This reflection serves as a Lenten meditation on the gospel passage from St. Luke 13:10-17 (Jesus heals a crippled woman). This passage offers profound spiritual consolation to those who dwell in the struggles of physical and/or mental bondage. The healing of this woman stands as a radiant symbol of Christ’s power to deliver us from the temptation to rebel against and tendency to reject the divine that cripples us. Let us prayerfully implore the guidance of the Holy Spirit to enlighten our inner being to deliver us from all such demonic captivities.

In verse 11 of this passage we read of a woman afflicted by a spirit of infirmity that had bound her for eighteen years who appeared in the synagogue on a Sabbath. Later, in verse 16, Jesus reveals the original status of this woman as “daughter of Abraham” yet “bound by Satan”. Jesus, undeterred by the indignation of the synagogue leader, firmly resisted attempts to hinder His divine mercy, and bestowed healing upon the afflicted woman by delivering her from the demonic bondage.

It took eighteen long years for this woman to be delivered from Satan and healed by Jesus Christ. This was despite the fact that she was a “daughter of Abraham”. In other words, we can say that she was a ‘daughter of the faithful’, as Abraham is the father of all who have faith (Romans 4:16; Galatians 3:7). If this woman were truly a daughter of faith, one might wonder, she would surely have been delivered long before. This leads us to ponder whether she was merely a daughter of flesh or truly a daughter of promise as we read in Romans 9:8 “…it is not the children of flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as descendants.”

The remainder of this meditation seeks to discern the possible spiritual inertia that may have contributed to the crippled woman remaining in her unchanged condition for eighteen years. To begin, I shall assume that the woman was a regular worshipper in the synagogue. In the days of our Lord Jesus Christ’s earthly ministry, the worship of the synagogue is understood to have followed a sacred order: the reading of the Torah, a reading from the Prophets, the offering of set prayers, the chanting of Psalms, a sermon or exposition and a final priestly benediction. Let us seek to discern the role that these ministrations play in bringing a worshipper into the fullness of life and flourishing.

The Bible teaches us that faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the Word of God (Romans 10:17). Jesus Christ Himself declared that it is faith that leads to healing (Mark 5:34; cf Luke 8:48). Drawing inference from these two passages, a clear and unmistakable pattern emerges that the Word of God awakens and instils faith within the individual, a sure prescription for healing. It is reasonable to assume that the crippled woman had been hearing the Word of God from Torah readings and the reading from the Prophets throughout the eighteen years of her infirmity. As a person who needed healing, it may be supposed that this woman was also not ignorant of Psalm 107:20 “….He sent out His Word and healed them.” Had even the smallest measure of that hearing been translated into faith, one would have every reason to expect that healing would have followed. In fact, Christ Himself declared that faith as small as a mustard seed is sufficient to move mountains (Matthew 17:20) – how much more, then, ought even the most modest measure of faith to have proven efficacious in bringing about her healing.

The above observation is not without its contemporary relevance. It invites spiritual introspection and reflection upon the condition of many of us who assemble within the walls of a church in our days. We who, by virtue of our regular physical presence in the congregation, and through our continual exposure to the proclaimed Word of God, have a chance for faith to take root within us, to stem and to branch forth, and ultimately bear the fruit of spiritual transformation and physical healing. A sorrowful truth that prevails among many of us is that the hearing of the Word of God, the attentiveness to Sunday sermons, and participation in the Holy Eucharist have degenerated into little more than a social convention or an external observance, devoid of spiritual substance. (Noteworthy here is Saint John Chrysostom’s warning against approaching the Holy Eucharist as a mere ritual.) As a result, the human soul remains fallow ground (Hosea 10:12), where the seed of the Word finds no fertile soil to take root (Matthew 13:5-6 & 20-21; Mark 4:5-6; Luke 8:6), no stem to rise towards the Saviour, no branch to extend the good news of salvation (see Isaiah 6:8), and no fruit to harvest (Matthew 3:8; Colossians 1:10).

This superficial engagement with the Creator stands as a fulfillment of the very lamentation of Jesus Christ: “For this people’s heart has grown dull, and their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes; so that they might not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and understand with their heart and turn- and I would heal them” (Matthew 13:15; cf. Isaiah 6:9-10). Was this the predicament of the crippled woman over those eighteen long years that despite her attentiveness to the proclamation of the Word of God, chanting of the Psalms, and participation in the liturgy of the synagogue, that she remained undelivered and unhealed? I wish to be rather positive here and respond to this question with a positive statement: ‘by no means! her time of redemption had not yet been fulfilled’.

