Sermon Tone Analysis

It was a normal Sabbath morning.

She woke up, got ready… and she made her way down the cobblestone path.

Over the hill… towards town to the synagogue.

This was a difficult trip for her to make… it took her a while to get there… but eventually, the woman made it to the synagogue.

When she got to the synagogue, she walked through the greeting area, into the main area, and over to the women’s side of the synagogue.

She found a place in the back along the wall… a stone bench where she could sit down and find some relief.

Sitting was much better than standing for her.

At the front of the synagogue, sitting in the Moses seat, was the synagogue leader.

The synagogue leader’s responsibilities were to uphold the Torah and the traditions established from the law.

And so, his responsibility was to lead the synagogue service… which would include a recitation of the Shema… Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one… and then he would lead the people in a prayer… and then a priestly blessing.

Following that, there would be a public reading from Torah… they had a three-year cycle where they would read through the first five books of Scripture… followed by a reading from the prophets.

After the public reading of Scripture, there would be a time of teaching… and the synagogue leader would bring in different Rabbis to teach each Sabbath.

And then, finally, was the benediction.

It was the leader’s responsibility to watch over the people and keep the tradition of the synagogue going.

The woman in the back couldn’t really see the synagogue leader too well until she sat down.

You see this woman was crippled.

And when I say crippled, she didn’t have a bad knee or a bad hip… but as we’ll see in Scripture, this woman was completely bent over at the waist… she could not straighten up.

And for the last 18 years of her life, she had a downward look.

Most of the time, people’s feet were all that she saw.

18 years… That’s a long time to be burdened with something like that… and so, I can only imagine how very difficult her life was.

I can imagine that she felt hopeless… perhaps even unloved and forgotten by God because of this 18 year burden.

Perhaps you have an 18 year burden.

Perhaps not 18… but 10… or 5… maybe even a 40 or 50 year burden that you have carried.

We all go through seasons in life when it’s very difficult and painful.

The people that you work with… whether you’re aware of them or not, they too have these seasons of difficulty and pain.

They may be carrying an 18 year burden that you have no idea about.

When we look at Scripture in a moment, we’ll see that this woman’s burden is unique.

She’s not bent over because she has osteoporosis… she doesn’t have a slipped disc or a degenerative disease… The reason she’s bent over is because of demonic influence.

A demonic spirit has affected her life for 18 years.

On this particular Sabbath, there was a lot of buzz at synagogue.

The synagogue leader had arranged for a guest Rabbi to come and teach.

That guest Rabbi’s name was Jesus.

News had been circulating about this Jesus… He often drew a crowd because people heard that he could perform miracles… but also, there was buzz about those in opposition to Jesus.

Many religious leaders were against Jesus… and so the people didn’t really know what to expect.

If you have your Bible, and I hope that you do… Turn with me to Luke chapter 13.

In Luke chapter 13, we’re going to see what happened at synagogue that day… as Jesus comes to teach… and as this woman, tormented by a demon, is there to listen.

And as we read… Here’s what Luke wants you to know.

That Jesus is powerful.

That Jesus can rescue… That Jesus has miracle working power.

Read it with me.

Luke chapter 13, verse 10.

You know… We read that verse… she was crippled by a spirit for 18 years… and immediately our enlightened mindset begins to influence our understanding on this passage.

Do we have any photographers in here?

Maybe not professional… but maybe photography is like a hobby for you?

Ok.

Have y’all heard the term Aperture before?

In photography, aperture controls the amount of light that you’re camera utilizes.

If you open up the aperture, the camera takes in more light… and the more you close it, the less light is taken in by the camera.

You can see on the screen, I’ve given you a couple examples of this.

In this first example, an outdoor shot, with the aperture all the way open, the camera takes in too much light… and the image becomes washed out.

Where, the image on the left, where the aperture is closed down, you can still see the image… but it’s very dark.

In this second example, which is an indoor shot… with the aperture opened up more, the background is in focus.

But with the aperture closed, the background gets all fuzzy and blurred out because not enough light is getting in to see it all clearly.

