The Bible tells us lots of stories about Jesus healing, and lots of stories about Jesus getting in trouble for healing on the Sabbath – the day of rest, when God told Moses that everyone must rest. This story may not be the first one you think of when you think about Jesus getting in trouble for healing on the Sabbath, but that’s what is happening.

One Sabbath, Jesus was teaching in a Jewish meeting place, and a woman was there who had been crippled by an evil spirit for eighteen years. She was completely bent over and could not straighten up.
 
Perhaps you know some eighteen-year-olds? Or maybe you're 18 yourself.
Imagine having been crippled every day that eighteen-year-old has been alive. Is the pain worse, or simply the frustration of all the things that other people can do, that you can’t do?

When Jesus saw the woman, he called her over and said, "You are now well." He placed his hands on her, and right away she stood up straight and praised God.

Quoting my favorite eighteen-year-olds, “well, YEAH…” What else did you expect her to do?

Why her? Why then? There are stories in scripture where Jesus says very clearly that it is a person’s faith, or even a person’s friends’ faith, that led to healing. This isn’t one of those stories. There is nothing in this story that says that the woman had ever met Jesus before; much less that she had great faith.

But Jesus makes her well.

The man in charge of the meeting place was angry because Jesus had healed someone on the Sabbath. So he said to the people, "Each week has six days when we can work. Come and be healed on one of those days, but not on the Sabbath." 

Why be angry?

She was crippled, bent over and unable to stand up for eighteen years. How could the man in charge of the meeting place have possibly gotten angry because she was healed?

Some people are nuts for rules. If you had hall monitors in junior high school – and I don’t mean adult hall monitors, I mean student monitors, who are also junior high students – you know what I mean.

Was the man in charge of the meeting place just an overgrown junior high school student? Well, maybe. But I’ve read this story several times in my life, and never considered another explanation – he was jealous!

Look at it from his point of view. He is the respected leader of the meeting place – the synagogue – and he didn’t get that position by just showing up. He had served his community faithfully, and that woman – that crippled woman – had been there, in his community, hunched over because she couldn’t stand up.

And now this teacher, this rabbi, who doesn’t even have a home to call his own, just shows up one day and heals the woman. How could anyone have any respect for the leader of the meeting place?

You can imagine the voices he’s hearing. “Aren’t you a man of God? Why could Jesus of Nazareth heal our sister, when you could not?”

The Lord replied, "Are you trying to fool someone? Won't any one of you untie your ox or donkey and lead it out to drink on a Sabbath? This woman belongs to the family of Abraham, but Satan has kept her bound for eighteen years. Isn't it right to set her free on the Sabbath?"
 
“Are you trying to fool someone?” – Many translations say, “Hypocrite” – a person who is one way on the outside, and another way on the inside.

Jesus' words made his enemies ashamed. But everyone else in the crowd was happy about the wonderful things he was doing.
 
Jesus healed a woman who was crippled for eighteen years. That was a wonderful thing.

This story doesn’t say what happened to the leader of the meeting place – but here’s what I’d like to think happened. I’d like to think Jesus healed two people that day – the woman, crippled for eighteen years, and the leader of the meeting place, who couldn’t see God’s hand right in front of him.

I don’t know why the leader of the meeting place was so offended.

Maybe it was the Sabbath thing – he knew the rules, he was the one in charge, and this upstart teacher from out of town was breaking those rules.

Maybe it was the judgmental thing – he knew the woman, knew her past, and was secretly pleased that God seemed to be punishing her for something she had done.

This is pretty close to the “who’s God?” thing – where you know there is a God, but you think you’re in charge.

Maybe it was the “no God” thing – where you stop paying attention to God and start paying attention to the rules, the traditions, the rituals, making your relationship with God a hollow shell. You have nothing to share with others because you have nothing, period.

You don’t have to be in charge of anything to take every opportunity to love and encourage people around you.

You’re not God, and you may not be able to place your hands on people and cure them, but maybe that’s not your job.

God is God, and God may be ready to work though you, healing the sick, driving out demons, and sharing God’s love throughout all the earth.

The Bible tells us very clearly that Jesus healed the woman. I would like to think that Jesus healed the leader of the meeting place, too, and that he lived the rest of his life loving and encouraging the people around him, always looking forward to the time when God would “wipe all tears from their eyes, and there will be no more death, suffering, crying, or pain”, a time where “these things of the past are gone forever.”

And I invite each of you to be healed in just that way – the kingdom is coming, and we can celebrate that coming with Jesus every day.

This week, please pray with me for:

Friends waiting for medical results,

The insanely busy, and the insanely bored, and for some who manage to do both on the same day,

Mike's father,

Those starting school,

Rod Benavidez, lay director for the Northern Illinois Emmaus Community, and

Open hearts, open minds, and open doors.

Christ lives in you,

Spencer the wonder hamster