Don't Just Stand There. . .
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Does anyone know who Kevin Carter is? Kevin Carter was a regular old photographer who happened to come across the shot of a lifetime in March of 1993. He took the photo and it was published by the New York Times just a couple of weeks later. Here it is. A little boy trying to make his way to a hunger station in Sudan, when a vulture landed near him. Immediately, people were calling and writing the New York Times wondering about the little boy (who was originally thought to be a girl). Did he make it? Was he alive? Kevin Carter didn’t know. He said that he recovered enough to start crawling again, but he had no idea if he made it to the hunger station.
People were incredulous! And rightly so. He didn’t do anything but take a picture?! He didn’t help the little tyke out? Where was his humanity!?
On July 24, 1994, 16 months after taking the most famous photo the world had ever known, Kevin Carter committed suicide at the age of 33. He could not live with himself for having done nothing to alleviate the child’s suffering.
That sadly was Kevin Carter’s short life.
It has become an all too common problem in our world for people to see something troubling going on, or perhaps illegal or dangerous, to see someone suffering and in need of help or protection, and rather do something, they stand there, pull out their phones and record the incident as it happens.
Perhaps you’ve seen these and said with me, “don’t just stand there with your stupid phone! Do something!”
Our righteous indignation is the correct response. We ought to want to see someone or a bunch of someones stepping up and protecting the innocent, helping the weak, opposing the wicked, alleviating the suffering. At the same time, though, if we were honest, while we would like to think of ourselves as better than bystanders, the truth is that we are probably a lot closer to those filming the event than not.
Jesus wasn’t a bystander, and he didn’t expect his disciples—as those who seek to be Christ-like, who abide in and with him so as to live as he lived to be either. We’ve seen before how Jesus sent his disciples to do the very things he was doing—preach the gospel, heal the sick, and cast out demons. Jesus was no bystander because the Kingdom of God is on the move and one who is in the kingdom—whether as King, ambassador, or soldier cannot stand idle. But as we open up this passage this morning, I want us to figure out which of the three main characters we identify with: the Afflicted, the Alleviater, or the Antagonist?
Which of the three main characters do you identify with?
The Afflicted
The Alleviater
The Antagonist
Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath.
And behold, there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself.
When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your disability.”
And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God.
But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.”
Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it?
And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?”
As he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame, and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him.
Do You Identify with the Afflicted?
Do You Identify with the Afflicted?
The first character that we can identify with is the Afflicted. This is the woman in the story that Luke is telling Theophilus about.
Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath.
And behold, there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself.
When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your disability.”
And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God.
I want us to quickly notice four truths regarding this afflicted woman.
The first truth is that she was afflicted for eighteen years. Eighteen years! That’s a long time to suffer from affliction. Have you ever noticed how often these stories deal with people who have been suffering for years and years? The woman with the blood issue had been suffering for 12 years. The man who was born blind but was now an adult. The invalid man who laid at the Sheep gate for 38 years. The man who was lame from birth but healed at Solomon’s portico. Time and again, we see that these men and women have suffered under affliction for years before the Lord or his apostles did anything.
We live in a day and age when we want suffering to end immediately. We want a pill to cure whatever ails us. We can’t stand to be bored for a moment. Thankfully, we have TikTok for that. It’s great that we have so many cures for so many ailments, and yet it is also not so great that we have lost the ability to suffer long and suffer well.
Which leads us to the second truth. Notice where this woman is. She is in the synagogue on the Sabbath day. In other words, she is worshipping to the best of her ability. She can’t stand up like the others. She can’t raise her arms like the others. But she is there nonetheless. She worships despite, or in spite perhaps, of her affliction. If ever there was an excuse not to go to synagogue and hear the Word of God being spoken, this woman had it. It wasn’t just that she was hunched over a little; she was bent over in half! The verse literally says, she was unable to raise herself at all. The pain associated with this disabling spirit would have been tremendous, not only on the spine, but on the ribs, and her lungs and other organs as well. But she went to synagogue anyway.
