Oh, Jesus, you have this way about you. There’s that thing where you can’t look the other way, even when it’s for your own good. Noooo, you have to make a scene, stir up drama getting everyone all excited on both sides of aisle. Sorry, but you sometimes bring all this trouble on your own.

Very true. Read it like a drama with stage directions left out. It plays very well.

The Stage

While religious leaders had real problems with this “Teacher” who was less than diplomatic in the system, they were smart enough to know that “you keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” Shrewdly, they set him up to fail. Their goal? Let him sink himself right in front of people. This Teacher who had said he did not come to do away with the Law would have to live within it, and if they could find a way to show he was a violator, well then, all the better.

The scene is set: Jesus is teaching in the synagogue. He takes center front stage. All eyes turned on him. He stood with authority, not of his own, but of someone invited to speak by the leader, the ruler of the synagogue. He was given his chance to trip himself up.

Act One

Drama is written by taking the familiar and charging it with the unexpected. In the gathering is a woman described as so bent over she could not fully straighten herself, and she had been this way for eighteen years. But what is not said yet fully understood by the first readers of Luke’s Gospel, is Jesus cannot see her sitting in the congregation. No, this seating was reserved only for men, with those of most prominent status and power sitting in the front.

Where were the women? In the back but outside the main seating area, behind a screen, probably a lattice. They were not easily seen, nor could they see clearly or probably even hear well what was being preached. The screen helped to maintain a caste system, and women, along with others who were sick or mentally challenged, were segregated. They were among those who regularly, monthly were unclean.

Act Two

That’s when Jesus does the unforgivable. He calls and recognizes her above the important guys in the front. Mistake number one: in speaking to her, he connotes that she is a person of worth. Mistake number two: in order to speak to her, either he had to move behind the screen to where she was, or she had to come into this place reserved only for the men. Once born into this system, you stayed in this system. There was no such thing as upward mobility. Jesus’ actions challenged it, not a good idea.

Mistake number three: He says, “Woman, you are healed of your sickness,” and then lays his hands on her. In that culture, touching the ill risked contamination. He not only connected with her physical illness but also connected to this evil spirit that had robbed her of her health and her life. The sense of contagion was not just physical, but spiritual. Jesus was really crossing some lines on this one.

So what happens next? She’s healed and can stand up straight. So what’s so wrong with that? Her status is changed; she’s not unclean. Beware. If that happens, maybe the whole system is going to be changed; maybe this synagogue is going to look a lot different soon. And they were right because of what happened next. She praised God. A woman was speaking out loud and loudly in a religious assembly. One who had no rights over the better part of her life was speaking in this place reserved for only men and only the most powerful among them.

Act Three

What ensues next in this drama is an exchange between the ruler of the synagogue and Jesus. In a way it is reminiscent of the dialogue Jesus had with the devil when He was tempted after fasting forty days in the desert. (Luke 4:1-13) Both the ruler and the devil lean on Scriptures to make their point, and Jesus’ answer demonstrates how much they get wrong in their use of God’s Word.

The ruler accuses Jesus of breaking Sabbath law, but to whom does he direct his charges? To the people, not to Jesus. Jesus was standing right there. Why not confront Him face to face? It’s triangulation, a tactic that those who cannot stand on their own use to sustain themselves when their support is weak. This ruler felt the full pressure of the conflict that was going on here. If Jesus could heal, and they had just seen his power to do so, and could heal a woman, one who was not just on the bottom of the social system but one who was so low she couldn’t even look up physically, emotionally or spiritually from the bottom, and could heal a woman on the Sabbath, a confrontation to the ruler’s leadership, and could heal a woman on the Sabbath upsetting the very configuration of the synagogue, this ruler was going to lose and lose big.

The synagogue leader was indignant because this conflict was centered in control and power. Jesus was breaking Sabbath by breaking perceptions of what the social and religious structure of the world should be, wreaking and crumbling the caste system of the entire religious culture. His actions fractured and shattered a bondage which kept her and those like her pressed and beaten down all their lives. All the men in the synagogue benefited from this system at the expense of women and any others who had been suffering for years without any possibility even to ask for relief.

Jesus showed them the function of Hebrew law never was intended to oppress people. Instead, as the central story of Exodus declares, it is about setting them free for praise and service to God and neighbor. No wonder the people rejoiced at all the glorious things Jesus did. But after this incident, Jesus never taught again in a synagogue. He “shamed his enemies,” done with them and their systems for good.

The Epilogue

Well, Son of God, we like where you’re going with this. This is something we can get behind even as we’re not all that ready to fully fall in step and follow, as you call it. Glad you got the heck out of there. Now, just set your tent in your own place, and we’ll call it yours. See then what these Jews do when all these people they trample on go another way.

Sorry. That’s not the plan. He will not walk away from those he loves. Abandonment is not in his rule book. Jesus won’t be run off by these small-time tetrarchs. He’s headed to the Temple in Jerusalem. He knows it’s the site of his worst trouble. He’s ready for it.

Luke 13:10-17

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The Trouble with Jesus: Considerations Before You Walk Away by Constance Hastings

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