Loosed by Love: Breaking the Bonds

 Loosed by Love: Breaking the Bonds

Scripture Texts: Isaiah 58:9b-14; Psalm 103:1-18; Hebrews 12:18-29; Luke 13:10-17
August 24, 2025 – Proper 16c – EUMC & BCUMC

There’s something deeply moving about watching someone stand up straight after years of being bent over. That moment of straightening, of restoration, touches something profound in the human spirit.

Today’s scriptures invite us into that sacred space where God’s heart for liberation meets human need, where divine grace encounters our deepest bondage, and where personal healing and social transformation unite to change not just individuals, but entire communities.

The Divine Heart for Liberation

Our God is a God of liberation. From the exodus out of Egypt to the Messiah’s proclamation of freedom for captives, the biblical narrative pulses with divine passion for setting people free. This isn’t merely about spiritual salvation – it’s about God’s comprehensive vision for human flourishing, where every form of bondage is broken and every person can stand tall as they were created to be.

The woman in Luke’s gospel, bent over for eighteen long years, becomes a powerful symbol of all who are bound by oppression, suffering, injustice, or circumstances beyond their control. Her story reveals not just what God desires to do for individuals, but what God calls the faith community to become in the world.

Isaiah’s Prophetic Vision: From Oppression to Restoration

Removing the Yoke

Listen to the prophet’s words: “If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted...” This isn’t abstract theology; this is practical discipleship.

Isaiah names specific behaviors that perpetuate oppression:

• The yoke represents systemic burdens placed on the vulnerable
• The pointing finger is the blame and shame heaped on those who struggle
• Malicious talk includes gossip, stereotyping, and dehumanizing language that maintains social hierarchies

For those in the Wesleyan tradition, this connection between faith and social holiness should resonate deeply. John Wesley understood that genuine faith must manifest in love for neighbor, particularly concern for the poor and oppressed. Personal piety without social action is incomplete Christianity.

From Avoidance to Advocacy

But Isaiah doesn’t stop with what we should avoid. The prophet calls us to positive action: “offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted.” This moves us beyond mere charity to addressing root causes and working for systemic change.

The conditional nature of Isaiah’s promise – “if you remove the yoke...then your light shall rise” – underscores our role as genuine partners with God in transformation. By God’s grace we have real agency to choose love over indifference, justice over complicity.

The Promise

When we engage in this work of liberation, Isaiah promises, God will guide us continually and satisfy our needs. We will be like watered gardens, like springs whose waters never fail. Our ancient ruins will be rebuilt, our foundations restored.

This speaks to both personal and communal transformation. When we participate in God’s work of justice, we ourselves are renewed. When communities embrace this prophetic vision, broken places are restored and hope returns.

Jesus and the Bent Woman: Liberation in Action

Now let’s turn to Luke’s gospel, where we see this prophetic vision embodied in Jesus’ ministry.

Seeing the Unseen

Jesus noticed her. For eighteen years, this woman had been coming to the synagogue, bent over and unable to straighten up. Eighteen years! And apparently, no one had paid attention. But Jesus saw her – not as background scenery, but as a beloved daughter of Abraham who deserved healing and restoration. This is how God sees each of us, and it’s how God calls us to see one another.

How many “bent” people do we pass by without really seeing? Jesus’ example challenges us to develop eyes that notice, hearts that care, and hands that reach out.

The Authority to Liberate

When Jesus called to the woman, his words were direct and powerful: “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” Notice that the declaration of freedom came before the physical healing. Jesus named her liberation first, then laid hands on her for healing.

This sequence matters. Jesus didn’t just treat symptoms; he addressed root causes. He proclaimed her freedom from whatever had bound her. The laying on of hands was personal, intimate, dignifying – restoring not just her physical capacity but her sense of worth and belonging.

Her response was immediate: she stood up straight and began praising God. When true liberation comes, the natural response is worship, gratitude, and joy.

Confronting Religious Obstacles

Then came the pushback. The synagogue leader, indignant that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, told the crowd to come for healing on other days, “and not on the sabbath day.”

Can you imagine? Here’s a woman who has just experienced miraculous freedom after eighteen years of suffering, and the religious leader’s primary concern is rule-keeping. Jesus’ response cuts to the heart: “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie your ox or your donkey...? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham...be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?”

If it’s acceptable to care for animals on the Sabbath, how much more should we care for human beings? This confrontation reveals how religious systems can sometimes become obstacles to the very liberation God desires. When our rules prevent us from responding to human need, we’ve lost the plot.