Thirdly, this more than a physical problem. Luke tells us this was a disabling spirit. Not every spirit causes a physical problem. Thus, not every disability is spiritual in nature. There’s not a spirit of paralysis or a spirit of ingrown toe nails. There’s not a spirit of alcoholism or drug use. But this case, there was a spiritual component to her physical problem.
Lastly, when she was cured of the spirit and the ailment, she glorified God. She gave glory where it was due.
Perhaps you identify with this woman. You’re the afflicted one. You’ve suffered for many, many years and no one has been able to heal you. That means doctors can’t and no one in the church can either. The suffering continues day after day, year after year. And here you are, as difficult as it is, worshipping God in all your pain. Some days you don’t have the strength to lift your hands in worship. Some days, you can’t hardly stand up from your pew. You suffer, often in silence. It can be a physical affliction, an emotional one, a spiritual one.
It might be arthritis, loss of hearing, loss of sight. It could be depression, loneliness, anxiety. It could be doubts toward salvation, doubts about God’s grace, or doubts that you will ever overcome that one sin that so easily besets you. Here you are suffering and afflicted. Maybe you identify with this woman.
If that’s you, let me say that though I cannot say that you’ll be healed of your suffering this side of heaven, I can say that the glory that comes when you are alleviated of your suffering will be so much greater that the memory of the pain will be gone.
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
Do You Identify with the Alleviater?
Do You Identify with the Alleviater?
But maybe you identify with the second main character: the Alleviater. Technically that’s not a word, but I’m sure we understand it. Do we identify with the one who alleviates the suffering? The afflicted? Of course, the Alleviater is Jesus.
Again, I want us to notice three kingdom principles that Jesus displayed.
The first was the preaching and teaching of God’s Word was important. The first thing that Luke tells us in this text is that Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues. He isn’t interested in telling us where this synagogue was located or who the leader of the synagogue was, or anything else. It was some synagogue. But Jesus wasn’t there as an attendee. He was there as the teacher. Jesus was about teaching God’s Word.
The second kingdom principle was that the hurting must be noticed. It’s been a while since I’ve brought this up, but it bears being said again. Luke, being the physician that he was, made a big deal about the hurting, the marginalized, those who were on the fringe of society. But it wasn’t just because he was a physician, but because Jesus saw them as important. They deserved to be noticed and therefore we must notice them. Did you see how Luke introduced the woman. “And behold!” “Look! There was a woman.” He’s telling Theophilus to look. Behold. How could he behold this woman? He’s reading about this; he’s not there. But Luke wants Theophilus and anyone else who reads this account, to see what Jesus saw—to notice what Jesus noticed. Jesus’s philosophy was to see, behold, look upon the hurting, the poor, the marginalized. That’s kingdom work!
But a third kingdom principle is alleviate the pain of the hurting if possible. Jesus had no limitations on himself. He was God in the flesh. He could say the words to be healed and she would be healed. We aren’t like that. That being said, we do have the same Holy Spirit in us who is just as powerful, so don’t discount what you can do. But more often than not, we alleviate through natural rather than supernatural means.
I think of the Hellenistic Jewish widows in Acts 6. What we find there are the apostles preaching and teaching, but an injustice that led to division and suffering in the church. The preaching and teaching were important—too important for the apostles to leave them. But they heard and noticed the suffering and injustice. So they made sure to alleviate it by having the church select Spirit-filled men to do so.
In this case, though, we need to see that Jesus went to the woman. The woman did not go to him. She didn’t come looking for healing. Remember she was there to learn and worship. She didn’t ask Jesus to heal her. She didn’t try to just touch the hem of his robe. She was there listening. Jesus took it upon himself to alleviate her suffering.
Beloved, many of us have the principle that we will get involved if we have to or if we’re asked to. If we have no other option. Not Jesus. He willingly went to her to alleviate her suffering. He didn’t just stand there. He did something! Like the Good Samaritan who went to the man beaten and half-naked and alleviated his suffering, so Jesus alleviated this woman’s pain—both her spiritual and physical pain. First he spoke the words—speaking to the demonic spirit oppressing her. Then touching her crippled back so she could stand up straight.
