God seeks to unbind us from what binds us

Today’s reading is the story of Jesus healing a woman with a crippling back problem. We are told that she was bent over and could not straighten up at all. It is the sabbath and Jesus is preaching in a synagogue. He’s the guest preacher.

Today’s reading is the story of Jesus healing a woman with a crippling back problem. We are told that she was bent over and could not straighten up at all. It is the sabbath and Jesus is preaching in a synagogue. He’s the guest preacher.

Jesus calls out to the woman, which was unusual, people usually approached Jesus asking to be healed, but on this occasion, Jesus calls the woman forward, and tells her; “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity”, and immediately she straightens up and worships God.

But the leader of the synagogue is indignant, because Jesus has healed on the sabbath, and healing is work, and the Jewish law, which God had given them, forbade work on the sabbath. The synagogue leader addresses the people: “There are six days for work, so come and heal on those days, not on the sabbath” He addresses the crowd, not Jesus or the woman. Perhaps he’s embarrassed by Jesus the guest preacher. The leader of the synagogue is responsible for worship in the synagogue. It was possibly him who had invited Jesus to preach and he possibly felt responsible for what Jesus had said. Its always risky booking an unpredictable preacher.

But Jesus answers him; “You hypocrites, you two faced people. You would untie your animals on the sabbath so they can have something to drink. Why shouldn’t this woman, a daughter of Abraham, be set free on the sabbath from what has bound her” And his opponents were embarrassed and put to shame.

So, what does this story say to us today?

There is a contrast in this story. In fact, there are two parallel stories. One is the story of the woman being healed, and the other is the story of the synagogue leader’s reaction to the healing. We have a woman who has been disabled for eighteen years, a woman who Jesus heals, and refers to as a daughter of Abraham, which she probably hadn’t been called before. She was probably called far worse things by people who thought her infirmity was a punishment from God; a woman who responds to her unexpected good fortune by praising God. She truly is a daughter of Abraham.

In contrast, we have a synagogue leader who is far more concerned that the healing has taken place on the sabbath, than the fact that a miraculous healing has taken place at all, a healing for which God is clearly being credited. A man who doesn’t praise God, but points people to the letter of the law.

The idea that links the two stories is the parallel between the synagogue leader being quite happy to untie his cattle on a sabbath so that they can drink, and Jesus setting the woman free from what has bound her. Set free not just for a drink, but for life.

This story reminds us that Jesus, that God himself sees nothing more important than setting people free. Jesus unbinds us from what ensnares us. He delights to unbind us, because he loves us, despite who we are, despite the fact that we get so much wrong, despite the fact that we’re not very grateful and don’t always recognize what he has done. God wants to untie us from what binds us, to liberate us, to set us free from what enslaves us. That’s what he came for. That’s what he died on the cross for; to set us free.

Why does Jesus set us free? He sets us free so that we can worship him. That’s what the healed woman did as soon as she was able to straightened up; she praised God.

I want to think a little about how we are bound, because we are all bound by things.

Some of the things that bind us are physical, we are bound by our health, as this woman was. I’m just getting to an age when things in my body are beginning not to work. I’ve got a long way to go but many people have bodies that haven’t worked properly for years. I remember somebody telling me years ago that there comes a time in your life when we move from thinking were having a bad day if we’ve got pain, to thinking we’re having a good day when we’ve NOT got pain.

Sometimes God heals us from these physical problems, as he did for the woman here, but not always. But he unties us in other ways. God reminds us that we are not just physical bodies, we have eternal souls. If someone thinks that all there is to life is what they can see and touch and feel. If you think that life is only about the physical, when your body lets you down, what do you have left? Jesus tells us that we have eternal life, that we have a future with God, that there will be an end to suffering. Meanwhile he remains with us and comforts us. The best is yet to come.

Over the twelve years I’ve known Kathryn, my wife, I’ve known her father too. Bill is a man with a deep Christian faith, and I’ve watched him change from a retired, active man, to a man whose body is dying by inches. He’s in a care home, dependent on others, not even able to open his own bible. Eighteen months ago, his wife died suddenly. He has many, many reasons for being bitter, and sometimes he is very flat, but it takes so little to cheer him up.

