On the Woman Who Was Bent Over
Tenth Sunday of Luke
By Archbishop Theophanes Kerameus of Taormina (+ 1152)
Tenth Sunday of Luke
By Archbishop Theophanes Kerameus of Taormina (+ 1152)
Drones are a kind of bee — slow and useless. So these creatures, when they see the bees flying above their hives and going out toward the meadows and gathering from the flowers that fine and downy substance which comes from the center of the flower’s corolla, from which they fashion the honeycomb with the wax and the sweetest honey — then precisely these drones, like bandits, or rather like thieves, rush into the hives and going inside devour the bees’ harvest, seizing it for themselves. And when they realize that the bees are returning to the hives, they flee for good, unable to defend themselves. Such also are the destroyers of the Church and those who plunder her possessions. They watch for the moment of our departure, and then enter in and ruin the things of the Church; and because they fear the strength of our words, they attempt to overcome us with speeches and ambushes — sometimes gathering in council in the courtyard of Caiaphas, and at other times in the temple of the Forerunner, forming a dreadful assembly, thus making the baptistry a place of plots.
And why does this happen? So that Isaac may be cast out and Ishmael brought in. Yet they themselves flee — as you see — standing at the edges and closing, as with a shield, their ears to counsel. But we, my inheritance, escaping their assaults, let us now listen again to the words of the holy Gospel:
“At that time, on a Sabbath, Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues. And behold, there was a woman there who for eighteen years had a sickness caused by a demon, and she was bent over” (Luke 13:10–11).
It was customary for the Savior to perform most of His miracles on the Sabbaths, and to pour out the honey-sweet stream of His teaching in the synagogues, because in them the people were more fully gathered. Truly, the man with the withered hand, the paralytic who lay in Solomon’s portico, the man blind from birth, and this woman who was bent over — He healed all these on a Sabbath. By His actions He interpreted the meaning of the Sabbath, giving rest to diseases and relief to those troubled by them, healing souls with exalted teaching, and freeing bodies from the passions that oppressed them. He also shows that the interpreters of the Law — the Pharisees and the Scribes — observed the exactness of the Sabbath without understanding. You will see this more clearly if you direct your mind to the final part of the reading, in which the discussion of the Savior with the ruler of the synagogue is shown. But now let us take the narrative from the beginning:
“There was a woman who had a sickness caused by a demon” (Luke 13:11).
Where now are those who attribute the influence of demons to the phases of the moon, to heat, to the overheating of the blood, and to an excess of food, and on that account tear apart the statement that speaks the truth? For behold, the woman’s bending over and her inclination toward the ground, which came from demonic activity — the Gospel calls this “a spirit of infirmity.” For this great Evangelist Luke, having studied medical books and not ignorant of the opinion of natural philosophers, corrects their view, as if he had nothing to say of causes such as the numbness of nerves, the loosening of vertebrae, and whatever natural explanations those give who pay attention to nothing beyond what is perceptible. I say these things not to negate natural causes. For nature too has many failings: whence come extra fingers or missing limbs, or eyes blind even from birth? This is why the fathers of the children born are often the cause of the illness, for through their drunkenness and lack of discipline they imprint indelibly what they sow. Thus Moses put to death the father of the leper, because, lacking self-control, he did not wait for the purification of his wife. Yet even these things do not fall outside the providence of the God who rules all; and future evil He sometimes prevents by blindness. Not only in bodily matters but also in souls, the remedies are often by contraries; and whatever future evil is not stopped beforehand is followed — or will be followed — by cauterizing measures.
“There was a woman there who for eighteen years had a sickness caused by a demon” (Luke 13:11).
See the severity of the affliction; consider the magnitude of the disease — how for so many years the wretched woman was bowed to the earth like beasts, unable to behold the beauties of heaven or to look upon the faces of those she met; but in the shape of a crescent, arched like a portico, as the demon had loaded her as with a weight of lead and made her shoulders bend.
