A Crippled Woman Healed on the Sabbath (Luke 13:10-17)

We started the night with the reading of the passage fom Luke 13:10-17, followed by a bibliodrama.

Reflecting our feelings or insights from the role play:

The role of Jesus:

• Feel for the bent woman
• Want her to be well
• Want to restore her to position in community
• Make people aware of the disabled
• Feel that Sabbath is fulfillment of God’s promise
• They (synagogue rulers) didn’t understand

The role of the woman:

• Felt discomfort
• Uncomfortable because can’t walk steady
• Hard to look upon other’s face
• Felt “abnormal”, in the minority
• Felt so good when I stood up straight, the uncomfortable feeling went away
• “liberated”
• Could move more easily

The role of the synagogue ruler:

• Like things orderly
• Like life orderly, follow rules
• Not pleased when Jesus stopped teaching and started healing—made me mad!
• Because then everyone wanted healing, disorderly!
• Didn’t like being called hypocrite, I was just doing my job
• Embarrassed when talking about animals
• Experienced “living Torah” as I realized Jesus was right

The crowd:

• Want to be healed also
• Why did the leader blame us?
• Who am I? If she is a daughter of Abraham…
• Cool!
• Saw Jesus as miracle worker

The questions raised by this passage:

• How to define work on the Sabbath?
• How do we respond to being shamed in public?
• Why characterize the woman’s disability as “being bound by Satan”?
• How do illness and bondage relate?
• Did they do something to be bound—victims of or participants in their binding?
• Why was the leader blaming the crowd and not Jesus?
• Why did the leader think they were coming to be cured?
• Why did Jesus address the woman as daughter of Abraham?
• Did Jesus intend to shame and humiliate?
• Can shame and humiliation lead us to repentance or redemption?
• How many people were there?
• Is physical healing equal to redemption?
• How visible are disabled people to us in our midst?
• How important is the Sabbath?
• Why doesn’t she have a name?
• Why doesn’t she speak?
• What is Jesus’ point?

Our study material was taken from Back to the Well: Women's Encounters With Jesus in the Gospels http://www.amazon.com/Back-Well-Womens-Encounters-Gospels/dp/0664227155
 
Meeting date: September 14, 2010.  Recorded by BL