Released and free!
by Kathy Matuschka
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Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God (Luke 13:13).
Read Luke 13:10–17
Something new is happening … Jesus heals a woman who has been bent for more than 18 years due to a spinal condition. Jesus places his hands on her and says in verse 12, ‘Woman, you are set free from your infirmity’. Immediately, she stands up, feeling so fantastic that she can’t help praising God.
For most of my adult life, I have been a physiotherapist working in hospital settings. Would you like to hear my professional observations as I work through this story?
First, I thought about the woman’s spinal deformity. There was probably an initial cause of her back pain, but then over time, other parts of the woman’s spine became stiff and fixed. She is likely to have developed a ‘bony fusion’. In other words, her spine likely was to have been permanently stuck in a bent-over position.
Then, I considered that as the woman spent her time bent forward, the ligaments and muscles in the front of her body would have become tight and shortened. This would have been a secondary reason for her inability to stand straight. She would have lacked sufficient flexibility in her soft tissues to stand up straight.
Finally, as she spent 18 years in this position, her balance muscles would have wasted away. If I were an observer, I would be expecting the woman to topple over the moment she stood up straight!
A fused spine, weakened muscles, a loss of balance. ‘Woman, you are set free.’ Something unprecedented has happened. Jesus mends everything that is broken and dysfunctional by a word and a touch … as a sign that God is breaking through to establish a new aeon – the one in which we live!
Dear Jesus, some days the complexities of life on this earth overwhelm me. But then I recall how you broke into human history to set us free. And you left your Spirit to keep setting us free from our broken condition every day. We give you all our praise and thanks, Amen.
Kathy Matuschka works as a hospital chaplain and worships at Our Saviour Lutheran Church Rochedale in Brisbane. As parents of three adult children, Kathy and her husband Mark have been taking great delight lately in learning how to be grandparents.
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