Transcript
The Spirit Knows
First Baptist Richmond, August 24, 2025
Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
Luke 13:10-17
Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight…
Today’s Gospel lesson is one of my favorite stories in all the Bible. Luke tells us that Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath, which means that he was sitting in the teacher’s chair—what they called “the Seat of Moses”—probably expounding on some passage of Scripture that had just been read. In other words he was preaching, but he was doing it sitting down, not standing up. And right then, in the middle of the sermon, a woman came into the synagogue who was bent over, and unable to stand up straight.
I’m guessing that it’s not easy to slip into a worship service unnoticed in that condition, especially if the room is crowded with people and you have to come all the way up to the front to find a place to sit or stand. Her entry caused something of a commotion, and because I’ve been in that situation before, where everybody stops listening to you and starts looking at whoever is causing the commotion, I can understand why Jesus may have waited until things settled down before starting to preach again. But he did more than that. He saw the condition that woman was in. He was moved with compassion. And because he had the power to do something about it he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” And then he did something more: he laid hands on her, that is, he laid his hands on her—the strong, brown, healing hands of Jesus—and when he did she stood up straight and began praising God.
Which caused another commotion.
People were gasping at what had just happened, murmuring among themselves as the leader of the synagogue rose to his feet and began pounding the pulpit, trying to restore order. He was “indignant,” Luke says, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath (or maybe he was just jealous that Jesus could do it and he couldn’t). Either way he began to say to the people, “There are six other days when work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the Sabbath day!”
But Jesus responded, speaking not only to him, apparently, but to all those who were nodding their heads in agreement, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And shouldn’t this woman—who hasn’t been tied up but rather tied down, and who isn’t some dumb animal but a daughter of Abraham—shouldn’t she be untied on a day like this?” But that’s not exactly what he said. I want you to listen to exactly what he said because there’s a detail in there that I don’t want you to miss. Jesus said, “Ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?” And this is what I want to ask:
How did he know?
How did Jesus know that this woman had been “bound by Satan” (as he put it) for eighteen long years? Did he know her? Had they met somewhere before? Was she holding a cardboard sign that said, “Bound by Satan for eighteen years: please help”? Or was it something else, something more?
In the third chapter of Luke’s Gospel we are told that when Jesus was baptized the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form, like a dove. In the fourth chapter of Luke we are told that when Jesus went from the Jordan into Galilee he was “full of the Holy Spirit.” Was it the Holy Spirit that whispered in his ear that Sabbath day, telling him, “This woman has been bound by Satan for eighteen years; it’s time to set her free”?
Possibly.
Read through the Gospels and you can find other places where Jesus’ seems to know things that other people couldn’t or wouldn’t know. Like that time when four friends let a paralytic down through the roof and Jesus said, “Son, your sins are forgiven,” as if he knew that was an even greater need than his physical healing. But the scribes who were there began questioning in their hearts, thinking, “This is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” But Jesus perceived in his spirit what they were thinking, and said, “Which is easier? To say “your sins are forgiven or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed, and walk?’” (Mark 2:1-12). And then he said it, and the man did it, and the people were amazed.
And then there was that time in John’s Gospel when Jesus met Nathanael and said, “Truly, here is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” And Nathanael said, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus said, “I saw you under the fig tree, before Philip called you.” And Nathanael said, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” (John 1:43-51). I don’t know what Jesus saw under the fig tree, but in both cases he seems to have secret knowledge that comes from the Holy Spirit.
Matthew explains this in chapter 12 of his Gospel by quoting a verse from the Book of Isaiah: “Here is my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved, with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my Spirit upon him” (vs. 18). And John, in chapter 3 of his Gospel, writes: “He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure” (vs. 34). But it’s a verse from 1 Corinthians that may be the most persuasive. Paul writes: “For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person?” (2:10-11). That verse suggests that the Spirit can go anywhere, everywhere; that the Spirit searches the depths of God and knows the hidden thoughts of the human mind.
I doubt that there’s anyone here old enough to remember that old radio show from the 1930’s, “The Shadow,” but maybe you’ve heard of it. I have. It always started with a sinister voice asking, “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?” And then the answer: “The Shadow knows!” followed by an evil laugh. Well, the Spirit is not the Shadow. It is neither sinister nor evil. It is the Holy Spirit, and the work it does it does for holy purpose. Jesus demonstrates this in every aspect of his ministry.
In the story I was telling earlier, about the bent-over woman, the Holy Spirit helps Jesus discern that she has been “bound by Satan” (as he says) for 18 years. In a sermon I preached almost exactly that long ago I said, “Just suppose that eighteen years before she encountered Jesus this woman had done something that caused within her such terrible guilt that she could no longer look anyone in the eye. Or, perhaps more likely, suppose that eighteen years earlier someone had done something to her that caused within her such terrible shame she could no longer look anyone in the eye. It’s not so hard to imagine, is it? Not in her time. Not in ours. At first it would have been a matter of lowering her gaze to avoid eye contact, but eventually she might have begun to lower her head, and then her neck, and then her back, until eighteen years later you would find her hobbling around town using a short, stout walking stick to support her bent-over body. In all that time she would have been looking people straight in the…knees, which was probably better for her than looking them in the eyes. Knees don’t look back, after all. Knees don’t mock or accuse.
