I once saw a tweet that asked: “What’s your favorite gospel and why is it Luke?” I have to admit Luke is hard to resist. Luke’s themes are powerful and resonate with so many of my other theological interests. Luke’s gospel (and the entire Luke-Acts narrative) shows a very clear picture of the good news in a concrete, socio-political context full of anticipation and transformation. It’s also full of amazing female characters: Elizabeth, Mary, Anna, and Mary Magdalene, to name a few.
One powerful story involving a woman is buried in the middle of the book, in Luke 13:10-17 where Jesus heals a woman on the sabbath.
Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.” But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?” When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.
I first encountered the story in a study looking at Jesus’ various sabbath encounters in the gospels. Luke includes three different accounts of Jesus healing people on the sabbath, several of which are found in the other gospels. There is much to say about the significance of Jesus healing on the sabbath, and what each unique occurrence reveals; they raise questions about Jesus’ authority, mission, and the purpose of the sabbath. Luke is the only one to include this account of the healing of a woman. When I first encountered it I simply interpreted along with the other accounts of Jesus healing on the sabbath. Several weeks later I found myself in the middle of a personal crisis and the story took on a whole new light and intensity as scripture often does in different seasons.
Among other things in that season, I found myself wrestling with inner demons that were manifestations of powers and principalities that constantly criticized and asked “What kind of woman are you?” Powers and principalities that said women have to be certain things and inevitably reminded me that I was the kind of woman that was “too much” of some things and “not enough” of others. That inner turmoil was deep, subconscious, and causing me to carry a burden that meant I couldn’t stand up straight. It was crushing to carry around a weight that meant I always had to prove myself, to work hard, to work perfectly. And it was also manifesting in physical pain on top of emotional and spiritual pain.
But Jesus saw me. He looked me in the eyes and said “I am setting you free. I am ridding you of these demons and I am telling you what kind of woman you are. Leave that weight behind. You are my beloved, you were created for my joy and pleasure. Stand up straight and walk with me in the land of the living.”
So the story was personally impactful for me and in that light it began to awaken broader questions:
What does it mean for women to stand up straight?
What powers and principalities stop women from standing up straight?
How does Jesus set women free to help them stand up straight?
What stands out is not simply that a crippled woman was healed, but that there is a woman who couldn’t stand up straight because she was bound by Satan—by the powers and principalities—then Jesus saw her and set her free so she could stand up straight.
I have only initially begun to think about the questions I am raising, but I know there is already a lot we can think about in light of several things. For example:
- Jesus clearly defines his mission in Luke 4:18-19 to proclaim good news to the poor, the blind, the captives, and the oppressed. His messianic work is thus tied to the call for justice and liberation and closely tied to Isaiah 61 and Isaiah 58 as referenced in this passage. We can interpret all of Jesus’ miracles as signs of this coming kingdom portrayed in Isaiah where justice will prevail and the oppressed will be set free. (Hays)
- I have already mentioned that Luke’s account has a special place for women. This is clear from the beginning of the birth account through to the proclamation of resurrection. This is in stark contrast to the Greco-Roman world where women were generally held in low esteem.
- Perhaps more telling that the significant inclusion of women, Luke’s gospel is especially concerned with social status, which in his time was defined by power and privilege. In the Greco-Roman world that privilege was determined by a host of factors—some similar to what we experience today and others different, depending on our own cultural settings. Luke spends a lot of time introducing status markers and many stories center around status, but he is particularly concerned with status reversal and portraying how in the kingdom, status is redefined. (Green)
- The healing of the woman is set in parallel with another sabbath healing in 14:1-6. Both are followed by a parable of the kingdom (the mustard seed and the wedding banquet). I suspect we can learn something from examining both healings and parables about the kingdom, status, and thus about our questions about women.
- It is also important to examine this is the context of disability theology and in conversation with the disability community who experience readings of Jesus’ healings through normative assumptions that can stigmatize them. However, subversive readings of scenes such as this one reveal alternative accounts of status reversal, restoration and inclusion in the community of God and liberation from oppressive social forces that do not always require curing bodies. (Yong)
So the text itself has something to say about Jesus’ view of women in the kingdom, but there are more questions to ask about the powers and principalities. And we can move further to ask how we see women participating in the early church, for example.
As I’ve begun to ask these questions of other women I hear deep resonances with the questions themselves. Women are eager to explore and share their feelings, and think about what it means for women to stand up straight, what keeps us from standing up straight, and how Jesus speaks into that journey.
What do you think it means for women to stand up straight?
Finally, looking at the narrative of Luke we can see that he writes to proclaim and persuade his hearers to join in God’s action of liberation. Luke is constantly writing with an urgency that reveals God’s purposes in Christ that make it possible to receive and participate in those purposes.
This raises many questions for us as the church today. Even if we cannot define for everyone what freedom is in every place and time—the church is the place where women should be the most free (thanks to my friend Oneya for this point!)—and yet, women are not free.
So I’ll simply leave you with Jesus’ question from verse 16: Why should this woman not be set free from what has bound her?
Emily Beth Hill 