In our understanding of Jesus, in our enlightened mindset… we often have our apertures all the way closed.

We don’t really see the power of Jesus.

We don’t see how crystal clear… how amazing HD beautiful he is… and therefore, we don’t delight in who he is.

Our enlightened mindset reads this passage and says… Well… they didn’t really understand medical things back then like we do now.

Today, we can diagnose things like this and fix them with surgery.

Or we might say… things like that only happened in the past… they don’t happen anymore… that was fine for that era of history… but not today.

Our enlightened minds dials things like this down… we dial down our aperture, and we don’t see Jesus very clearly.

He’s granulated and out of focus.

I think there are a few reasons we do things like that… but mostly, I think we’re trying to protect people.

We’re not really doubters… we’re just trying to protect people.

We’ll think things like… Man… I’d love to proclaim the power of Jesus over this person and watch him do a mighty miracle in their life… but what if he doesn’t work a miracle?

Then they might be disappointed in Jesus… and so we allow our enlightened minds to hold us back.

But Jesus sees this woman in the back… His eyes make contact with her frail body that is broken and worn out… and perhaps he sees in weariness in her eyes.

So, let’s see what happens when Jesus sees her.

Verse 12…

Immediately she goes from 3 foot 2 bent over to 4 foot 9 straightened up.

She goes from looking down at the stone mosaic floor to looking Jesus in the eye.

And this isn’t a mechanical thing… Jesus wasn’t a chiropractor… he wasn’t a physical therapist… this was, pure and simple, the power of God.

This is Jesus, the God-Man, displaying his power over creation.

Muscles that were long out of place recalibrate… her spine and vertebrae all realign, and she is made whole in an instant.

Listen… Jesus knows EXACTLY what you’re going through.

He knows the burdens that you carry.

He knows about the people in your life… the burdens they carry.

And so Luke encourages us to see the power of Jesus Christ and to know that he can rescue anyone… no matter what.

Dr. Craig Keener is the New Testament professor of theology at Asbury Theological Seminary.

He’s a well-respected, well-known theologian.

I have a few of his books in my library.

He tells a story about his sister-in-law and his mother-in-law who are from the Congo.

When his sister-in-law was only 2 years old, living there in the Congo, she was bitten by a snake… a very dangerous… very poisonous snake.

She was playing outside and didn’t see the snake… and it bit her.

When the mom heard crying, she came outside to see what was wrong… but in a matter of minutes, the little two year old became unresponsive and had stopped breathing.

Time was now of the essence.

According to the US National Library of Medicine, brain cells start dying less than five minutes after a child’s oxygen supply is removed, an event called hypoxia.

After six minutes, lack of oxygen can cause severe brain damage or death.

The little girl’s mother grabbed her up, and began running to the next village.

You see, the village they lived in had no medical facilities… no doctors.

And all the while… she wasn’t only going as quickly as she could… she was praying.

When she arrived at the next village, she was met by an evangelist… the evangelist began to pray for the little 2 year old… and as he prayed, the little girl began breathing again.

That little girl is now 64 years old… and she has lived her life happy and healthy… free of brain damage.

Amazing right?!? What’s even more amazing is… from her house to where she met the evangelist… she had been traveling for 3 hours.

We hear a story like that… and it’s just simply unbelievable!

Now look… I’m not saying we should listen to everyone who has an incredible story… or writes a book about how they died, went to heaven, came back to life and remembered everything that happened.

Most of those people are nothing but charlatans trying to make a buck off book sales.

Like I said… Dr. Keener is a very well-known and well-respected theologian.

Neither he or his mother-in-law tried to make a dime selling books to tell the story… they simple share the goodness of God and how he showed the family grace that day.

And maybe we have a hard time believing stories like this because there are so many charlatans out there… but I think the biggest reason is that our aperture is so closed… we fail to see Jesus for who he truly is… and therefore… we fail to recognize his power.

Or, we might believe he’s that powerful… but that kind of thing can’t happen here… maybe in Africa… in the Congo… but Jesus just doesn’t work like that here in the United States.