So the Savior goes to heal her of His own accord, moved by the inherent calmness He possesses toward mankind, pitying the nature that was thus weighed down by the demon, and He utters a word that drives away the disease: “Woman, you are freed from your infirmity” (Luke 13:12). And to the word He adds the touch: “He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight” (Luke 13:13).
Observe the fitting remedy for both soul and body. Since the soul had sinned, the body was given over to Satan for punishment; and by His word He frees the soul from the guilt of sins, and by His divine touch He raises the body from its downward bending to the earth.
But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant that Jesus healed on the Sabbath, turned to the crowd and said: “There are six days in which a person ought to work; come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath” (Luke 13:14).
Envy is a terrible disease, melting the soul of the one who harbors it, and unable to remain hidden; even if for a short time it disguises itself with hypocrisy, like fire hidden in straw, first it gives off dense smoke, but if a wind blows, it flares up and is revealed. Such happened with this crippled ruler of the synagogue, who while the Lord was teaching secretly conceived envy within himself, scarcely restraining it as he found no occasion for accusation. But when he saw the marvelous miracle, he tears apart his inward evil and brings forth the monstrosity of envy; for ignoring the wonder, he presents the supposed violation of the law — not because he honored the Sabbath more than he envied the healed. Yet falsehood is always helpless in itself and easily refuted by the prudent.
Thus, grumbling, he reveals his shamelessness and opposes the miracle with the manifestation of his envy, and he errs and provokes judgment against himself.
And what does the Savior say to him? “Hypocrite! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it?” (Luke 13:15).
He shows how maddened he is with envy, and He clarifies the spirit of the Law, persuading that from the letter we are led to the spirit. For the Law forbade manual labor on the Sabbath, but in no way forbade acts of kindness; indeed, the rest itself was a guard of spiritual things. And that this is true will be shown easily by reason. The Law commands that on the Sabbath no one should carry a load (Jer. 17:11–12), nor light a fire (Exod. 35:3), nor go out from his place (Exod. 16:29). Whoever interprets these physically becomes liable to the curse of the Law (Gal. 3:10). For not moving from one’s place is impossible, and anything someone lifts is a load — be it bread or clothing. But the Law, through rest, legislates inactivity toward evil: that one should not burden oneself with the weight of sin (this is not carrying a load), nor depart from dwelling with God (this is not going out from one’s house), nor ignite the fire of anger or evil desire.
Even the command that the man gathering sticks on the Sabbath be stoned (Num. 15:32) must be understood in this way: that by thoughts which drive away evil one must stone the collector of the sticks of sin, which the Apostle called wood, hay, and stubble (1 Cor. 3:13).
But the Jews, not rightly nor carefully, but applying the rest bodily and honoring the Sabbath with inactivity, worship creation; and concerning those who keep the Sabbath bodily, the word of the Prophet rebukes them: “Woe to those who say, ‘The day of the Lord is near,’ while they follow vanities!” (Amos 6:3).
For the Law teaches that on Sabbaths one should not neglect even an ox or a donkey (Deut. 22:3) but show pity to the life of animals, as the proverb says (Prov. 12:10). But since God is not concerned for oxen, as Paul the precise interpreter of the Law says (1 Cor. 9:9), by ox and donkey we must understand those enslaved — both Jews and Gentiles — whom the Law commanded to be released at a certain Sabbath of years, as described in Deuteronomy (15:1–3). The Jew He calls an ox, as clean; the Gentile He likens to a donkey, as unclean; and at the appointed times of rest they ought to be untied from the stall of slavery and granted the drink of freedom.
And Christ says the cause of the woman’s illness was Satan: “This woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan bound for eighteen years — should she not have been set free from this bondage on the Sabbath?” (Luke 13:16).
By saying this and pointing with His finger, He in a way reveals the demon that bound her, just as He pointed out to the disciples the demon of the epileptic boy saying: “You will say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea’” (Matt. 17:20; 11:23). And “on the Sabbath day” means on the day of My incarnation, on which I come and accomplish rest from the passions.
“With these words all His opponents were put to shame” (Luke 13:17).
