August 26, 2007: The Bent-Over Woman Stands Up
Luke 13:10-17, Psalm 71
Eileen Parfrey - - Springwater Presbyterian Cjurch

The Springwater Presbyterian youth group was on retreat the weekend of August 24 to 26. As part of this retreat, the group (known for this occasion as "The Cupcake Theater") studied the week's gospel lesson and presented their findings to the congregation as the sermon portion of the worship service. The study questions they used follow:
What questions do you have about this story? What disturbs you? What is left unsaid or not said clearly/properly? What is left out?

Why was she bent over?
Sickness? What's with the "spirit"? "Spirit" was a medical technical term in the first century, something about as visible as "germs." Maybe she had scoliosis, had received an injury, had osteoporosis. Or maybe, as Korean women theologians suppose, she was a cleaning lady and her broom handle was too short!

What was she doing at the synagogue?
Problems: woman, bent Women "didn't count" for an official prayer minyan, and anyone whose physical appearance wasn't "perfect" would be considered unclean ("bound by Satan").
She hadn't come to be cured Jesus initiated the contact; she was either there for worship or because it was her job to clean up after services.

Holes in the leader's story
Work and the Sabbath (for the woman, Jesus' criticism)
If it hadn't been the Sabbath, would the woman have been there?

Why didn't Jesus wait to heal her?
Does he need to irk the synagogue leader or tweak tradition?
"Jesus sees the world on a case-by-case basis"

What does Jesus mean by "be free"?
What might her "bonds" be? Jesus mentions farm animal "bonds"
What if "Sabbath" was the place and time where you were set free?

What does Jesus mean by "hypocrites"

What does Jesus mean by "daughter of Abraham"? She's the only person in the Bible called a "daughter of Abraham"-the rest are "sons." Implication for us: we females are part of the family.

Choose one detail about the story, change it and see what happens to the rest of the story

•The woman doubts Jesus can help How is this day different than any other day? Why wouldn't I wait another day, since I've been bent-over 18 long years?

•Jesus kept office hours and invited her to stop by the next day A strange woman and man wouldn't be in conversation with each other. There would have to be an "excuse" for Jesus and the woman to be together. Jesus was a masseuse, ran into her on the street, gave her is business card and invited her to come by the next day. When he healed her, there were no witnesses, no opportunity to publicly praise God. But then, the leader wouldn't have been upset, Jesus wouldn't have been in trouble about "work" on the Sabbath, maybe there would have been less trouble in Jerusalem later on.

•The crowd had sided with the leader and not Jesus The leader praises Jesus for the wonderful healing, but the crowd turns on Jesus. Which means, without the support of the crowds, the parade into Jerusalem doesn't happen. Jesus wouldn't have run into such trouble in Jerusalem.

•The synagogue leader had brought the woman over to Jesus to be healed The leader thinks Jesus has real potential for healing and sides with Jesus. With the authorities on his side, Jesus can have the parade, but it's officially sanctioned, and Jesus doesn't have that trouble in Jerusalem.