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Sometimes a miracle in the scriptures hits me like I’m reading it for the first time. I noticed this passage recently and totally saw myself in the role of the leading lady! She couldn’t help herself. She couldn’t see ahead of her. Her body had pains that couldn’t be explained. Sounds similar to grief, doesn’t it?!

Jesus was teaching in the synagogue on the Sabbath. (click to read the passage)

It was probably something He did regularly. The crowds would listen to the way He explained the Holy Scriptures to them. The religious leaders would listen in order to try to catch Him in an untruth.

As we scan the room, we notice a woman, listening to Jesus teach. She was bent over with a condition she couldn’t fix. This condition had been her companion for eighteen years. Eighteen long years. But isn’t it interesting that it didn’t keep her from showing up to hear the teachings at the synagogue. It had to be such a struggle for her to get there. Some translations say she was twisted. It could have been arthritis or a bone crippling spine issue. What we do know is that she had a disabling spirit for a very long time.

The scripture says she couldn’t fully straighten herself. She couldn’t even look up! She had tried to fix her problem. I imagine neighbors on all sides of her had ideas on how to solve the problem. In my mind, I picture those wacky old-time cures for toe bunions or curvature of the spine.

As she is there listening to Jesus teach, He saw her and went to her. He knew exactly how to help her!

Woman, you are free!

He put His hands on her. I can just picture His gentle sweet spirit, kindly placing His hands on her back or her shoulders. Do you think she had been avoided and not touched for eighteen years? This must have been startling to her.

Suddenly.

Isn’t that one of the coolest words? Suddenly she was standing straight and tall.

Have you ever been in a situation where you were unable to use muscles for a certain amount of time? Like an arm in a cast or back spasms? Knee surgery or hip replacement? During that six weeks or months, the muscles that sat dormant began to deteriorate and weaken. But EIGHTEEN YEARS? No doctor could have done a treatment with such amazing results.

And immediately she glorified God!

Do you ever feel bent over and debilitated by grief and fear? So many people in the world are troubled and bowed down with the burdens of the world. This woman is a picture of the crippling effects of shame and guilt, grief and fear, or sin and unbelief. But look where she is found – not hiding in her home. No way, she is in the temple, learning, worshiping, praising.

Jesus knew her soul needed healing most of all. When Jesus told her she was free, she, who couldn’t even look up, was immediately looking up – straight to God. Her soul was healed and her heart was made whole. And perhaps she is a picture of the verse in Matthew 6:33: Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added.

She was unable to free herself, but when she searched for God in the temple, she found Jesus the mighty healer.

Friend, Jesus wants to straighten what is bent and crooked in your life. There is FREEDOM available! Freedom through the HOPE we have in Christ!

Just like the woman in our Bible passage, we are all unable to straighten ourselves. No amount of “right living” will fix what our soul needs. Let’s keep faithful in our worship with other believers. We never know when we will hear something from God’s Word that will speak directly to our soul.

Let’s seek first. And all these things, in God’s timing and not ours, will be added to us.

Father God, we bring our crooked and bent lives to you. Our grief is often disabling. But You promise to heal the broken-hearted. We need You, the Mighty Healer. Amen