Love Bent-Double Series

My grandmother suffers from a very similar condition. You wouldn’t know it though, unless you looked at her. Her spine is noticeably bowed from osteoporosis so much that she’s also “bent double,” but she’s got the most pleasant disposition of anyone you’ll ever meet. Anytime I go to the farm for visit, she goes out her way to make me feel at home. I can’t stay more than five minutes without her offering to make me something to eat or get me something to drink. Even when she was battling cancer and enduring radiation treatments, she never lost her cheerfulness—at least not that I ever saw.

I imagine this woman was a lot like my grandma. The Bible says that they were “in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath day”—the first-century equivalent of being in church on Sunday morning. I wonder, if I had been crippled for eighteen years, if I would be faithful to worship God week after week in the synagogue?

Certainly this woman must have prayed and asked God for deliverance, but still she was crippled. God’s apparent indifference, however, didn’t cause her to become bitter or resentful. There she was in the synagogue—worshipping and praising the God she loved. A lesser person might have become angry or disillusioned with God. Many people do. Suffering often causes people to withdrawn from God or perhaps even blame him for their pain. But this woman loved God despite her disability and she was loyal to him.

This crippled woman also teaches us the value of church attendance. Think about what she would have missed if she wasn’t there that day. Her presence was probably an encouragement to so many people and I’m sure there were many there who loved on her and encouraged her. In fact, that’s the real purpose of meeting together. The Bible says, “Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near” (Hebrew 10:24-25 NLT). See, it’s not that Sunday or the Sabbath is any more holy or special than the other six days in the week, but that going to church gives us the chance to surround ourselves with other people who love God, to express that love as a group, and to encourage one another to continue expressing our love for God and for people all throughout the week! That’s what church is all about.

This woman’s spirit must have shined like a ray of sunlight on a cloudy day, and when she was healed, it just gave her all the more reason to love God and sing his praises. But, the crippled woman’s perceptive on this miracle is just one of many. Next, we see this wonder through the eyes of…

2. Christ:

It’s important to notice that the Bible says, “Jesus saw her,” and, “he called her over.” She didn’t go to him; rather, the sight of her kindled Jesus’ concern. This is just one of the myriad examples of the love and sympathy that Jesus felt for people. Jesus is understanding toward our needs—he always has been. We live in a world of hurting people. Americans buy over 3,000,000,000 Tylenol® each year. Jesus knows every headache. Emergency Room visits reached an all-time high last year of 114,000,00. Jesus knows every broken bone and every affliction. He chose to demonstrate God’s power by curing diseases, casting out demons, and healing hurts, instead of some pointless feat like moving a mountain or parting the ocean. Jesus is always on the lookout for hurting people.