Mama Monday #64

  

Luke 13:10-17

The Message

Healing on the Sabbath

10-13 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.

14 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.”

15-16 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?”

17 When he put it that way, his critics were left looking quite silly and red-faced. The congregation was delighted and cheered him on.

 

Lectio reflections on Luke 13:10-17

In the First Nations Bible,
they call him Creator Sets Free.
And in this story—
we see his name come alive.

A woman, bent down,
eighteen years afflicted and burdened
with weight she was never meant to carry.

She did not ask.
She did not plead.
She did not even speak.

But Jesus saw her.
He called her.
He said—
“Woman, you are set free.”

And she stood up.
For the first time in eighteen years—she stood.

She stood with joy.
She stood with dignity.
She stood with relief.
She stood with gratitude.
She stood unashamed.

And I wonder—
as we walk, bent over,
shoulders heavy with burdens-
can we hear that same voice from Creator Sets Free?
Calling us close.
Seeing us.
Inviting us to stand tall.

And when we stand,
we are not done.
Because freedom is never just for one.

We are called—
to see those still bent low,
to welcome them generously,
to walk beside them tenderly,
to remind them they, too,
can stand tall.

For this is the journey—
all of us,
walking each other home,
participating in God’s dream,
God’s heartbeat,
God’s shalom
for the whole wide world.