So, eighteen years is a long time, bent over, suffering, for eighteen years. Then there’s Jesus. Maybe she always went to synagogue on Sabbath. Maybe she was there that Sabbath because she heard Jesus was in town, and she wanted to see him. Maybe she was at synagogue because the notion took her, for some reason. She just decided she would just go to synagogue that Sabbath, and that just happened to be the very Sabbath when Jesus was there. We say coincidence; our hearts whisper Spirit.

She is there, and he is there. He has come. She doesn’t go to him, secretly touching the hem of his garment, daring and hoping from her deepest need. This isn’t the woman in the crowd with the flow of blood. Jesus calls to her. He beckons. Jesus has come, and she has to come to him. That’s how it is, brothers and sisters. He sees her. Who doesn’t Jesus see? Is anyone invisible to Jesus? Would that we would see as Jesus sees, that we would notice the way Jesus noticed! How many lives we might bless, if we took the time to look!

He calls to her. Will she listen? Will she come? Who does Jesus not call? If he calls everyone, and I believe he does, why do people not hear? And if they hear, why don’t they answer? No is an answer just as much as yes. People find all kinds of reasons to say no to Jesus: things haven’t changed much, in two thousand years; they probably won’t change much over two thousand more.

The woman has to come to him. Jesus calls her over to him. She is going to have to make her way through and out of the crowd, and come to where he is, where everybody can see. Could you? All eyes on you? Maybe, ordinarily, no; maybe you’re too shy for that, ordinarily. When it matters, when it’s important, when it means life, I bet even the shiest among you not only could make your way through the crowd, all eyes on you: not only could you do that, you would! Jesus matters most. I don’t think that woman at that moment knew that clearly. She knew there was power with Jesus; she knew, somehow, that she would be safe with Jesus. He would do her no harm. He would bless her; she saw it in his eyes, heard it in his voice, sensed it in the way he beckoned to her to come and stand with him.

He tells her that she is free from her sickness (13:12), puts his hands on her—that deep and ancient sign of blessing, of divine favor, of welcome, of connection, “and at once she straightened up and praised God” (13:13). We’re amazed at all these reports of blind people being given sight, deaf people given hearing, of the lame and crippled made to walk with strength, balance, and grace. We read of possessed people cleansed and made whole. All these restored bodies—wonderful!

For the apostles, however, the healed bodies, wonderful as these were, were not the most amazing thing. For the apostles, the most amazing thing was that evil was being vanquished, that Satan was being overthrown, that here was a man who was prying off the death grip that Satan had on people all around them. That grip was on some in obvious ways, on others in less obvious ways, ways they tried to keep hidden, hidden beneath a costume of respectability. Jesus was conquering all the forces and powers that the apostles knew for a sad fact that none of them had the power in themselves to overcome. Conclusion—Jesus matters most.

Now, as the stunned witnesses see for themselves the power of Jesus restoring a broken life, a distorted life, a crippled life, the synagogue official, the representative of religious authority, tries to regain control of the situation. What he knows about God and God’s ways is what he wants to know. And he doesn’t know what he doesn’t want to know. What he wants to know is that being faithful to God is a matter of doing things and not doing things. Love for God consists in doing things and not doing things. Doing matters most. Well, we’re not so very different, after all. We know what we want to know. It doesn’t help that our own religious officials seem more and more to be pointing to doing, making their message doing matters most. It isn’t surprising, though: doing can be seen by others; doing can be measured, quantified, compared, ranked.

What that religious official knows is that the Sabbath is the God-appointed day for refraining from labor. God works in our not working. There is wisdom in that. Jesus had challenged the teachers of the law earlier, though, asking them, “is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to destroy it?” (Lk 6:9). Later, he will ask, “Is it lawful to cure people on the sabbath, or not?” (Lk 14:3). Scripture doesn’t record what the officials answer. Perhaps, as on other occasions, they concluded that not answering was their safest option. What happens when we choose what seems like safety over faithfulness?

The teachers of the Law knew it was not contrary to the Law regarding the Sabbath to save a life in imminent danger. That was settled. The sticking point was a chronic condition. Well, a chronic condition, you know, can’t really be cured, can it? Beloved, if any condition is chronic, it is sin. Without realizing it, unable to realize it, the religious official is saying, in effect, that the Sabbath is not a day to be healed of our sin. Don’t come to be healed on the Sabbath!

No wonder Jesus elsewhere says of the Pharisees, who stood for the most rigorous observance of the Law, that they “lock people out of the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 23:13). Earlier, Jesus had denounced the Pharisees this way: “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and herbs of all kinds, and neglect justice and the love of God; it is these you ought to have practiced, without neglecting the others” (Lk 11:42). Punctilious observance of the Law, God’s instruction and teaching for life and blessedness, had, in the hands of human interpreters, become an obstacle to blessing, an obstacle to life. The most important things were buried under less important matters.

