Today’s text is akin to Victor Hugo’s memorable novel "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," which Disney later made into an animated movie. This story is only found in the gospel of Luke; perhaps because Luke was a doctor, this story had a certain allure for him.

It was not unusual for Jesus to be teaching in the synagogues. He was gaining notoriety around the countryside, and folks were interested in hearing what he had to say. These worship centers were satellites of the Jerusalem Temple.

In only three verses, Luke tells us that there was a woman who was a hunchback. He said the woman was "bent over and quite unable to stand up straight." She was unable to "straighten up." The poor old woman had to come to worship all bent over. She was bent out-of-shape. She had been crippled for eighteen years with this back trouble. Yet bound by her infirmity, she continued to come to worship hoping for answers.

While Quasimodo was the name of the hunchback of Notre Dame, Luke offered no name for the hunchback in his story, nor any medical history either. From the text, we can infer that she had not been born with this affliction. Perhaps her diet lacked adequate calcium. Maybe she had suffered some spinal injury. Possibly, the malaise was genetic, or some extreme case of osteoporosis. We don’t know. We are simply told that a spirit had crippled her. Her affliction had bound her.

Jesus picked her out of the crowd. He was teaching when he realized her presence and recognized her condition. We don’t know what he was teaching, yet the occasion for healing was more important than continuing the lesson. I wonder if he was teaching from Isaiah 6 as he did when teaching in his hometown synagogue in Nazareth (Luke 4). That passage from Isaiah stated, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor." Jesus had come not only to preach good news to the poor, but also to proclaim freedom to those who were bound and to release those who were oppressed. This woman was bound by a crippling spirit, and Jesus interrupted his teaching of the good news to perform an act of good news.

Jesus called her over and said, "Woman, you are set free from your infirmity. You are released from the spirit that has bound you for so long. You are loosed to stay free." He gave her freedom from her pain; he released her from her bondage.

As the Great Physician with gentle kindness, he laid his hands on her, after he spoke to her. He healed her with his words, and then he healed her with his touch. After receiving the touch of the Master’s hand, the woman immediately straightened up and praised God.

Can you imagine seeing that kind of healing right before your very eyes? Crowds today flock to see magicians. The optical illusions fascinate children and adults alike. But the folks gathered in the synagogue that day came to hear the popular teacher; the healing was extra. Seeing a person healed from a visibly debilitating illness should’ve thrilled everybody. Yet, not everyone was as elated as the healed woman.

At the sight of the healed woman rejoicing, the synagogue ruler stood and addressed the congregation. No one had spoken to the leader of the synagogue, but supposing that his importance as the ruler of the synagogue was being challenged, he became indignant. He also became bent out of shape. The synagogue ruler had not the courage to address Jesus directly. His words had a ludicrous sound, as if all the people had to do to get their crooked backs straight was to come to his synagogue during the week. He forgot that this poor woman had been coming for eighteen years with no result. He was angry with Jesus, but he spoke to the multitude. He said, "There are six days for work, so come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath."

Do you ever hear something absurd and wonder if others agree that what is being said is as absurd as you heard it? I sometimes think that when I hear politician’s negative advertising. To our ears, the words of the synagogue official are ridiculous. To him, he was just doing his job: upholding the law, no matter what. The Law was most important to this guy; the Spirit of the Law was intended for the glorification of God. Only holding the letter of the Law could degrade people as was the case here.

The official was bound by the rules; he must have been a parliamentarian. Only seeing the rules and his position, the synagogue ruler completely overlooked the needs of a woman who had been sick for eighteen years.

This is the last time that we read of Jesus ever being in a synagogue. It is clear that by this time the authorities were watching his every action and waiting to pounce upon him whenever they got the chance.

Even though the synagogue leader didn’t have the courage to address Jesus directly, Jesus did respond to his detractor. He called him and others like him hypocrites, meaning they would say one thing yet do another. Jesus pointed out that his critics cared too much for an ox or a donkey to leave it without water for an entire Sabbath. Jesus certainly knew the Law and realized that his critics allowed refreshing water to be given to their animals, even on the Sabbath. It was convenient to keep the letter of the Law in some cases and realize the spirit of the Law in others.

Jesus, in referring to the healed woman, used a triple argument. The one healed was a woman, a daughter of Abraham, a human being. Thus she had more worth than an ox or a donkey. Out of necessity, Jesus had to heal her, even if on the Sabbath. The woman should be set free; she should be given liberation from her bondage, even on the Sabbath.

