Paralyzed Point of View
Luke 13:10-17, Isaiah 58:9b-14
Ask a group of children, if they could choose to have any super-power, what would it be? And they might say super strength, or super speed. They might want to be a shape shifter like Mystique; or to be able to fly like Superman. I want to be able to eat anything I want and not gain weight, or get heart burn. Is that a super-power? What about invisibility? Does anyone want to have the power to be invisible?
Are you familiar with the artist, Banksy? Banksy is the anonymous street artist who has been stenciling walls all over the world, and making art with poignant messages for 25 years. The murals just appear and no one knows who the artist really is. The mystery is part of his cultural impact. He sees his invisibility as a super power.
But in a world that struggles to look up from our screens and take notice, too many people are invisible from our point of view. The young child who says, “Look! Look at me! Watch! Watch me!” is a good example – pining for the attention of the older people in the room. The co-worker who walks into the breakroom and sits among colleagues and no one acknowledges him, no one even looks up. The teenager who shares a selfie on social media and gets no “likes” or comments.[1] What is the message that they get?
In Ralph Ellison’s classic novel, The Invisible Man says, “I am invisible because people refuse to see me.”
Almost no one chooses to feel invisible or unseen. But if you have ever felt that way, you are not alone. The woman in Luke 13 knows how you feel.
She heads off to synagogue, trying to walk a straight path, but it’s hard for someone who has to navigate the way out of the corner of her eye, looking up and sideways. When was the last time she saw the clouds in the sky or was able to look straight ahead, or could look someone in the eye?
As she got closer to the synagogue, there was a different energy in the courtyard today. It wasn’t just that it was the sabbath, even though to be at the synagogue on this day was to be in the heart of Judaism. Women weren’t permitted to go inside the sanctuary so she waited outside. She couldn’t see people’s faces all that well, but she recognized the familiar voices and the garments of her neighbors all around her, children clinging to their parents’ legs. They shared similar perspectives, she and the young ones. She noticed when a hush fell and a man’s voice spoke. She heard he was in town – a Galilean teacher and prophet. She wondered if the stories were true about him, or just rumors. Did he have the power to heal? It was too much to hope for after eighteen years.
That’s when he saw her. Even as she strained to see his face from her point of view, he made the effort to see her, which was no easy feat. Is he looking at her, she wonders? He is. There is a recognition of her suffering, but also her humanity. He sees her. He makes his way to her and calls her to him and tells her that he wants her to be free from this sickness that has caused her to be bent over.
Scholars describe her chronic disability as a condition marked by fusion of the bones in the spine that created ongoing stiffness, inflammation, fatigue, and acute pain. It’s fair to say that she lived with two types of pain: the psychological pain of being invisible to most people and the paralysis that caused debilitating physical pain.
In his voice, she heard hope. And when he placed his hands on her, her pain melted away. Her spine strengthened and she knew that she could stand up straight. She is freed from her bent form, freed from paralysis, from her limited perspective. She looks in the eyes of the one who healed her and cannot help but praise God. Gasps and laughter, applause and cheers scatter around the courtyard as she looks into the faces of her neighbors for the first time in a long time. They all marvel at what has happened: Jesus saw her, called her, laid hands on her, spoke to her, and freed her. They all marvel at this healing miracle, well, all except one. Jesus has broken the rules and caused a stir.
The leader of the synagogue has a role to play and that is to maintain order and uphold the rules. From his point of view, rules are made for a reason. You can come back and be healed on any of the other six days of the week, the leader says indignantly. These are the Hebrew policies and procedures for synagogue operations. The Sabbath was a day to handle spiritual matters (and tithes and offerings). He didn’t want anyone to get distracted from the main thing. Reflecting on this passage this week has caused me to squirm a little.
In my last church, there was a bustling and robust benevolence ministry that provided lots of assistance to folks in a hardship or crisis. This is a complicated ministry of any church and was constantly under revision about the ways we went about it. I made a rule for myself that I was not going to handle requests like those on Sundays, so that I was focused and present for ministerial leadership responsibilities. So, I’d tell people just like the synagogue leader, to come back during the week to get help with paying a bill, or pharmacy, or a bus ticket. But God’s way of restoring the world includes mending people’s hurts and listening to their stories. God’s promises are meant to unleash healing and justice. The Sabbath is made for such as this…
…According to Jesus who does not mince words in his response. He unleashes a classic rabbinical argument: If you are willing to unbind an ox on a Sabbath day to give it water, how much more should you be willing to unbind a woman who was bound for 18 years?[2] This woman is a Daughter of Abraham. Like everyone else standing around that courtyard, she is an heir of the promises of God. Literally and figuratively, he centered her in the midst of the crowd; and shined a light on the injustice of how this member of their community would not have been afforded even the level of kindness that most people would offer their animals if he hadn’t seen her![3]
Sometimes, the very people who should be the most interested, curious, and joyful about how God is at work, turns out, are often the most blind and blocked to seeing how God is actually at work. We are sometimes paralyzed by our point of view. But God wants to heal us and set us free from that sight limitation.
I don’t know about you, but I have never been bent over in pain. I have been bent over in my thinking, stuck and unsure. I have been bent over, paralyzed, by worry and confusion so much that I was just pretending everything was okay and not addressing a problem. Getting the courage to talk to someone who had been through something similar… Bringing that worry out into the light, exposing the underbelly of my vulnerability was actually helpful and healing. Talking about it, scary as it was, helped me get unstuck.
From what do you need to be liberated? What paralyzes, or causes you to be downcast, unable to see, unable to be seen by Jesus? Other peoples’ expectations? Pressure to succeed, or to please, or to be found worthy? Do you feel invisible in your family or with colleagues, or in society?
“The God who sees us is the God who calls us.”[4] The woman, once healed, stood up straight, a position of freedom, of dignity – and in joyful reception of God’s power in her life. Now, she will be known by her face, her smile, her words, and not just by her broken posture. The God who calls us is the
God who makes us whole. The story tells us that when she stood up straight she praised God. I wonder what she said. I wonder if she might have borrowed from the words of the Psalmist:
Bless the Lord! O, my soul!
Let everything inside me bless his holy name!
Let my whole being bless the Lord and never forget all his good deeds:
how God forgives all my sins, heals all my diseases,
saves my life and covers me with faithful love and compassion
In her wholeness, she now has the ability to see others. This is the way God turns things right side up. The one who was bent over is now lifted up. In her rejoicing, she has the ability to see others just as Jesus saw her.
The takeaway from this scripture is, When we do not see others, Jesus confronts us. When others do not see you, Jesus does. [5]
Let me ask you to do something… Who is in your line of sight that NEEDS you to see them? Who needs a word of life-giving concern? Who needs a hand extended to them in reconciliation?
Who needs to be set free from your expectations, your rules?
Who really deserves your attention?
Who needs YOU to see THEM? God wants to give his church this super power!
With God’s help, may our eyes be opened and our gaze lifted up so that we may see others in God’s point of view! Amen.
[1] Alcantara, Jared E. Working Preacher commentary Luke 13:10-17
[2] ibid.
[3] Olsen, Marc, Operation Restoration Mending God’s World 2022 Augsberg Fortress
[4] Alcantara, Jared E. Working Preacher Commentary Luke 13:10-17
[5] Alcantara, Jared E. Working Preacher commentary Luke 13:10-17