The less important matters, however, were easier to do and required less spiritual growth, less faith. Doing matters most, after all. We can all wash our hands before a meal, but how shall we keep our hearts clean? We need God for that, with us, teaching, transforming us. That’s work, hard, even unpleasant work, because God transforms us by helping us, making us know what we don’t want to know about salvation, blessedness, righteousness, and faithfulness. We want to know God the way we want to know; God wants us to know, truly.

The global, historical, human perspective on righteousness is that it is a matter of our virtuous behavior. I am righteous: I don’t say, I don’t eat, I don’t consort, I don’t buy, I don’t set foot in, I don’t listen to . . . the negative way. Why are self-righteous people so unpleasant to be around? They’ve made the foundation of their lives no.

In Christ we have God’s Yes. The Holy Spirit comes to dwell within us, personally and corporately, to teach us the way of God’s Yes. Christians aren’t always happy . . . the way the world understands happy. We aren’t always joyful . . . the way the world understands joy. But I have found that Christians are, deeply, the happiest, most joyful people because we know we have Christ, the joy and the peace of God. Don’t overlook the importance of that, the vital importance: in Christ, you are being given the joy of God. In Christ, you are being given the peace of God. Exult, and praise the Father!

There are Christians, and there are religious people, and these aren’t always one and the same, though sometimes they can be. People who are very religious but not very Christian lack inward transformation: the Spirit has not taken up residence there: he was never invited, or he was denied entry. I’m not sure which it is with this synagogue official. I just know the man thinks he’s getting it right when he’s getting it so wrong. Don’t come to be healed on the Sabbath. Wow.

A little clarification—today is not the Sabbath. Yesterday was the Sabbath, which is why in Spanish the name of that day is Sabado. Today is the Lord’s Day, the day of resurrection, which in Christ becomes sabbath for us. It is good to rest on this day; it is better to devote the day to God, which is where the emphasis falls in our Reformed interpretation of Christianity. We devote the day to God by coming together to worship, by spending the day consciously thinking about God, praising and enjoying God. We devote today to God by spending the day in prayer, Scripture reading, and acts of faithful discipleship, and not just here for one hour.

There was a time when many businesses were closed on Sunday. I’m glad to see many of the businesses of our Hispanic brothers and sisters in town closed today, though it does limit my lunch options. It’s alright though, the Anglo places are all open for business! The businesses were closed back when not because Sunday, the Lord’s Day, was a day for no work, but because the Lord’s Day, Sunday, was the day for gathered worship, for praising God in the meeting house.

The first thing that healed woman does is praise God. She knew who had healed her in the words and the touch of Jesus. She is praising God, and the religious official is saying stop that, none of that, now! This is worship, after all! Can’t have any healing happening here! Today isn’t a day for healing!

Jesus, hearing this, has had enough. Hypocrites, he says again (13:15). I spoke about this briefly, last Sunday. Jesus isn’t saying this man, or that these people, are putting on an act of piety. He acknowledges that they believe they are being faithful. They know what they want to know, and Jesus tells them what they don’t want to know is what they need to know. They are hypocrites because they claim to know God, to be faithful to God, when they do not truly know God; therefore, they cannot truly be faithful to Him. To be truly faithful to God, you have to know God, truly. Jesus came among us so that we might know God, truly.

But the hypocrisy may go farther. Jesus is frustrated with them, to say the least. He reminds them that they have no problem with untying their animals on the Sabbath to take them to water. We feed our animals even when it’s not a workday. If you have livestock, I guess it’s always a workday. The implication is this: if there is nothing blameworthy in tending to the health of your animals on this day of worship, how could there be anything blameworthy in untying this woman from her bondage and leading her to the waters of life? “Should she not be released on the Sabbath” (13:16)?

Sunday, the Lord’s Day, is a day set apart for healing, beloved. We gather for worship on this day because this was the day that Jesus rose from the dead. If that’s not healing, I don’t know what is! Healing comes from God, in Christ. There is something healing in worship. There has to be, if Christ is in it.

What are we looking for, in worship? We come here knowing it’s not about us, knowing, and loving, that what we are doing is all about God. And we come here looking for something for ourselves, too. Is it instruction? Encouragement? Hope? A sense of God’s presence, His nearness? Do we want to leave here today with a full heart and a full mind? Feeling Peace? Joy? Grace? All of the above? You’re asking a lot of me, you know. I can’t supply it; I never promised to. All I can promise, all that I have, is this: God shall supply all your need. If, as you make your offering of worship to God together with these sisters and brothers, if you come away having learned, or feeling encouraged, hopeful, peaceful, joyful, if you leave here today having sensed the presence of God, grace, it’s got nothing to do with me and everything to do with the one whom we worship with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength: our Father in heaven, hallowed be His name.

Today is a day for healing. It is God who heals. He heals by Christ. He heals through the Holy Spirit. He heals through His Word. He heals through our prayers. He heals through our worship of Him, worship in Spirit and truth.

That woman left that day praising God, because Jesus had called her, spoken God’s Word to her, touched her, and straightened her. He is at work, today, all day, every day, straightening you, and me, too. Thanks be to God.

And to Jesus Christ, who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests of his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever.