Jesus was
teaching in a synagogue on the sabbath. And a woman was there who for eighteen
years had been crippled by a spirit; she was bent over, completely incapable of
standing erect. When Jesus saw her, he called to her and said, “Woman, you are
set free of your infirmity.” He laid his hands on her, and she at once stood up
straight and glorified God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant that
Jesus had cured on the sabbath, said to the crowd in reply, “There are six days
when work should be done. Come on those days to be cured, not on the sabbath
day.” The Lord said to him in reply, “Hypocrites! Does not each one of you on
the Sabbath untie his ox or his ass from the manger and lead it out for
watering? This daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for eighteen years
now, ought she not to have been set free on the sabbath day from this bondage?”
When he said this, all his adversaries were humiliated; and the whole crowd
rejoiced at all the splendid deeds done by him.
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Reflection:
What made
Jesus notice the woman crippled by a bad spirit considering that the woman did
not even ask Jesus to heal her? Why did Jesus healed her on a Sabbath day when
it was prohibited to do so?
The woman who
never asked for healing from Jesus was in the synagogue to listen to Jesus. Yes,
she did not ask favor from Jesus but her desire to listen to Jesus speaks
volumes about her trust and faith in Jesus. Therefore, her trust and faith in
Jesus was the channel for her to be noticed and healed by Jesus.
How can we
listen to Jesus in this modern time? We listen to Jesus by reading His very
words in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. We listen to Jesus when
we have an audio file of the same gospels in our hi-tech and touch screen cell
phones. How many of us have an audio file or even a video file of these gospels
in our cell phones?
In the
process of listening to Jesus we are healed already even if we don’t ask Him to
heal us. Jesus is a proactive God, He knows everything about us and He knows every
sickness or illness that we have long before we ask Him to heal us.
We need not
ask Him anymore for healing or for anything for that matter for as long as we
have this hunger and thirst to listen to Him. Because it’s in listening to
Jesus that we are healed, it’s in listening to Jesus that we acquire wisdom
that He only could give us. It’s in listening to Jesus that we are strengthened
and motivated to face our daily trials no matter how difficult.
Do you still
have time to listen to Jesus? - Marino J. Dasmarinas
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