The woman in today’s passage seems much like my mom who suffered terribly from osteoporosis in the last years of her life. Despite being bent over, mom kept going and like the woman in the synagogue, she kept listening, learning, and hoping. No doubt some judged the woman in the synagogue and thought she was possessed by an evil spirit, but she was not deterred. Like so many others who had heard about Jesus she wanted to be near him, and perhaps healed.
On the other hand, the leader of the synagogue doesn’t care about the bent over woman at all. Rather, he senses an opportunity to discredit Jesus and chastises the crowd saying, “There are six days when work should be done. Come on those days to be cured, not on the Sabbath day.” Lk 13:14
The role reversal is complete. Although the synagogue leader seems to be standing erect, in fact he has become the bent over woman. Unable to look anyone in the eye, seeing only the dark side of life, he tries to parse the law in a way that undermines the compassion of Jesus. That Jesus chose to “save the woman’s life” made perfect sense to everyone except the leader of the synagogue. How sad for him, and us when we fail to look at the sick with God's eyes.
Today, show compassion to someone you normally pass by.
Has someone shown you compassion when you thought you deserved nothing?
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