Jesus continues to offend the religious leaders with his single minded intent on healing and freeing people held captive by all manner of physical, emotional and spiritual ailments. Today’s text might prompt us to consider freshly the bent over places in our lives – the ones we have been born into and the ones we’ve found our way into. After you’ve read the text a few times, you might pause and sense freshly how your body is holding your own bent over place today. Stay there awhile to notice and describe the whole body feel of it. Allow it to be seen, by you and by Jesus. And without making it go away, simply acknowledge that it is there, including all the feelings which might accompany it. Allow that part of you to convey what it is like for it to live that way. Listen to it with empathy and compassion.
Notice how Jesus looks at you in the contorted vulnerability. What do his eyes see? What do they convey to you? What do you most long to hear from him this day, in this place?
Luke 13: 10-17 The Message
He was teaching in one of the meeting places on the Sabbath. There was a woman present, so twisted and bent over with arthritis that she couldn’t even look up. She had been afflicted with this for eighteen years. When Jesus saw her, he called her over. “Woman, you’re free!” He laid hands on her and suddenly she was standing straight and tall, giving glory to God.
The meeting-place president, furious because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the congregation, “Six days have been defined as work days. Come on one of the six if you want to be healed, but not on the seventh, the Sabbath.” But Jesus shot back, “You frauds! Each Sabbath every one of you regularly unties your cow or donkey from its stall, leads it out for water, and thinks nothing of it. So why isn’t it all right for me to untie this daughter of Abraham and lead her from the stall where Satan has had her tied these eighteen years?”
When he put it that way, his critics were left looking quite silly and redfaced. The congregation was delighted and cheered him on.
For Reflection and Prayer:
Was there a word, a phrase, image, or feeling that ‘shimmered’ as you listened? Allow it to land in your heart. Stay with it. Savor it.
Reflect on what you heard. What effect does it have on you? What meaning does it hold for you? What does the Holy Spirit seem to be conveying to you? Talk it over in your prayer. Perhaps you want to draw or color your prayer or journal the conversation.
As the time of prayer comes to a close, share some moments of quiet with Jesus, simply resting safely in his presence.
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