The Pharisees and Scribes were clearly shamed by His rebuke — yet even more were the opposing demons shamed, fearing their soon-coming destruction. But this is the bodily narrative of the story; we must also know well the benefit of its spiritual interpretation.
Thus the Synagogue was a true type of the whole assembly to which Christ came incarnate. The Sabbath is the cessation of evil which Christ who became man worked. The ruler of the synagogue is the type of the priests, Scribes and Pharisees who opposed Christ, raging against His miracles and accusing Him of violating the Sabbath and abolishing the Law. The healing of the bent woman on the way foreshadowed the salvation of the Church from the Gentiles, which was raised up from its fall into idolatry. And the length of her illness openly signifies the ailments of the nations before the coming of Christ.
For the number eighteen is a symbol of praxis and theoria: the ten signifies the practical commandments, and the eight is the image of all-wise theology. In both the Gentiles were deficient — both in piety, being sick with atheism and polytheism, and in praxis, doing the opposite of the praiseworthy ten. Thus they were bent toward the earth, proud in matter, like swine with low desires of evil, stooping toward a bestial and base way of living. But God came and bent down with His compassion and became man, and remaining God, He looses the Gentiles from the bonds of impiety and raises them to the knowledge of God. And this the spiritual harp had already sung: “The Lord sets the bowed straight; the Lord frees the prisoners” (Ps. 145:7–8).
That the Lord healed the woman with both word and touch declares the two natures of Christ. And the envy of the ruler of the synagogue at the healed woman also has its interpretation: for the Jews, seeing the abundance of goods given to the nations, envy them — and God foretold this through Moses: “They made Me jealous with that which is not God; I will make them jealous with a nation void of understanding” (Deut. 32:21).
Let us therefore arise from our own fall into earthly things. Let us lift the eye of the soul to the heavens; let our senses follow what is right; let us drive away the storm that darkens our mind. How long will we live with quarrels and battles and false oaths? I am seized with horror and dread at the oaths sworn in courts of law. How is the all-revered Gospel found there before the seat of corrupt judges, despised? For the Gospel commands us not to swear at all, yet the greedy take it as a collaborator in their covetousness through false oaths, and are more wretched than the unbelieving nations.
A certain pagan Greek, Cleinias, preferred to suffer the loss of three talents rather than swear. He gave the talents to his accuser and did not swear, so as not to become a false witness. Are we not then more miserable than these pagans? Whenever someone who is your adversary wants to make you swear and places before you the revered book of the Gospels, do not swear; rather open it and read the command the Master Christ gives:
“I say to you, do not swear at all — not by heaven, for it is the throne of God, nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King; nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black” (Matt. 5:34–36).
Tremble at the word; fear the command. Come to the true purpose of the Gospel. For He does not simply forbid heaven as an object of oaths, nor does He speak of this earthly Jerusalem, which many times was besieged by the armies of Persians, Medes, and Romans, but He calls “heaven” His noetic Cherubic throne, and “Jerusalem” the heavenly one, the metropolis of God, about which many glorious things are spoken (see Ps. 86:3). And the “head” by which He forbids one to swear cannot reasonably be understood as anything other than Christ, who is the head of us all and who lays down these laws; for the hairs of this Head neither blacken nor whiten, because the divine nature is unchangeable and neither darkens nor ages.
“Let your ‘yes’ be yes and your ‘no’ be no” (James 5:12).
“But,” someone says, “my adversary does not believe me when I assure him with only a ‘yes.’” Yet consider how great an evil it is to transgress the command. Even if you lose all your money, you will receive it back a hundredfold. But do not think only this; consider that by one’s double “yes” both faith and life are revealed. For if faith in the doctrines were kept sincerely, and our life were pure from all injustice and abomination, then what is spoken in the Gospel — Yes, yes — would be fulfilled in us, and the one who does not swear would be praised. If we thus discipline ourselves, seasoning our speech with the salt of truth, we will not need an oath to be believed; our life will agree with our words, and our Master and Lord will be glorified because of us — to whom belong all honor and glory unto endless ages. Amen.
Source: PG 132, 304-321. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
