Luke 13:10-17
When you hear that word – satan – what do you imagine? Do you envision a demonic figure, perhaps with horns, a pointy tail, forked tongue and holding a diabolical pitchfork? Or maybe you think of some historical figure like Hitler, Idi Amin or Stalin. The Hebrew people did not imagine any such figure; in fact, they had no such concept or word until being introduced to it during their extended ‘time-out’ in Babylon, and even then seemed to understand it to be a metaphor for evil. Now evil . . . that was something they understood. Not in their earliest days, perhaps, but certainly long before the time of our biblical prophets, much less Jesus. Long before the 8th century BCE (Before the Christian Era), when they faced the overwhelming military powerhouses of Assyria and then Babylon, they had lived with a set of rules that separated ‘good’ from ‘evil’ and ‘righteous’ from ‘unrighteous.’ Of course, being human and all, folks tried to find some wiggle room in those rules. “Thou shall not commit adultery” – What exactly constitutes adultery? What if you are unmarried and unaware that your partner is married? Which physical acts are included, and are any specifically excluded and therefore free of evil? Even if we get to the top of the list – and make no mistake, the list is definitely ordered – folks surely asked then and still ask now, how much can I chase after something before it begins to fall into the category of ‘idol’ and my behavior begin to be considered worship? Does “Have no God before me” mean I can have other gods either simultaneously, equally or perhaps with slightly less commitment? Slice after slice, split by split, we tend to work on creating space to hold onto our favorite forms of evil, the ones we convince ourselves don’t really hurt others that much or are so valuable/beloved that we are willing to live with a bit of harm either to ourselves or others (actually, both) for the sake of whatever benefit we believe we receive.
Jesus never suggests such wiggle room; he comes across as either/or when it comes to evil and both/and when it comes to good. And when he sees evil at work, he recognizes it, steps up and steps in to undo what it has done. When he sees the bent-over woman in the synagogue, he does not seem to wonder, much less call her aside to inquire about, what she had done to be so afflicted. As he explains in response to a question from his apprentices in another story, evil is not always a matter of one’s personal choices. For example, in our day, we might name poverty ia a form of evil without meaning that everyone who is poor is, therefore, evil. Folks who are making choices to pursue evil may certainly be poor, but we can see plenty of evidence they can also be wealthy – if looking at corporate CEO’s whose companies are losing money while they receive obscene bonus packages is too uncomfortable for you, maybe you can substitute drug lords.
Jesus also knows that removing the evil binding-up this woman has endured for nearly 2 decades will not remove evil from the world, or even her world . . . or even her choices in the future. But what he does know is that she is bound up in an obviously unnatural, uncomfortable position, one which God never chose or intended for her and has been so for far too long. Seeing no reason to delay for one second her reconciliation with God’s intentions for her, he calls her to himself – as he calls all of us – and she comes – the response of a disciple or at least a potential disciple. She does what Abraham did; she hears a call and responds with faith/trust. Upon being released from the evil binding-up, she wastes no time either; she straightens up and lets loose with praise of the only source of such a healing and freedom she can imagine: God.
So who is left bound up once she is free?
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