He is still an inspiration to be with, and that’s a testimony to his faith, but it’s also a testimony to the graciousness of God. It is God that unbinds Bill daily, not from his tired old body, but from believing that’s all that he is now. Sometimes when I pray with him, I pray that he might continue to remember that the best is yet to come. Brothers and sisters, the best is yet to come.

Sometimes the thing that binds is in our minds. We are bound by the experiences we have had. For some that is experiences we have as children, experiences of neglect and even abuse, experiences that shape the way we see ourselves as well as our future lives. Experiences that bind us. For others it’s experiences that happen later in life. I had an aunt who went through a nasty divorce in her late forties. She never moved beyond it. She never really recovered from the hurt and betrayal, and it has shaped the rest of her life. What happiness she has forfeited by not moving on.

And I’ve met people who have seen awful things. When I was a nurse, I nursed military patients who had received awful wounds in combat, and I was always conscious of the fact that many of their friends and comrades will have watched them be shot or blown up. What damage does that do to a person? Yet Jesus unbinds, Jesus heals, Jesus saves.

On my current placement I’ve been running an Alpha course. Have you done Alpha here? It’s well worth doing even when your church is made up of people who have been Christians for decades. It never hurts to remind ourselves who we believe in and who we follow.

What struck me watching the Alpha videos is that each one contains a testimony from someone who has been set free from something; a life of crime, dependency on drugs, anger or resentment. Its powerful to hear the stories of people who have met God. What struck me was the fact that the response of each of them was to praise God, because God does heal, he heals our bodies, our minds and our spirits.

And sometimes God doesn’t set us free all at once, and sometimes it doesn’t feel as if God is unbinding us at all.

I’m now going into my last year of training. This time next year, God willing, I’ll be an ordained minister. When I was on placement here, I was just starting out as a student minister, now I’m almost there. The first thing that will happen when I go back to college next month is the search for a church to minister to when I graduate.

Since I was at King’s Road, I’ve had placements with the Army Chaplains, with a homeless shelter and with hospital chaplaincy. I’ve done well enough in my assignments and placements. I’m currently half way through a two year placement in a church in Sedgley which is half URC and half Methodist. So I’ve done more training in Methodist Churches than I have in URC ones! Hallelujah

And yet I still find myself at times almost terrified, certainly fearful, doubting God and bound by fear. God has been very faithful to me, but at times I feel very frightened and very vulnerable. Bound by my fear and not knowing what to do. Even though God has always seen me through every problem I’ve had, I’m frightened he’ll stop, or that I’m just imagining it and I’ve just been lucky. The person in the new testament who makes me most nervous is the man in the parable of the talents who buries his talent so at least he won’t lose it, and instead finds himself losing everything.

But the thing about that fear, is that in order not to be overwhelmed by it, I need to absolutely depend on God, and as I depend on God, slowly, ever so slowly, I’m learning to trust him more.

I wish I was bolder. I pray that God will take that fear away. I don’t think I’m alone in wanting God to take some character flaw. In fact, I know I’m not, because the bible gives us an example of somebody who talks about doing exactly that.

In 2 Corinthians Paul talks about the thorn in his flesh. We don’t know what that thorn was, whether it was a physical problem or a sin Paul struggled with, but Paul says; “Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Sometimes God doesn’t set us free, but even if he doesn’t, it’s doesn’t mean he’s still in control; its still for our own good. May God’s grace be sufficient for us all as we face the struggles of life.

And who better to sum it up than Charles Wesley?

And can it be that I should gain An int’rest in the Saviour’s blood? Died He for me, who caused His pain? For me, who Him to death pursued? Amazing love! how can it be That Thou, my God, should’st die for me?

Long my imprisoned spirit lay Fast bound in sin and nature’s night; Thine eye diffused a quickening ray, I woke, the dungeon flamed with light; My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.