Would you identify more with Jesus? Would you identify as the person who seeks to alleviate the pain, the hurt, the affliction, the suffering? And I am not talking about the natural tendency that many of us (myself included) have that we are compelled to “fix” people or things. They’re feeling down, let me tell them a joke. They’re lonely. Let me set them up with someone. Or even their upset, let me tell them why they shouldn’t be that way.
A couple of days ago, I was substitute teaching, and the class was going through To Kill a Mockingbird. And in the story, Tom Robinson—a black man accused of raping and beating a white woman—was convicted though he could not have done what he was accused of doing. Of course, the entire black community was upset and mourning over the conviction. One white woman went to her cook—a black woman—and scolded her for attitude.
“‘Sophy,’ I said, ‘you simply are not being a Christian today. Jesus Christ never went around grumbling and complaining.’” And while she is technically correct, she missed the whole point! Jesus certainly got angry about injustices being done.
Jesus entered this woman’s world. This suffering, deformed woman’s world. He saw her. He called her close to himself. He healed her. He did not turn a blind eye to her suffering. He entered into it.
Can you identify with Jesus? I wish I could more than I do. It’s easy for me to by cynical. It’s easy for me to pretend that a world of hurt does not exist. And by world, I really don’t mean the whole world. I mean my world. My neighborhood. Again, back in To Kill a Mockingbird. This same woman who scolded her cook, was talking to her tea ladies about the suffering of the Mruna tribe in Africa. “The poverty...The darkness...The immorality.” She was oblivious to the poverty, darkness, and immorality that was happening all around her. As if it’s out there far away.
I know it’s a fiction book, but one that brings out some hard truths. It’s easy to see the suffering when they’re far away. There’s nothing we can do for those across the world, except maybe send a little money to organizations who would go. It’s so hard to see the suffering right next to us. It’s not that it isn’t there. It’s that we don’t have the eyes, or maybe the will to see it. Jesus saw it. He entered into it. He alleviated it.
Do You Identify with the Antagonist?
Do You Identify with the Antagonist?
Maybe we don’t identify with either of those two. Maybe we identify with the antagonist of the story: the leader of the synagogue.
But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.”
Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it?
And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?”
As he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame, and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him.
Three facts about this ruler of the synagogue:
He was quick to abide by the letter of the law, rather than the spirit of the law. He got indignant because, to him, Jesus broke the sabbath when, in fact, Jesus kept it as it was always meant to be kept. What is the spirit of the law? Jesus told us it can be summed up in two commands: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. That’s the whole law and prophets. So if we took all the Old Testament—the Law and the Prophets—we could summarize it in the 10 Commandments, but then further summarize it to the two great laws. So the first four commandments are all about loving God; the last six are about loving neighbor. Which means that if we are utilizing the laws to do harm rather than to love, then we’ve misunderstood the law.
St. Augustine once said, “Whoever, then, thinks that he understands the Holy Scriptures, or any part of them, but puts such an interpretation upon them as does not tend to build up this twofold love of God and our neighbour, does not yet understand them as he ought.”
He closed his heart toward the hurting.He could not or would not rejoice in this ladies being freed from her pain, her affliction, her demon oppression. His heart was closed toward her. Let her come back on a day that isn’t a sabbath. Here is a woman who again had every reason to not be at synagogue, but made it a point to go. Though God had not healed her, though he had let her be tormented for so long, she still believed. She still wanted to know him more. And this was her leader! This was the one whom she had listened to more than any other teacher. Where is his compassion for her? Where is his compassion toward his flock? The synagogue leader was smart. He had the knowledge, but he didn’t have the heart. And because he didn’t have the heart, he didn’t do the work. It’s what happens when we place “knowing more” above “loving more.”
