While researching today’s gospel reading I happened
upon a scholarly article published sometime after 1962 in The Evangelical Quarterly, written by Dr. James Wilkinson, a
Scottish minister and medical missionary in Kenya for nearly 30 years. In the article Dr. Wilkinson examines the
details of the today’s passage to determine if the healing of the woman bent
over should be considered an exorcism or not.
Wilkinson directs the reader’s attention to when Jesus
indicates the woman is “bound”; a verb he notes is in a tense denoting an
action beginning at a specific point in time and continuing on through the present. This leads him to consider whether the
woman’s eighteen-year condition is the result of a progressive ailment or a
traumatic injury. Given that the text
states the onset of woman’s suffering was the result of a “spirit” (and some
texts translate this word as “spirit of weakness”) rather than an accident, Dr.
Wilkinson holds her condition begins at a definable moment not caused by an
accident and has continued to progress.
He goes on to consider possible medical diagnosis that
might explain a condition resulting in spinal rigidity; one path stemming from
infectious diseases, the other from diseases that are degenerative. After a lengthy evaluation, he concludes the
woman most likely suffers from spondylitis
ankylopoietica, an infectious disease closely related to rheumatoid
arthritis involving the fusion of joints, beginning in early adulthood.
Once determining this, Wilkinson goes on to compare
the elements of this story with other accounts of exorcism in the gospels; making
the case the details of this story do not mesh with them:
· The woman is permitted in the Synagogue – something
not likely if people thought her to be possessed.
· She is not described as being unclean.
· The word spirit
does not necessarily imply demon.
· Jesus speaks directly to the woman, never to an evil
spirit.
· Jesus heals her by laying his hands on her, rather
than by commanding a demon to leave her.
Wilkinson concludes the text suggests “spirit of
weakness” does not refer to a spiritual being such as a demon, but rather to a
state of mind. As such, her physical
weakness is causing the woman’s spirit to suffer, a spirit is not the cause of
her weakness. Wilkinson states, “The
result of a long period of physical weakness was a state of profound mental
depression.”
Even if the woman’s suffering is not the direct result
of possession, it is worth noting Jesus states she has been “bound by Satan”
for eighteen years. This express
indicates that for Jesus any suffering, any affliction, anything diminishing
the possibility of human flourishing stands apart from God’s desire for
us. What God desires for all people is
health and wholeness and soundness of spirit.
Jesus’ life and ministry make the case for this as strongly as possible.
I like Wilkinson’s journal article, in part, because it
spotlights the woman Jesus heals. It is
her story, or at least it should be.
Sadly, the focus and force of the account moves quickly from her plight
and her deliverance to criticism of Jesus’ action and timing. The report, which does not even include the
name of the woman, is transformed into a tale of confrontation between men as local
religious leaders contend Jesus should not have done on the Sabbath what he
did.
I suppose to us this seems like an arcane squabble
about religious taboos we can no longer imagine or take seriously. After all, we are so far removed from the
“Blue Laws” most of our younger members don’t even know what this term
references. The “Thou shalt not on
Sundays” is a thing of the past. But in
Jesus’ day this cultural concern was every bit as energizing and contentious as
burning the American flag in protest or kneeling for the National Anthem is in
ours. Through the public act of
extending his hands and uttering a prayer of healing Jesus knowingly puts
himself in the eye of a cultural storm.
We might want to ask why. Why would Jesus do this? Was he itching for a fight? Did he come as a prophet to criticize unjust
and inhumane structures? Or is there
something else behind his actions?
Howard Zinn’s book A
People’s History of the United States challenged the way we look at the
past. Zinn contends we teach history by
telling stories about leading figures – presidents and generals and the like –
but he looks at the American story by gleaning first-hand accounts from the
letters and journals of everyday people, such as foot soldiers and
teachers. Zinn’s point is valid. While big, sweeping events and the leaders
behind them merit attention, so too do the people and lives impacted by
them. So, for example, you can learn
something of the Episcopal Church by examining the journals of the General
Convention as well as by listening in on a table conversation at our Coffee
Hour after the service. One approach
focuses on the big picture while the other values the individual’s experience.
This distinction helps us to understand what motivates
Jesus. Did he wake one Sabbath morning
and say to himself, “Today, I think I will take on the powers that be” or did
he encounter the plight of a particular person and decide in that moment to bring
her eighteen years of suffering to an end?
By throwing the emotional weight of the action behind
the confrontation, today’s reading makes it so very tempting to think the
former is the case. The way the story is
told tends to make the woman’s role incidental.
She could have been any person with any need just so long as it
presented itself on the Sabbath in the presence of religious authorities. The gospels, as they are written, seem to be
concerned with the bigger question of who exactly is Lord of the Sabbath –
Jesus or tradition.
But I believe in the moment, at that time, on that
particular Sabbath, in a synagogue of an unnamed town, for Jesus it was all
about one particular person who had suffered much in her life. It was about her need and his desire to
express something dwelling deep in the heart of God. It was about her agony and God’s
empathy. It was about her weakness and
God’s strength. More than anything else,
Jesus wanted to bring together this woman’s condition and God’s compassion. Everything that boils over after this is
ancillary.
It strikes me as worth noting the woman does not
present herself to Jesus, as is the case with many of the gospels’ healing
stories. Rather, Jesus notices her and
calls her to come to him. She has suffered
for so long it appears she no longer has hope for healing. Jesus notices her and is filled with pity and
kindness. He does something for her she
neither asks nor expects. For Jesus,
every opportunity is a time for healing and every day is a good day for
healing, especially the Sabbath.
St. Paul’s is truly blessed to have several people who
are dedicated to the ministry of healing.
Practically every Sunday one of them is available to pray with you
during the administration of communion.
They do so not because they possess magical powers, but because each
senses a call from God to this ministry of compassion and care.
And I am pleased the Vestry, at its January retreat,
identified enhancing our Ministry of Healing as a goal for the year. We have taken several steps, most notably adding
A Service of Public Healing in the
Chapel after the late service on the last Sunday of each month. The liturgy is powerful, but not
off-putting. It looks and feels nothing
like you may have seen from some evangelists on TV. The liturgy remembers that God cares and
hears and knows our need. It is a
reminder that those gathered care too.
And somehow, through God’s grace, something happens to make the
experience beneficial.
Each of our lives is marked by tremendous need. No one is immune. Imagine if I invited every person here to
stand if you carry in your heart some kind of special burden for yourself. Imagine if I then asked to stand those who
carry a burden for a member of their immediate family. How many people would be left sitting? None, I dare say, if I broadened the circle
to include extended family and close friends bearing a burden.
There is not a person here this morning who does not
carry personal concerns or the needs of another in his or her heart. You may think you are alone in this, but you
are not. I trust through today’s service
you will sense Jesus notices you and, as he did with the woman bent over, calls
you to come near. Today is the Sabbath, is
a good day for healing.
