September 21, 2025
Luke 13:10-17
Introduction
We’ve all seen “before and after” pictures, right? Before and after the diet or workout plan. Before and after a kitchen or bathroom re-model. Before and after a wardrobe and hair makeover. Before and after visiting your in-laws.
I bring up this idea of “before and after” because that’s what is happening in today’s Gospel. Luke is showing us before and after pictures of the woman who appears in the synagogue while Jesus is teaching. Luke is showing us what life is before being seen and touched by Jesus, and what life is after.
Move 1
The before picture shows a woman crippled, bent over, unable to stand up straight. And this has been the picture of her for eighteen years. Imagine…eighteen years of being bent and hunched over, your ability to walk and move hindered.
What do you see when you look at her? What do you imagine she’s feeling and thinking? What feelings does she bring up in you? Can you relate to her, or see yourself in her? Where have you seen her in our community or our country? What does she represent for you?
Maybe she represents the way we can be weighed down by circumstances and the heaviness of life. Maybe she represents the ways in which our lives can be crippled and bent out of shape. Maybe she represents how social, political, economic, justice, or religious systems can be crooked, bent, or crippling, and oppress others. Maybe she represents what could happen to any of us.
So now, with your before picture of this woman, and with your consideration of what she represents to you, what do you suppose she’s looking for when she walks into the synagogue where Jesus is teaching? Is she looking for healing? Probably. But do you think she might be looking for something else, or even something more?
Now let’s consider the after picture. The after picture shows her standing up straight, restored, upright, and in alignment with life. What do you see now when you look at her?
Imagine the possibilities that now lay before her and how her life can be different. Where have you seen this picture in your life and our world? What feelings does she bring up in you? Hope, courage, desire, inspiration, joy, gratitude? Isn’t it a picture of what you want for yourself, others, our country? What would it be like for us—this church, our community, America— to stand up straight, restored, and aligned—no longer crippled and bent over by systems that oppress and keep any of us from the life God intends.
Move 2
The before and after pictures show two vastly different realities of our lives and world. We’ve all known times when we were crippled and bent over. And we’ve known times when we stood tall and straight.
Luke tells us two things happened to the woman: “Jesus saw her” and Jesus, “laid his hands on her.” Which is a pattern we see again and again in the Gospels. Jesus sees people and Jesus touches people. And whenever Jesus sees people and touches people there becomes a clear and distinct before picture, and a clear and distinct after picture, where their life has changed significantly, abundantly and for the better.
And it all begs the question to be asked… What’s going on when Jesus sees and when Jesus touches? Some would say it’s divine intervention only Jesus can do. Others say it is fantasy, fairy-tale, staged sleight of hand. Both views represent two clashing sides of argumentative world views that have been ongoing for the last two thousand years. But what’s so often missed by both of these clashing world views is that no matter which side you are one, both sides are closed off from the truth and power of this story.
Now perhaps you’re thinking, “What are you talking about Rev.? Surely Jesus has not done some elaborate, staged slight of hand. He’s divinely intervened and performed a miracle.” To which I would say, “Has he? Did Jesus perform a divine miracle? Or is it possible Jesus—in seeing and touching—has done something else?”
Consider this… Let’s set aside both those clashing and argumentative world views. And let’s just let ourselves be opened and exposed to the truth that seeing someone and touching someone have the power to transform, significantly, and abundantly for the better, the life of the person seen and touched. No divine intervention. No “miracle.” No fantastical sleight of hand. Just seeing and touching.
My guess is that everyone here has experienced this kind of transforming power, and each of you know how it significantly, and abundantly changed your life for the better.
Move 3
When was a time in your life when you felt invisible, overlooked, passed by? When was a time you were looked at but not seen and it left you crippled and bent over?
When was a time when another saw you—they saw how life was crippling you, causing you to be hunched and bent. And then, upon seeing you in such a condition, acknowledged you, connected with you, made you feel valued and that your life was important? I’ll bet you stood up a straighter, didn’t you? That’s the power of seeing and touching.
I’ll bet there have been times when you said to someone, “Do you remember when you said to me… or did for me…? That really touched me and made a difference. Thank you.” But after saying that to the person, he or she had no memory of what you were talking about. And I bet there have been times when someone said to you, “Do you remember when you said to me… or did for me…? That really touched me and made a difference”, and then thanked you for touching their life by what you said or did— and you didn’t have any memory of that time.
Who has seen and touched your life in a way that let you stand taller, be more yourself, be more hopeful and encouraged? When have you done that for another? Think about those times—those times when you were seen and touched; those times when you saw and touched someone else. And now think what would it be like if we lived together like that today.