Lastly, he was a hypocrite. He cared more about his ox and donkey, than he did about the woman. It wasn’t that he couldn’t do any work on Sunday. He was allowed to relieve the thirst of his animals, but somehow he wasn’t able to relieve the pain of his flock? The ox and donkeys were more valuable to this leader and those who agreed with him than the sheep of his flock. The donkey and ox might be hungry or thirsty for a couple of hours before they’d alleviate their hunger pangs and fiery throats. But they begrudged this woman who was afflicted for 18 years of her alleviation on the sabbath.
Maybe this is the guy we identify with the most. I think we all know we ought not, but the reality is that some of us may. We’re sticklers for the letter of the law. We close our eyes and hearts toward the plight of the afflicted. We find lesser matters deserving of our attention. We forget what the law is about—its about showing how we can love better. I’ve already admitted that I’m closer to being like this guy than I am to Jesus. I often see the suffering or afflicted, but it’s too uncomfortable for me to step into the suffering so that I can alleviate it. And that’s just unacceptable to me.
Conclusion
Conclusion
God’s kingdom is based on kingdom principles—those very principles I mentioned Jesus having: It is certainly the teaching of God’s Word. And I think that many Christian—especially in the Reformed world get stuck here. We focus on the teaching. We focus on the mind. Entering into one another’s suffering doesn’t even cross our minds. It’s peripheral, and yet Jesus saw it as necessary.
I say these are kingdom principles, because we see that this entire story of this afflicted woman, this Alleviater Jesus, and this antagonistic ruler, is all about God’s kingdom. How do I get that? From the next few verses.
He said therefore, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it?
It is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.”
And again he said, “To what shall I compare the kingdom of God?
It is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened.”
“He said therefore...” Therefore. That word indicates application. It indicates the point that the writer was trying to make. “He said therefore, ‘what is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it?’” This whole event points to the kingdom.
It’s like a grain of mustard seed. The point in this similitude is not the size of the mustard seed, but the size of the tree. The tree was big enough to house everyone who comes. The ruler ignored the afflicted woman as if she wasn’t part of the kingdom. And she may not have been part of that ruler’s personal kingdom. She wasn’t good enough. She couldn’t really participate. She didn’t bring anything of value to the synagogue. If anything she may have brought down the mood of the people with her bent body.
The kingdom of God is like the leaven hidden in three measures of flour. Again, it wasn’t even the size of the leaven so much as its power. It permeated the entire flour. The entire dough was affected by the leaven. That’s what the kingdom is to be like. Nothing and no one is to be left unaffected by the kingdom.
How easy it is to carve parts of our lives into sections, or perhaps I should say measures. Maybe our personal lives, our public lives, and our church life. Or maybe its our work life, our home life, and our political life. Or maybe we divide it in some other way. And we want the leaven to permeate one or two measures, but not all three. Jesus says that his kingdom is powerful enough to permeate it all and it will permeate it all. How dare we pretend it could be otherwise! How hypocritical we would be if we even tried!
As we close, I want to point to one last thought. Jesus, while teaching, left his seat and stopped the teaching, to enter into the woman’s suffering so she would be healed. And when it happened, she glorified God. In this we see Jesus demonstrating what he has called us to be and do:
In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Prayer
Our heavenly Father,
There are some here that may be suffering and have been for some time. For whatever reason you have brought this affliction to their lives.
We know that your word says that suffering makes much of Christ and brings glory to you. It can grow us in holiness and it is never in vain.
I pray for those who suffer now that they will not lose hope of glory then. The glory that outshines the affliction so that the pain is no longer a memory.
Father, I pray would that we be more like Jesus who seeks the suffering, the hurting, the afflicted and do what we can in your name. Let our Christianity not be about words alone. May it not be about faith alone. For we know that faith without works is dead. May we live what we say we believe.
I pray for we who have trouble showing compassion though we see the hurting all around. Turn our hypocritical hearts away from such cynicism and turn them toward love. Knowing that if we have the world’s goods and see our brothers in need but turn our hearts away, our very salvation should be questioned. Let us not live in convenient work, but in Kingdom work.
We pray this in Jesus’s name. Amen.