by Dennis Gladden, By Green Pastures, ©2025
(Nov. 17, 2025) — What if Jesus surprised our churches this week as He did a small-town synagogue one Sabbath?
Jesus was visiting, and there was a regular in the congregation who caught His attention.1 The others had stopped noticing the woman long ago, but Jesus interrupted His teaching and told her to approach.
“Woman,” He said, “you are loosed from your infirmity.”
Then Jesus placed His hands on her.
Immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.2
Now, everyone noticed, and there was nothing usual about the service after that.
The woman, who hadn’t stood straight in 18 years, broke into a doxology.
The synagogue leader scolded the congregation for coming to be healed on the Sabbath.
Jesus called the leader a hypocrite for consenting to donkeys and cows being loosed from their stalls on the Sabbath but not wanting a woman to be healed.
Most of the congregation, heartened by Jesus, rejoiced.
That service must have been the talk of the town for weeks.
Jesus made a ho-hum service extraordinary.
Now, I’m not advocating for disorderly church services, but I wonder: After we’ve said the last prayer, has anything to talk about happened?
I see two attitudes in that synagogue that afflict me, too.
- Expect nothing different. Go as you came.
- Don’t upset the routine. Save special encounters with God for another day.
I can imagine the ho-hum atmosphere in the service that day, and I admire the woman for being there.
The congregation took their seats for the customary scripture readings and teaching. The woman hobbled in.
In a while, they all would go home, just as they had come.
No difference. Another service in the books. Life goes on.
I suppose the woman may have thought on more than one Sabbath, “Nothing changes. Why bother?” If anything, her debilitation worsened with age, and her hardship urged all the more, “Stay home.” But she persisted.
Such faithfulness!
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