Maybe what Jesus is showing us in our text for today is how to change the before picture of life, and asking, even insisting, we also see and touch others like he does. Imagine how the picture of life for our community and one another would change if we saw with the eyes of Jesus and touched in the way Jesus touches. Isn’t that what we are seeking every time we pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven?” That the seeing and touching life of Christ would be in this world, embodied by you and me—that we would be the seeing and touching Christ for all God’s children.
I am convinced if we saw and touched like Jesus, we would be a community in which offense is met with forgiveness; fear is met with empathy; exclusion is met with welcome; suffering is met with compassion; and hatred is met with love. All of it would take our world from a before picture to a spectacular after picture.
So why don’t we do that? Why don’t we see and touch others in that way? I wonder if it’s because we put rules, law, opinions, agendas, and attitudes over people. I wonder if it’s because we stand stiff, rigid, and indignant like the religious leader in today’s Gospel. “There are six days on which work ought to be done, come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.” Every time we make the rules or policies more important than people there is no chance for the before picture to turn into an after picture.
Move 4
I don’t think the woman is the only crippled and bent over person in today’s Gospel. The leader is just as crippled and just as bent over. The difference is the woman knows she is, but the leader doesn’t know he is. He has chosen law, rules, and “the way we’ve always done it,” over another human being—the child of God before him— and it has distorted and crippled his life. I wonder if that sometimes happens to us. And by wondering such, we are forced to ask ourselves, in what ways might this picture of the leader describe our lives today? Because what if the leader would have seen and touched the woman? In what ways would she and he have been untied and both stood up taller?
Jesus never chose laws and rules and “that’s just the way it is” over people. Jesus always put people first— even when it meant breaking rules, upsetting authorities, and changing “the way we’ve always done it.” Jesus saw all as God’s children, and he laid hands on them regardless of who they were, what had happened to them, or what they had done. Seeing their before, and guiding them to the after was Jesus’ priority.
That’s how I want to live, don’t you? It’s what I want for our church and our community. I want to be seen and touched. I want to see and touch. I want to be a part of changing the before picture of life for you, me, our community and beyond, to the after picture.
Conclusion
What would take to see and touch like Jesus today? Who are the crippled and bent over people needing to be seen and touched… by you? Where do you see crooked, bent, and oppressive systems? What would it take to see and lay hands on another in a way that allows her or him to stand up taller and straighter? What if we were to see and touch them in a way that makes a difference—to touch with love, forgiveness, compassion, hope, courage, or encouragement?
When I look around the world today, I have to believe I am seeing a “before” picture. And then I imagine what life and our world would look in an “after” picture—an after picture where we all see as Jesus sees, and we all touch as Jesus touches. That “after” picture is what we all want. And that “after” picture is what God intends.
The movement between those pictures is not divine intervention, and it’s certainly not sleight of hand fantasy. It is us…at work…as Jesus has called us to work. We have the power to change the “before” picture of life—when we see and touch. So how will we be a part of creating the “after” picture? Amen.
Pastoral Prayer, September 21, 2025
Almighty God, we come to you today able to recall the time before our deepest encounter with you. There was a restlessness, an ache in our souls the world could never satisfy. Some of us wandered in a desert of our own making, seeking living waters and finding only disappointment. We were burdened by our sin, by the fear of judgment, and by the hollow promises of a life lived for ourselves. We confess the pride that prevented us from calling your name and the self-sufficiency that left us empty.
That was before your Holy Spirit broke through every wall we had erected, and we discovered you do not wait for us to be worthy; you meet us in our wandering and unveil your love in the person of Jesus Christ.
Thank you for that divine moment when you changed the before picture to the after picture. Thank for replacing the restlessness with a peace that passes all understanding, and filling the desert places in our hearts from the springs of living water, swallowing up our fear of judgment with the certainty of your grace and love.
We know this encounter was not a single event, but the beginning of a life-long journey. For those taking their first steps in this new life, we pray for wisdom and understanding. Protect them from doubt and false teaching and fill them with the knowledge of your will.
For those of us who have walked with you for a long time, stir our hearts once more. Forgive us for growing complacent or for allowing familiarity to dull the wonder of your transforming power.
Continue to mold us, shape us, and change us to be the new creation you have called us to be in Christ. Let our before and after lives be a beacon of hope for others, a testament to the power of your love.
We humbly ask for you to listen to the prayers of our hearts lifted to you in this time of Holy Silence.
All this we pray in the name of the one who took us from before to the after, Jesus the Christ, who taught us to pray saying, “Our…”