Set Free from Your Infirmity

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
Luke 13 (click the link)

Last week, I threw you a curveball. Today, I'll toss you a knuckleball. 

I'd like for us to try another experiment in prayer.  Again, this experiment will involve using our God-given imagination to meditate upon a passage of Scripture, to envision the scriptural scene as a movie in our mind's eye. And—this is key!—we attempt to place ourselves in the midst of the story. We imagine what it might be like to be one of the characters interacting with Jesus.

Rather than reading the Scriptures for information, in this experiment we will approach the passage with a heart that is seeking to make contact with God’s love and presence. We will come to Scripture trusting that God is near to us and that he desires to heal and transform us.

So, step into the batter's box and let's play ball…

…………

Close your eyes and sit silently for at least one minute. Then, in your own way and with your own words, simply ask God to speak to you this morning. 

On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.

Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”

The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”

When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing. (Luke 13:10-17, NIV) 

What if YOU were the woman "crippled by a spirit for eighteen years"?

Imagine for the last eighteen years of your life, your entire horizon ended about a yard in front of your feet. Your experience of a sunset doesn't involve splashing colors, but growing shadows. Your relationships are marked not by smiles and eye contact, but by the sound of a voice and the sight of familiar feet. What would it be like to spend all day, every day, staring at the ground? What if you could never look up?

Take out a sheet of paper and jot down some of the ways your life would be different if you spent the next 24 hours bent over. Think about sights you wouldn't see—a friend's smile, the sunset, your computer screen. Relationships you couldn't fully enjoy. Activities you couldn't possibly do.

If you were unable to straighten up at all, how would your life be "crippled"? Close your eyes for a few moments to imagine what that might be like. Then jot down your responses.

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Now imagine what it might be like to encounter Jesus. You can't look into his face. You can only see his sandals. But after all the years of being unable to look up, your sense of touch is heightened. You feel on your head the strong, wide hand of a carpenter. Likewise, your hearing, sensitized by years of sightlessness, is alerted by the sound of a voice, gentle and authoritative: "You are set free from your infirmity."

What a stunning reversal—from stooped over to standing straight, from pleading for mercy to praising for grace!

Quietly, ponder this passage for a few moments. Read it a few more times. Then ask yourself, "How does this woman's story mirror my own?" Write down your reflections in the form of a prayer to our gracious Healer.

WHO AM I?

I am Tres Sansom, and if you are not a baseball fan, I apologize for the continued baseball references. I have baseball on the brain quite a bit these days. You see, I am a huge Texas Rangers fan. My wife and all her heathen family are huge Red Sox fans. The Rangers and the Red Sox just finished a three-game series, in which the Rangers won two of three. This season, the two teams played each other a total of eight times. The Rangers won six of those games. Since 2009 (when Kate and I began dating), the Rangers and Red Sox have played one another 37 times. The Rangers have won 25 of those games. This means that over the last few years, the Rangers have beat the Red Sox 68% of the time. I call that dominance. Since Kate and her family are currently in Maine and I am still stuck in the great state of Hotter Than Hell, I'll have to settle for long-distance gloating.