Performance Notes: 

[NOTE: Special thanks to the Come before Winter ministry team traveling to Namibia in June 2019. They were the first to hear me tell this story, and the insights that resulted from the discussion that followed have shaped the notes below.] 

This compact story delivers a significant punch for the hearer. We see on display Jesus’s compassion for the vulnerable and the intensity with which he challenges those who threaten the vulnerable. In my notes below, I highlight features of the story that I noticed as I learned it and prepared to tell it.

Visual Link to Luke 11

The visual image of a woman bent over and unable to stand up straight recalls Jesus’s woes to the pharisees and scribes in Luke 11. In his critique of the lawyers, Jesus says that they “load down people with heavy burdens” but will not lift one finger to lighten the load (11:46), presumably because, like the Pharisees addressed in 11:39–44, they are too preoccupied with the pursuit of honor and outward piety to notice the oppressed in their midst. As Jesus puts it to the Pharisees: “You pay tithes of mint and rue and every garden herb, but neglect justice and the love of God” (11:42).

Then, in 13:11 we encounter a visual representation of Jesus’s earlier teaching. The woman is doubled-over because of her ailment, quite unable to stand up straight. Will anyone “lift a finger” to help her? To this point she has been invisible; she “just then appeared” (καὶ ἰδοὺ) in the synagogue. Jesus sees her (ἰδὼν δὲ αὐτὴν) when others did not and calls her over to heal her. Even after the healing, however, the woman remains invisible to some of the others gathered in the synagogue. Their focus on outward piety in the form of Sabbath observance blinds them to the woman and leads them to “neglect the justice of God” that might be carried out in this moment.  

This visual link will only be available to the audience who sees or hears a performance of Luke’s gospel that includes at least Luke 11–13. In that setting, however, a storyteller could emphasize the link by using a similar body posture when describing the person “burdened with heavy burdens” in 11:46 and introducing the woman “quite unable to stand up straight” in 13:11.  

The Synagogue Leader’s Campaign

The most noticeable storytelling choice in this performance is my decision to repeat the complaint from the leader of the synagogue three times. The NRSV translation (which is the basis for the performance) captures the imperfect force of the verb (ἔλεγεν) by indicating that the leader “kept saying to the crowd” that healing should take place on the other available days of the week. (Other translations, like the NIV or ESV, do not attempt to communicate the iterative force of the imperfect verb in their translations.) I noticed this translation choice as I was committing the story to heart and pondered what it might imply. I imagine an iterative progression moving from the leader wondering about the question to himself, to building consensus by asking others sympathetic with his position, to finally confronting the woman publicly. To emphasize this progression, I present the first two iterations as questions seeking confirmation and the final announcement as a direct address to the woman. In another performance space, the storyteller could communicate the progression by moving to different parts of the room for the first two iterations (drumming up support from the crowd) and then using eye contact and a gesture (maybe a pointed finger) to directly address the woman.

This final, open confrontation with the woman triggers Jesus’s response. To defend the vulnerable woman, Jesus—now referred to as “the Lord” by the narrator—responds with a sharp accusation that marks an abrupt shift in his tone from earlier in the story. He moves from tender care for the otherwise invisible woman to harsh critique of those who would keep her bound.

The Intersection of “on the Sabbath” and “set free”

Two repeated (and related) phrases tie this story together: “on the Sabbath” and “set free.” First, to set the scene, we hear that Jesus is teaching “on the Sabbath.” The leader of the synagogue is indignant that Jesus heals “on the Sabbath” and sternly states that healing should be done on the other six days of the week, but not “on the Sabbath day.” Jesus responds by noting that each of them leads their livestock to water “on the Sabbath” and affirms that the woman should also be freed from her bondage “on the Sabbath day.” This repetition not only reminds us about the setting; it also highlights contrasting understandings of appropriate Sabbath behavior.

To oversimplify, we might say that the leader of the synagogue represents an understanding of the Sabbath as it’s described in the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:8–11, while Jesus embraces the language about the Sabbath in the retelling of the Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy 5:12–15. The description in Exodus anchors Sabbath observance in the creation story. After six days of “labor” God rested on the seventh day of creation. And just as God ceased from his work on the seventh day, so should his people—including slaves, animals, and aliens. For the synagogue leader, it’s a small sacrifice for the woman to come on other days for healing in order to preserve the holiness of God-imitating rest on the Sabbath.

On the other hand, Jesus argues that freeing things from bondage (whether it’s oxen, donkeys, or the ailing woman) is not contrary to Sabbath observance; it’s precisely the kind of thing someone should do on the Sabbath. This emphasis coheres with the rationale for Sabbath observance in Deut 5. There, the command to rest is anchored in the exodus story rather than the creation story. God’s people rest as a way to remember and celebrate that they have been freed from bondage in Egypt. God’s people should rest and give rest to their animals and slaves because, when they were slaves in Egypt, “the Lord your God brought you out with a strong hand and outstretched arm” (Deut 5:15). If that is why they keep the Sabbath, then nothing could be more appropriate “on the Sabbath” than setting people free from bondage.

In this way, the repetition of “on the Sabbath” is related to the repetition of “set free.” When Jesus initially speaks to the woman, he tells her that she has been “set free” (ἀπολέλυσαι) from her ailment. Though this is a unique way for Jesus to announce healing in Luke’s gospel, it fits the context. Since the narrator attributes her ailment to being bound by a spirit (13:11, 16); it’s fitting that he describes her healing as being set free. The language also relates to the differing understandings of the Sabbath. Jesus argues that his interlocutors readily “free” (λύει) their oxen and donkeys on the Sabbath. Why, then, would they oppose “freeing” (λυθῆναι) a daughter of Abraham from her bondage on the Sabbath (13:15–16)? At this point, the two repeating phrases converge, marking the climax of the story: God is honored on the Sabbath when his people join him in freeing the enslaved from bondage.

In my performance, I emphasize the confluence of these repeated phrases by carefully annunciating each phrase when it occurs so that that it will catch the audience’s attention. Then, using a combination of volume, facial expression, and gesture, I mark Jesus’s plea to set the woman free as the high point of the story. It might also be helpful, in other tellings, to create a visual link by using a similar gesture when Jesus first announces to the woman that she has been set free.