Preaching Paths, 24 August 2025, Proper 16C

Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary

Jesus’ healing of a bent-over woman at the synagogue on a Sabbath day is the subject of today’s dramatic Gospel text, Luke 13:10-17. Bent nearly double “by a spirit” for eighteen years, this woman’s field of vision is little more than the ground at her feet. She “appears” at the synagogue while Jesus is teaching. Jesus sees her and calls her forward: “Woman, you are free of your ailment!” At his touch, her back straightens. She looks directly into the faces of neighbors for the first time in years. As she breaks out in praise, so does the crowd. But the synagogue leader, displeased, objects.

The synagogue leader sees this “cure” as a flagrant violation of the well-known prohibition against “work” on the Sabbath; but instead of confronting Jesus directly, he admonishes the crowd: “Come for healing on the other six days, not the Sabbath!” (It seems the woman is at fault!) Jesus responds immediately. Well acquainted with both Sabbath law and the sorts of exceptions the legal experts allowed, Jesus counters with lesser-to-greater logic: Is it not true that this legal expert and his colleagues untie their livestock to water them on Sabbath days? How much more fitting, then, that this “bound” woman—this infinitely valuable “daughter of Abraham”!— should be unbound and freed on the Sabbath day? His stress on “setting free” is deliberate: Deut 5:15 states that the Sabbath commemorates God’s liberation of the Hebrews from bondage in Egypt! Jesus’ critics are shamed.

It is essential to avoid stereotyping the synagogue leader as obtusely legalistic. He may be more like us than we care to admit. Yes, his devotion to maintaining law and order blind him not only to a woman’s plight, but—ironically!- —to the liberating activity of the very God he strives to serve. At times, we too are more eager to fence our flawless liturgies and sanctified decorum than to welcome seekers of spiritual, physical, mental or material help. At a church door, an earnest usher firmly steers a homeless woman down the block, lest church members or visitors feel uncomfortable. It need not be so. As a guest preacher, I watched as a man burst through the church doors and stumbled down the aisle demanding prayer. The liturgy paused. The pastor knelt and prayed with the man. Two men calmly rose from their pews, walked him out speaking softly, and took him into town for a meal.

One might plan a sermon that pivots around a particular scene in the text—for example, the electrifying instant when Jesus’ gaze fixes on the painfully bent figure half hidden in the crowd (“Jesus saw her,” v 12). What does it mean to truly “see” another? The woman Luke describes had been so bent, for so long, that she had become all but invisible. There are some in our congregations who feel “unseen.” Others may be aware of them, but feel so helpless to ameliorate their trouble that they pass by with a nod and greeting and move on. A sermon might acknowledge the ones among us who feel invisible and also propose ways we can truly “see” these invisible ones. A congregation can resolve to care for the “unseen” in their neighborhood: aging persons without family nearby, immigrants, or households that include someone with mental or physical challenges.  

Jesus’ response to the synagogue leader suggests a sermon that asks searching questions about the hospitality and flexibility of our worship. What if we regarded our liturgies not as static, inviolable set pieces, but living, breathing celebrations and enactments of the liberating work of God?  What if the ease and comfort of seekers, newcomers, and those who are in some way bound and “bent over” by life became our first priority—particularly on our day of worship? Can we loosen our grip on lock-step orderliness to assure that those unfamiliar with our customs and calendars, our prayers and postures and songs, feel at ease? Today’s text bids us step inside its dramatic tension and liberating joy. When we do, we may well discover that we are the ones about to be set free!