar by constantly asking God to suit me up in His armor as described in His Word.
Amazing how asking in prayer and then letting God be my “knight in shining armor” helps me be more courageous and more like Jesus in spite of my blind-spots, of which I, too, have many. Wonder and I bet, God would do the same for you, sir, with the blind-spots and the desire to be more like Jesus. Put on God’s suit of armor and let God ride with you as your “knight in shining armor”; and you will have the courage, truly have the courage you seek to continue “fighting the good fight” and to boldly “stand up for Jesus” and the proclamation of His TRUTH, no matter the obstacles and the criticisms.