Hearing this news, Jesus’ opponents were humiliated and shamed for their actions. The common folks, those who probably knew the woman, were pleased. Their neighbor had been healed.

Let’s take a look again at our three main characters. The woman was bound by her infirmity. Because of her particular ailment she was bent over, and her eyes were always facing the ground. She missed the sky, the birds, and the rainbows. But physical ailments can do far more than bend a back. They can rob us of our livelihood and cause us to fall into a pit of despair. They can take us away from our families. They can even cause severe depression. The woman was bound with no hope.

The synagogue leader was also bound, yet he was shackled to his understanding of the Law. That is what is so disturbing about the synagogue ruler. His words proved his insensitivity to this woman’s plight. The rules indicated that healing was considered to be work, and no work could be performed on the Sabbath. So the ruler decided to solve this ethical dilemma by saying that Sabbath observance was more important than healing a woman with an eighteen-year-old malady. But Jesus saw the situation much differently. When faced with ethical dilemmas such as rule-keeping, Jesus always sided with compassion, because with Jesus, compassion always trumped rules, even the Sabbath commandment.

Jesus indicated that restrictions, regulations, rules and even institutions can prevent us from providing the greatest commandment, love. If the two greatest commandments are to love God and to love others, there should never be an inappropriate time to express compassion toward someone. All of the 635 scribal laws were trumped by these two commandments: love God and love others.

The leader of the synagogue was bound, but not physically. He had been tied in the ropes of legalism which had crippled his soul. The Law had become his god.

As much as the crippled woman and the ruler of the synagogue may not appear to have much in common, they both were bound. The woman was physically bent from an eighteen-year-long affliction. The ruler was bent out of shape ("indignant") by the rules of the Sabbath with which Jesus had taken liberties. The ruler also was unable to stand up straight with his concern to Jesus, preferring to go behind Jesus' back by bringing his appeal to the crowd.

All of us are crippled by forces beyond our control, that can leave us crippled by their effects. The crippling, however, is not simply on the surface of things, but is deeply spiritual. So controlling are the effects of illnesses, rules, and regulations, that our spirits can be bound by ropes and chains which we are unable to loosen. The fact that the woman was "quite unable to stand up straight" is a commentary on her physical impairments. The cowardly acts of the ruler also point to his hypocritical heart. This type of bondage can run deep into our souls.

Ultimately, however, our problem comes under the microscope of God's all-seeing eye, exposing our bent condition (physically and spiritually), and putting us to shame. Even animals seem to get fairer treatment than we sometimes offer other human beings. But God judges the acts (or failures to act) even on the Sabbath. There is no hiding behind rules and regulations; there is no covering the shame of our illness. God sees all and brings it all to light. Indeed, none of us can stand up straight before that judgment.

But the third character in the story is Jesus, whose love knows no bounds. Jesus is not interested in shaming, but in overcoming and over-ruling, the shameful judgment. His method of over-ruling, however, is by standing under the judgment with us, placing his hands on the illness of our bent condition. His hands would be outstretched on the cross as a consequence of his activity to overrule rules and regulations of God's law. But through that sharing in our deadly consequences, he would "shame" the law for its execution of God's own Son; and we would be set free from the bondage that has long constrained us.

Living a life of promise means living free from the shackles that once had bound us. To be sure, there may still be illness and controlling forces that will seek to hold us in check. It didn't work on Jesus' liberating plan; neither will it work on us. We are free to be the promising agents, in spite of any and all evidence to the contrary. And we are free to be liberating agents for all who need their shackles loosened.

Christianity is a religion that knows no bounds; God’s grace is available to all people. The letter of the Law created boundaries. Boundaries can be good in parenting; children need structure. But the goodness of God knows no boundaries.

Jesus’ action makes it clear that God doesn’t want anyone to suffer one moment longer than is absolutely necessary. The Jewish Law stated that it was perfectly legal to help someone on the Sabbath who was in actual danger of his life. If Jesus had postponed the healing until the next day, no one would have criticized him; but he insisted that suffering must not be allowed to continue until tomorrow if he could help it today. No good deed that we can do today should be postponed until tomorrow.

The woman could’ve been healed the day after the Sabbath; after all she had been bound by this infirmity for eighteen years. But why wait? That question needs to be posed today: why wait? What binds us? Whether we are bound by our past, tied to tradition, shackled with grief, fettered to family pressures, handcuffed by sin, or chained by wealth, let’s allow Jesus to free you and me on this our Sabbath. Let’s not wait another day to find the refreshing freedom that only Christ can bring. Let’s allow Christ to free us from what holds us back. Thanks be to God that people are more important than rules.