“We can’t be sure why she went to the synagogue that day. She may have gone because she heard there was a man there who could heal, but we don’t know that. Luke doesn’t tell us. He simply says that she appeared, crippled as she was, and that when she did Jesus took notice of her and responded to her need. Listen to the way Jesus deals with this problem: First of all he sees this woman. Let me say that again: he sees her—a woman who, because of her condition must have been easy for others to overlook. He sees her and somehow sees not only the bent-over condition of her body but also the bent-over condition of her spirit. He seems to have had that ability. If he were the guest preacher here this morning, if he were standing in this pulpit looking out over this congregation, don’t you think he could recognize those of us whose minds, hearts, and spirits have been crippled by those things we have done or the things that have been done to us? Don’t you think he could see, immediately, what we try to hide from everyone else?
“Jesus’ next step is to call the woman to him, and to her credit she comes. Jesus takes the initiative but she responds to his initiative; she takes her part in the process of healing. And if any of us who are in similar circumstances are going to be helped we will need to do the same. When someone says to us, ‘Come. Be healed. Be saved. Be forgiven.’ We will need to get up on our feet and come.
“And then Jesus speaks to her, says to her, ‘Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.’ And do you notice the order? Before laying a hand on her he assures her of her freedom. ‘Woman, whatever shame or guilt has kept you roped down and doubled over has left you now. It has been cut loose, and so have you.’ Only then does he lay hands on her, and when he does it’s as if the words he has just spoken come true.
“Picture it like this: picture an actual rope, tied like a noose around this woman’s neck, looped down and around her knees, keeping her doubled over like that. And then imagine that Jesus puts one hand on her back, reaches down with a sharp knife, and cuts through the rope in one clean slice. In that moment the coiled spring of the woman’s spine is released, her stooped-over body straightens like a sprung trap. She gasps for breath, almost falls over backward, but Jesus catches her, holds her by the shoulders, and when she looks into his eyes—the first pair of eyes she’s looked into for eighteen years—what she sees there is not accusation, not condemnation, but acceptance. And she begins to praise God.” [i]
Do you see how Jesus uses the knowledge the Spirit whispers in his ear? He uses it to help and heal. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was someone who knew what was going on inside you at the deepest level, someone who also knew how to help and heal?
Years ago I used to counsel with a woman who never wanted to tell me everything that was going on inside. She was afraid that if I knew the truth about her I wouldn’t want to talk to her anymore. And, unlike Jesus, I didn’t just seem to “know” everything. But eventually she learned to trust me enough to tell me the truth. And when she did she was shocked to discover that knowing the truth didn’t make me love her less, it made me love her more! And then I assured her that God loved her even more than that, and that’s what she had trouble believing.
But it’s true.
I often say to young couples that what we’re all looking for in life is someone who knows everything about us and loves us anyway. Well, the Spirit of God knows everything about us, and the Spirit of God in Jesus loves us anyway. It’s true. In Romans 5:8 Paul says, “While we were still sinners Christ died for us.” And in John 15:13 Jesus says that’s the greatest love of all. Which means that even if the Spirit should look into the depths of your soul and find some ugly, awful, festering sin in there that hasn’t been confessed, repented from, or forgiven, Jesus loves you. And because he loves you, you might find the courage to tell him the truth about yourself, and when you do you might be shocked to discover that he doesn’t love you less—he loves you more.
In our Old Testament lesson for today God says to Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” And Jeremiah replies, “Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.” It’s the typical response to God’s call. When God says, “I know you, I love you, I need you,” we say, “Ah, Lord God! We are not worthy!” But God says, “That’s not true! I know you. I know you through and through. If I couldn’t use you I wouldn’t have called you. Trust me. And besides, it’s not what you do that makes you worthy; it’s what I do.”
It reminds me of Psalm 139, where the psalmist says, “Oh, Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away…For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret. Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! I try to count them—they are more than the sand; I come to the end—I am still with you.”
Still with you.
The One who knows me and loves me anyway. The One who can search the depths of my soul, see what’s in there that needs to be healed, and heal it; the One who can see what’s in there that needs to be forgiven, and forgive it; the One who can see what’s in there that needs to be called forth, and then do it. That feels like someone I could trust with my darkest secrets, my deepest truth.
At the end of today’s Gospel lesson, Luke tells us that “all of [Jesus’] opponents were put to shame, and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that were being done by him.” May your story, too,
Have a happy ending.
—Jim Somerville © 2025
