There is a quiet, aching question many of us carry:
What does faith look like when pain has lasted so long that it reshapes the way we stand, move and see the world? What is faith? I’ve stopped trying to define it from a theological view point and quote, “Faith is...”, but that still does not provide answers that work. Making affirmations and faith declarations can be seriously tested when our bodies are wracked with pain—persistent unrelenting pain, year after year, without end. I’ve been in the ministry long enough to see Jesus’ miracles at first hand, including raising of the dead, but there are still times when there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel, when the answers just do not seem to be there.

We hear of many faith preachers and I know many of them personally, who talk of faith, but they too face exactly the same problems because we are all cast in the same mould.  See 1 Corinthians 10:13. I joke with my wife occasionally saying that I have “more faith” than she does, because I am bigger than she is. Seriously though, faith can indeed be measured. Jesus spoke of great faith, little faith and no faith, but we all have faith. God has given us all a measure of it according to Romans 12:3.

That measure is against the standard of the lord Jesus, but on further analysis in the original language, God gives us differing “degrees” of it and it is probably due His call on our life. Paul used the human body to illustrate.

My little lady amazes me, but let me introduce you to a woman who had real problems. I don’t even know her name, but the Lord does.
He knows yours.

Yeshua was teaching in one of the synagogues on Shabbat.  A woman came up who had a spirit which had crippled her for eighteen years; she was bent double and unable to stand erect at all.

On seeing her, Yeshua called her and said to her, “Lady, you have been set free from your weakness!”

He put his hands on her, and at once she stood upright and began to glorify God.

But the president of the synagogue, indignant that Yeshua had healed on Shabbat, spoke up and said to the congregation, “There are six days in the week for working; so come during those days to be healed, not on Shabbat!”

However, the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Each one of you on Shabbat—don’t you unloose your ox or your donkey from the stall and lead him off to drink? This woman is a daughter of Avraham, and the Adversary kept her tied up for eighteen years! Shouldn’t she be freed from this bondage on Shabbat?”

By these words, Yeshua put to shame the people who opposed him; but the rest of the crowd were happy about all the wonderful things that were taking place through him. Luke 13:10-17

What I like about the word of God is that it is inspired by the Holy Spirit and so He can “breathe life” into it.

When we hold a diamond to a light source and rotate it, exposing different facets, we can see different colours.

It is the same diamond and the same source of light, so this time, I saw some things as if for the first time.

Luke then says: “She was bent over” and the Greek calls that  synkyptousa that literally means curved together, folded inward and compressed.

This woman’s  body was pushed down by pressure that could have been external or internal.

And Luke adds: “She was not able to straighten herself at all.”

The phrase eis to panteles means completely or fully so this was not a partial limitation. There was no capacity left in her to rise on her own.

This woman was not only sick—she was powerless to change her condition herself.

Luke describes the woman as: “having a spirit of weakness” that in the Greek is pneuma astheneias. Astheneia means frailty, weakness and lack of strength and it is often used for chronic conditions and bodily limitation.

Jesus entered the synagogue, but she did not cry out, or ask for help. Luke says simply that Jesus saw her. This was not just seeing something in the physical, but perceiving her condition. Today in ministry, we may liken that to a word of knowledge, one of the gifts of the Spirit and it, as it is with all of the gifts is not only valid today, but in my opinion vital to successful ministry.

He did not see her as a problem, especially a theological problem, but as a person He loved who had been bent low under years of pain. He called her forward.

For someone used to being unnoticed, avoided, or quietly pushed aside, this is already an act of restoration.

In church life, we may and do encounter people with needs that vary considerably, some of which are visible externally and some of which are inside the person and forget that Jesus loves them also. Often times they are pushed aside and whilst we may also meet time wasters and attention getters, we should not do that.

Many years ago I was standing at the back of the church I was attending during the song service, having arrived late due to my own commitments.  Sometimes it is a good thing to do that to observe. The song service concluded and the minister took to the platform, asking people to give each other a greeting.
As I watched them, I noticed a man who had certain intellectual disabilities and he wanted someone to say hello, but everyone avoided him.
From external appearances, I would not blame them, but the Lord said, to go to him and hug him.
I introduced myself and asked him his name and he managed to get out some words, “I’m Charley”.
He started grinning from ear to ear and when I hugged him, he smelt, drooled and dribbled on my shirt, but his whole appearance changed. He beamed. The Lord said, ”Thank you” and I felt a sudden joy flood through me.

Some time later, I saw him crossing the road in town and yelled out, “Hey Charley”. He looked different, was very happy and replied something like “duh...hello Wobert” and walked as if  he owned the world, a changed man.

He was changed because He met Jesus.

