Stooped, but Straightened (Luke 13:10-17)

The little old lady comes into the church building and sits in her usual place. It is, after all, her usual place, because she is there just about every, single Sunday, and she has been there as long as anyone can remember. Young people cannot remember a time when she wasn’t there.

Nor can the young people remember a time when she was not stooped over (after all, she has been this way for eighteen years). If she wanted to look at you in the eye, she would have to turn her head sideways and force her chin up. On a clear night, there is no way that she could see the stars. But she sure knew where the weeds were .

Perhaps our lady in Luke 13:10-17 is even worse off than this. Maybe she is bent double in the shape of an inverted “L.” Our text uses a term for “bowed,” as when the disciples “bowed down” to look in the empty tomb at the resurrection of Jesus. But then this - it was not just arthritis; not just a physiological condition. This affliction was the result of a spirit - “a spirit of affliction."

We have no reason to believe she brought this on herself. She did not deserve this. But cast down she was. Stooped, not only physically, but spiritually as well. And was there more. Perhaps mentally? Emotionally? Many of us who stand up straight can resonate with her condition. 

The psalmist says, “Why are you cast down, O my soul?” I would guess this woman had prayed that prayer. Perhaps she sang this song as well: “When I was sinking down, sinking down, sinking down,  beneath God’s righteous frown, - Christ laid aside His crown - for my soul, for my soul.”We tend to pray these prayers and sing these songs more when we are in a state of thlipsis, of anxiety; of trouble and turmoil; of distress and despair. We discover the depths of God’s love when we can’t look up, but we can only look down.

For this woman in Luke 13, this isn’t the end of the story. Unbidden by her, Jesus touches her, releasing her from this bondage to bent-ness. And then she does what she had always wanted to do. She does what she was created to do. She glorifies God. Not only that, but as the crowds look on, they also rejoice at this glorious thing, that Jesus has a heart for those in despair, bent over by the weight of spirits we do not understand. “Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.”