Our Call to Liberation Today

Identifying Modern Yokes

We have real choices to make. We can choose to perpetuate systems of oppression or work to dismantle them. We can choose to point fingers and speak maliciously, or we can choose to offer food to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted. We can choose to prioritize rules over people, or we can choose to follow Jesus’ example of Sabbath healing.

The church is called not just to recognize these yokes but to actively work for their removal. This means addressing root causes, advocating for policy changes, and modeling alternative ways of organizing community life.

What Binds Us Today

Let’s honestly examine what may be binding us:

1. Comfort Over Sacrificial Love
Our culture preaches comfort and personal success. But Jesus calls us to deny ourselves and take up our cross daily. Isaiah 58 makes it plain: the fast God desires is sharing our bread with the hungry, welcoming the homeless, and loosing the chains of injustice.

2. Political Allegiances Over Kingdom Values
When we make the church a political tribe, we risk losing sight of Christ’s kingdom, which cannot be legislated or voted in. Our citizenship is in heaven, and the unshakable kingdom stands above every earthly ideology.

3. Legalism Over Grace
Some measure faith by rules rather than mercy. But Jesus rebuked those who valued rule-keeping over human need. True holiness lets mercy triumph over judgment.

4. Individualism Over Community Justice
Our culture celebrates individual achievement, but Isaiah is clear: God calls his people to join him in justice – feeding the hungry, defending the oppressed, repairing broken streets. Faith reduced to private piety misses God’s heart.

5. Fear Over Faith
Many live bound by fear about the future. But Psalm 103 reminds us of God’s steadfast love, and Hebrews 12 tells us we’re receiving an unshakable kingdom. Even when the world trembles, God’s purposes stand.

Breaking Free: Our Response

How do we answer this challenge?

• Examine every cultural assumption by scripture’s light
• Embrace costly discipleship over convenience
• Prioritize love and justice as worship
• Hold earthly loyalties loosely, seeking first God’s kingdom

Personal and Communal Transformation

We begin with honest self-examination. How might we be complicit in systems that keep people “bent over”? What transformation do we need in our own areas of bondage?

The church is called to be an agent of God’s restorative justice. What would it look like for our congregation to be known as a place where liberation happens? How might we partner with others who share the vision of human flourishing?

Like Isaiah, we’re called to speak truth to power. Like Jesus, we’re called to act with divine authority in declaring freedom for the captives. This prophetic calling belongs to every follower of Christ.

From Bondage to Freedom

The woman in Luke’s gospel gives us a beautiful picture of what God desires for every person and every community. After eighteen years bent over, she stood up straight and praised God. Her transformation became a sign of the spiritual and social transformation God wants to accomplish through God’s people.

Her healing created controversy because liberation always threatens the status quo. We shouldn’t be surprised when our commitment to God’s vision creates tension. But we’re called to persist, trusting that God’s purposes will ultimately prevail.

Here’s the beautiful mystery: in working for the liberation of others, we ourselves experience deeper freedom in Christ. When we remove yokes of oppression, our own light rises. When we satisfy the needs of the afflicted, God satisfies our deepest needs as well.

Conclusion

The bent woman’s story isn’t just about one miraculous healing long ago. It’s about what God wants to do in and through us today. We live in a world full of people bent over by suffering and oppression – by poverty, discrimination, illness, grief, or despair.

God is calling us to be agents of liberation, to have eyes that see as Jesus saw, hands that heal as Jesus healed, voices that speak freedom as Jesus spoke freedom. This is our high calling as followers of Christ – to love God with all our hearts and to love our neighbors as ourselves, especially those most in need of liberation.

The promise of Isaiah still stands: if we remove the yoke from among us, if we offer our food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then our light will rise in the darkness. God will guide us continually and satisfy our needs. We will be like watered gardens, like springs whose waters never fail.

May we have the courage to embrace this vision, the wisdom to live it out, and the persistence to continue even when the path is difficult. May we be a people who help others stand up straight and praise God. And may we discover in this calling our own deepest freedom and joy in Christ.

The bent woman went home that day walking tall, her heart full of praise. That’s God’s desire for every person, every community, every corner of creation.

What binds us? Will we let Jesus call us forward? Will we allow him to set us free for the sake of others? Will we be loosed in his love to be the people he calls us to be?

As we leave worship today, may we be honest about our chains, and may we hear the voice of the One who says, “You are set free,” and believe that promise is for us, too.

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.