Yesterday was super busy, so I didn't get much time to reflect on this text between the time I read it and the time I went to bed.
"...a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years."
"You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger...?"
"And the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things he was doing."
This text is, at its topmost level about Jesus healing on the sabbath and scribes getting mad, calling it work. He calls them out for doing things of work on the sabbath themselves, and the crowd cheers because the scribes can't reply and everyone is so excited about the things that Jesus is doing.
One of the things that stood out to me in this passage, though, was that a spirit was crippling this woman. I think that spirits cripple people - both inside and outside the Church - but not demons the way I was taught to read this passage. I think there are lots of other spirits that can be crippling: systemic racism, systemic sexism, homophobia, heterosexism, heteronormativity, agism, classism, being taught not to love oneself as one has been created. And Jesus, the bondage breaker, offers freedom in Him from all these things.
The scribes didn't like that he was healing on the sabbath, but they probably didn't like that he was performing miracles. Too often I've heard that things that are a result of racism are just someone of color's playing "the race card" as if it's kept on reserve to stir things up with when someone doesn't get his/her way, which is bogus way to look at things. The Church, as the Body of Christ followers, should be looking for ways to end racism and all it's long-stretching tentacles. With God's help. ("Will you strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being? I will, with God's help." "Do you accept the freedom God gives you to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves? I do.") All racism. If you need some examples of what we can be doing, just ask Marcus Briggs-Cloud.
The way I read/see/try to live the Gospel, I don't know what Jesus would say. A lot of times I hear people within the Church very critical of those who seek to release people from the spirits that cripple them (when we should be passing out Bibles only). Here in this text Jesus didn't say to the woman, "I am Jesus, the Son of God, I am going to die to take away your sin. Would you like to get saved so that I can heal you?" Rather, he merely told her she was set free, and she stood up straight. We don't know what she did after that (either because it wasn't necessarily to what Luke wanted us to know about this instance or because she was a woman and her task was done in the story, so she becomes a non-entity, maybe somewhere in between), but we know what she had to do to be healed - merely appear in the temple wit the God-Man Jesus was there. He sensed her need and addressed it. Let me rephrase. He knew that a spirit held her in bondage, and he released her from its power.
Now, there might be some to say, "Well, Jesus says that Satan bound her, so that means it was a demon the way you were taught to read it!" I say piffle. Satan, I feel (though I don't really like the notion of personifying evil, although it does give us a good metaphor for reference), works in a lot of ways. All the -isms I mentioned earlier (that I'd say are all connected. Rachel needs to upload a picture of her button) that bring disconcord and lack of unity and harmony among the people of earth created in the image of God are aspects of Satan.
Notice what the crowds do (but only after Jesus calls out his opponents of their hypocrisy): rejoice at all the wonderful things that he was doing. I think it's important to remember that the crowds were rejoicing when Jesus was meeting people where they were and attending to what a lot of people would say their immediate needs - most often physical needs. Reread what I said he was not saying as he went around doing ministry. If the Church (in many manifestations, but one with Christ as her head) were to act more like our Jesus, we might have crowds bursting into cheers and rejoicing, too. At the least we might pique people's interests about what we're doing.