That woman had been ignored and pushed aside and may have looked unpleasant, but Jesus saw her...

Having seen her, Jesus did something. Before we look at that, we need to ascertain the cause.
Often times we treat the symptoms, but do not deal with the thing that caused them.

One of the women in my church years ago asked for prayer to deal with headaches. I laid hands on her and she said that she was healed and people rejoiced. Some time later she asked for prayer once more for headaches and I prayed again with the same results. Once more, after some time, she returned with the same problem and I asked the Lord what was going on.
He told me not to pray again and to tell her to stop being vain and use her reading glasses.

That was the problem.

Whenever you are called upon to minister to someone, please remember that they do not always tell the full story, or that the Lord may want to direct you elsewhere.

That illness was caused by a spirit of some kind. Jesus did not “cast it out”. He merely told her that she was free of her ailment.  Whilst we have been given delegated authority to cast out evil spirits, we are not authorized to seek them out and seek to cast one out every occasion. He never did that. Far too many churches or ministries seem to “specialize” in that and it is not balanced. It may attract evil spirits because of the spectacle those people cause by their game-playing.

If and when the Lord encountered them, He acted as that situation dictated.

That spirit may have come out of her, but the account does not say so. All that Jesus said was that she was loosed from her weakness and that was sufficient.

There are two words to look at. One is lyō and the other is luō.

They both convey similar meanings, that are to loose, to release, to dissolve, to annul, to break, to destroy, to put an end to something, to remove, take off, unbind and to untie. We can see this in 1 John 3:8.

The woman may not have been “possessed”, but “tied up” somehow by the enemy. Jesus removed her bonds by speaking.  What He said is not a theological discourse, or medical language, but speaking in covenantal and legal language. In simple terms for us, there are times when we can merely tell the devil that he has no “legal right” to operate. There have been times when I have had to literally cast a spirit out, but that is no big deal really because they know who is in covenant relationship and who is not (see Acts 19:13-16), but there have also been times when all that was needed to be said was a simple statement like, ”You know who I am, so cease your operation” and, “Remember Calvary”.

Her condition is described as bondage, as in being tied up.

For eighteen years, her body had told her one story, bound and restrained, but when Jesus laid His hands on her, Luke said that she was immediately straightened and stood upright. The Greek word used is anorthoō that means to set upright to restore, to raise back to proper position. The LXX describes it as rebuilding ruins, restoring what has collapsed and raising what has fallen down

Jesus did not just restore her posture and dignity, but gave a restoration to intended order!

Our task today is not “just to get people saved” but to bring them back into God’s intended order.

Doing that will result in receiving opposition and such opposition often comes from religious people. Jesus did not follow their rules. He was Jew and attended Synagogue where this happened and it was on Shabbat.

The Pharisees had turned what God had implemented into a set of man made religious rules. That sounds familiar.

The synagogue leader objected. He said that healing on the Sabbath was inappropriate, but Jesus’ quick reply was sharp and to the point. It was not  because rules: don’t matter, but because people matter more! The Sabbath was given as a sign of freedom, rooted in the Exodus as a reminder that they were slaves in Egypt… (See Deuteronomy 5:15). Loosing bonds on the Sabbath is not a violation, but a fulfillment.

Healing the sick today is also a fulfillment of covenant promises.

She was family. You and I are members of a family.  Jesus named her as family,saying:

This woman is a daughter of Avraham, and the Adversary kept her tied up for eighteen years! Shouldn’t she be freed from this bondage on Shabbat?” By these words, Yeshua put to shame the people who opposed him; but the rest of the crowd were happy about all the wonderful things that were taking place through him. Luke 13:16-17

He publicly named her: He knows our name. He acknowledged the length of her suffering. He knows what is happening in your life. He named it as bondage, not failure. What you may be going through now might not be your fault and thus a failure, but something that the devil wants to get you tangled up in,

He restored her dignity and identity publicly. He can do that to you and for you.

Her body was bent, but her status before God never was and according to Jesus, Sabbath is the right day for liberation, but then any day is the right day for liberation.

What this miracle tells us is that suffering can be slow, quiet, and chronic.

Some pain does not arrive suddenly, but accumulates.
Speaking of accumulation, sin can start small and accumulate if not addressed early.

Some prayers are whispered for years without visible change.

Some people learn to live bent, adjusting expectations downward.

Jesus interrupted that story. He sees the long road, He names the weight, and He calls what has endured too long by its true name: something that must be released.

So let yourself be seen firstly and lastly—by Him.

Even when you no longer have the strength to ask, Jesus notices the shape your suffering has taken. Stand in hope. The One who straightened a woman bent for eighteen years is not intimidated by time, habit, or chronic pain.

It can all change by a word—His.