A DAUGHTER OF ABRAHAM

Painting by Paulo Veronese

Lectionary passage: Luke 13:10-17 (NRSV) - Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. 11 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. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, "Woman, you are set free from your ailment." 13 When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. 14 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." 15 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? 16 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?" 17 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.


He is teaching on the sabbath, when she suddenly appears
        with her body bent, because she has been crippled eighteen years.
When he sees her, Jesus calls her and says, “Woman, you are free.”
        Then he lays his hands upon her and she stands straight instantly!
But the leader of the synagogue is saying to the crowd,
        “There are six days when a healing of this nature is allowed.
Come on those days to be cured, but don’t come on the sabbath day.”
        Such an overbearing attitude prompts Jesus then to say,
“O you hypocrites, do you not lead your animals away
        on the sabbath to get water?  And if you can act that way,
should this woman who’s a child of Abraham not be set free
        from her eighteen years in Satan’s disabling captivity?”
With these words of Jesus his opponents are all put to shame,
        while the people are rejoicing, and are praising Jesus’ name
for the words they have been hearing and the things they’ve seen him do.
        What a shame those legalistic leaders cannot see it, too!