“ ...the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.”
Revelation 13:8
Jesus healed a lot of people during His ministry. Sometimes His opponents put Him up to it. Sometimes the suffering person asked for it. Sometimes a great ocean of resistance was crossed by a courageous coordination of faith and desperation and Jesus responded with compassion and power. But sometimes, He acted all on His own without any prompt or plea. In Luke 13, Jesus healed a woman who had been bent over double for eighteen years. She didn’t ask for help that day. She didn’t show up for worship hoping to be healed. She simply did what she did every Saturday - she went to honor God and lo and behold everything changed.
Luke tells us this woman couldn’t stand up straight, she couldn’t look anyone in the eye. She was like a human right angle, frozen in a living grovel, staring at the ground. She was effectively cut off from community, friendship and love. Can you imagine going months without looking anyone in the eyes? What would you do if you couldn’t meet anyone for coffee, accept a warm hug, or go one a walk with your best friend for eighteen years? That’s the entire lifespan of a senior in high school. She was excluded, unknown, invisible, and faceless for almost two decades.
One thing I find really interesting about this scene in Luke’s Gospel is that no one tells Jesus her story, and He doesn’t ask any questions to figure out her biographical details. In fact, it’s the complete opposite. Jesus tells everyone else her story. He already knows it. He enters the scene already thoroughly aware of her history and deeply concerned with her plight. It reminds me of the way He already knew everything about Zacchaeus and Nathanael. He knew the stories of the woman caught in adultery and the woman who anointed His feet in the home of the Pharisee. He read the minds of the men who judged Him when He publicly forgave the paralytic and He knew how many times the woman at the well had been married even though they never met until that day in Sychar. Jesus was and is Almighty God the Son. He has always existed. He was the Agent of creation. The Apostle John says without Him, nothing would exist. When Jesus asked questions, it wasn’t because He needed information. It was always part of the unique and beautiful way He loves to work in concert with us. The questions of Jesus draw us into engagement and coordination with His loving actions. His questions weren’t a necessity, but rather just a part of His style.
When Jesus healed the woman bent double in Luke 13, no one asked for His help. On that Sabbath day, He stepped into the synagogue and took over. He said she had been bound up in suffering for “eighteen long years”. This scene took place after the transfiguration, which means it was within the last six months of Jesus’ ministry. That would make Jesus around thirty three years old, which means this poor woman’s affliction began when Jesus was around fifteen. Jesus was in Nazareth when He was fifteen. He was working in the carpenter’s shop in those days. He had already celebrated His bar mitzvah. What were those tender hands working on the day this woman first suffered? Did the teenage carpenter tremble a little? As her back was bending and growing painfully stiff, His enormous heart was moving forward toward the day He would finally close up the carpenter shop for the last time, leave home and begin His journey toward the cross. Part of that journey included this day in the synagogue when He placed His hands on her and she stood up straight, praising God.
Jesus the Messiah was born to die. Hebrews 10 says the baby Jesus was quoting Psalm 40 in His infant mind and heart, somehow miraculously knowing His mission even in the manger. He came here to give His life so that He could undo all the world’s wrong and heal every hurt. All suffering had a start time and all pain has an expiration date. There is a day coming where He will wipe every tear from every eye. Revelation 13 talks about the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world. He sees the invisible, welcomes the rejected, moves toward the runaways, and holds the helpless. I can’t help but think about the excited focus Jesus experienced when He woke up the day He went to the synagogue to heal that dear woman. He’s not done yet. Jesus is always at work. As long as there is a heart that’s hurting, it’s go time.