The acedic aspect stated above that the hearing and seeing as a mere social exercise cannot be dismissed outright. As stated above, in our contemporary age, this malady has deepened into a more profound spiritual sickness. Neil Postman, an American educator and culture critic in his work “Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business” wrote: “Entertainment culture has replaced serious discourse; we are pacified into passivity through pleasure…” Such a profound statement that calls upon every faithful mind to ponder! The very faculties given us for experiencing the divine – the eyes to see God’s glory (Luke 2:30; Isaiah 6:1) and the ears to hear His voice (John 10:27; Isaiah 50:4b) have been dragged under the foot of idols of technology, social media in particular. As a result, our fingers now cater to the never quenching thirst of the eyes for mere visual treats, with thousands of artificial images of the divine, and ‘copied and pasted’ Word of God, sliding the screen of our cell phone. In tandem, our ears constantly itch (2 Timothy 4:3) for cacophonic voices that suit desires of the flesh intolerant to the voice that pricks conscience, crying out in the wilderness (Isaiah 40:3: Luke 3:4; John 1:23).

The prophet Ezekiel prayerfully sought to comprehend why God’s people remain as fallow ground, and the Lord said to him, “Mortal you are living in the midst of a rebellious house, who have eyes to see but do not see, who have ears to hear but do not hear; for they are a rebellious house” (Ezekiel 12:2-3). As pointed out by the Lord’, it is rebellion to be blamed for the spiritual impairment of the eyes and ears of mankind. In other words, it is the stubbornness of the human heart that refuses to submit to the will of God blocking eyes from seeing (the wonders of God) and ears from hearing (the Word of God).

The Word of God teaches us that rebellion leads to the ‘blinding of minds from seeing the light of the Gospel’ (2 Corinthians 4:4). This means rebellion causes the rejection of what is seen and what is heard. According to Biblical understanding, rejection is not mere disagreement-it is a deliberate turning. For instance, Saint Paul’s words about rejection point to ‘turning away from listening to the truth’ (2 Timothy 4:4). The pattern that we see here is: though the truth is set before the eyes and spoken into the ears, is rejected due to rebellion (see Romans 1:25). Jesus lamented over this rejection saying, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem….how often have I desired to gather your children together…and you were not willing” (Matthew 23:37).

This Jesus’ lamentation still reverberates within the life of the New Jerusalem, the Church – in the life of a typical churchgoer, the Word of God is heard but quickly rejected (James 1:22; Mark 4:15; Matthew 13:19). So too is the Holy Eucharist, which is seen with the eyes, yet after a brief moment, is rejected, preventing the body of Christ from transforming the person, and the blood of Christ from purifying them.

Rebellion swiftly follows rejection, for the heart that resists the Word of God hardens itself in pride (1 Samuel 15:23) against His mercy. Hence, the author of Hebrews appeals “….Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion (3:15). When rejection becomes a pattern of one’s way, it grows into bondage, and the cords of iniquity tighten around the soul, for the affected person has opted to submit to the master of rebellion, the devil (see Romans 6:16). The appeal to every good conscience is to seek freedom in Christ and choose to be in the bondage of righteousness in Christ (Ephesians 4:1).

The crippled woman was in bondage for eighteen years. We do not know whether the woman rebelled or rejected the divine using her sensual faculties. The Bible only says that she was crippled for eighteen years. Jesus in His response statement (Luke 13:16) exposed the devil by stating that she was “bound by Satan” all these years. In any case, she was in bondage. It means, the Word of God could not reach her and heal her (see Psalm 107:20). The chanting of Psalms in the synagogue seems to have deflected before entering her inner ears. She could never look up unto heaven though the Levite choir chanted: “I lift up my eyes unto the hills-from where will my help come?” (Psalm 121:1).

In conclusion, that particular Sabbath was a blessed day because the Lord Himself stood within the synagogue. Not only was Jesus present in flesh there, but the entire congregation witnessed the glory of God and experienced a unique Sabbath. The power of the Word of God, living and active, worked as a sharp edged sword (Hebrews 4:12) on that day. Moreover, the Word penetrated through the physical ears and touched the inner being, restoring the body of the daughter of Abraham back to the stature of praise.

Behold that miraculous touch! The power of Jesus Christ flowed through the creation. The burdened soul was lifted. What was bent low stood upright, and praise filled the house of God. Could our churches be renewed in the same way- marked by the presence of Christ and the transforming power of His Word? We read that Jesus Himself set the standard when He quoted Isaiah 56: 7 “…for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all people”, as we read in Matthew 21:13. Therefore, every church needs to be measured against that divine expectation. And, to meet this divine expectation, a swift halt to the drifting of churches into dens of social clubs and forums of vain glory (James 4:16) is needed. Let us be vigilant to resist against all evil forces so that it does not cease to be a house of prayer (and healing of souls).

May God bless us. AMEN!

In Lord’s service

Fr Dr Saji K. Mathew