The story in the Gospel about the healing and straightening of an anonymous Jewish woman in the synagogue has become something precious and a source of strength for today's churchwomen. They like to remember and interpret it. With their inner eyes they discern that this very story happens time and again in our midst.

Let us visualize what Luke narrates. Jesus was actively participating in the sabbatical worship service in the synagogue. He was probably interpreting a passage of the Scripture. In the congregation he suddenly noticed a woman with a serious spinal deformation. She was bent over and could not stand up straight. Luke mentions that this handicap had afflicted her for over 18 years. We can feel the depth of the woman's suffering: physical, mental and social. Jesus sees the woman with all the strength of his compassion and instantly decides to help her.

With beautiful spontaneity Jesus transcends the common social customs and barriers between the unhealthy and the healthy, between the impure and the pure, between the first ones and the last ones, between women and men. He calls the sick woman, who may want to remain inconspicuous, to come forward to him. He speaks to her and lays his hands on her. The powerful words of love and physical touch together bring about a wonderful healing. The woman straightens up. And suddenly she acts as spontaneously and decisively as Jesus. She is no longer a poor timid creature who shuns people. Here she is-in the midst of the crowd-loudly praising God. From her mouth come the words of thanks overflowing from her heart-her heart and her entire being.

The healed woman is called by Jesus 'daughter of Abraham'. In this way Jesus confirms her dignity. She is a part of the people of Israel. She belongs to the descendants of Sarah and Abraham-to the heirs of God's promises for a merciful presence.

Without a deeper understanding, the adversaries of Jesus, embodied in the person of the leader of the synagogue, dwell on observing the commandment about the Sabbath and to refrain from any kind of activity. However, Jesus fulfils God's intention regarding the Sabbath. By his action he makes possible the woman's praise of God and the people's rejoicing in God's and Jesus' wonderful move to liberation.

A German theologian and psychotherapist, Hanna Wolff, says: 'Jesus is the first man in world history who was not bound one-sidedly by masculine criteria and evaluation of women. In his person he broke through and overcame the one-sidedness of the androcentric epoch.' This was an epoch in which men were at the centre and women and children on the margin. It would be too weak and inadequate to state that Jesus was 'friendly' towards women. He simply rehabilitated them as full human beings created together with men in God's image. His behaviour vis-à-vis women, of course, was seen as agitation (perturbation). It was an important argument in his indictment. We read in Luke 23.2: 'We found this man perverting our nation.' Here the textual apparatus adds: 'He brings women and children to apostasy', which means he leads them away from faith.

Indeed, what matters in the story of the bent-over woman is not just one isolated healing which happened in the distant past. Jesus opened new horizons for the future-new horizons for women and for a renewed community and cooperation between women and men. Until today, this opportunity has remained unrealized in many respects. Throughout centuries Christians have tried to follow Jesus and to imitate him in his relation to God, to the poor and sick people, but this area-his free encounters especially with women, discussion and collaboration with them, their discipleship-has been bypassed unnoticed. We feel that at present this realm urgently waits for the redeeming and healing model introduced by Jesus.

There is a hypothesis that the story of the wondrous healing of a Jewish woman originally was recounted among Christians independently. Only later was it linked to the controversial dialogue about the Sabbath. In the commentaries attention was given mainly to this second part, and the original story of the woman's great liberation was pushed to the background.

Today we certainly can read this story in the context of the parables of God's kingdom which immediately follow: the parable of the mustard seed and of yeast to leaven flour. This triple narration interlocks precisely as a mosaic, and creates a whole. It witnesses to the fact that the new world intended by God grows irrepressibly out of small beginnings. It is a world as God wishes it to be. No more people who are bent over, trampled on, under the burden of sickness, poverty and loneliness. No more suffering of children, women and men. No more groaning of the creation.

According to the gospel God's kingdom-the world intended by God-a world of children women and men living in solidarity, mutual love and support-began to be visible in the manifold service of Jesus and in the daily praxis of his movement. All this was happening in the patriarchal structures of oppression and injustice in the time of Jesus.

Where is this project of God today at the end of the 20th century? Sometimes we are overpowered by sadness. So often world events do not point to the progress of the kingdom. Today we are confronted with realities which are worse than our experience of yesterday.

And yet we would be blind not to notice the small wonders of straightening, liberating and resurrecting in the life of individual groups and nations. They happen every day because of the participation and cooperation of many people. There is hope that in the long run, after the social summit in Copenhagen, the situation of the poorest populations may change in the future. There is hope that the influence of the NGOs will be strengthened and that the emerging civil society will further grow.

The future is not closed. The hope of the poor does not die. It invigorates all of us who long for a culture of solidarity. The compassionate power of God works for change in and through a positive human energy. God's project of a new world badly needs the cooperation of each of us in the place where we are planted. From experience we know that what uplifts and straightens is solidarity, one wise encouraging word and a hand outstretched to practical help and support.

For encouragement in the work of the renewal of God's creation and for uplifting those sisters and brothers who go along with us, we may appropriate this amazing and extraordinary promise of Jesus in the Gospel of John: 'Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these' (Jn 14.12).

We say to that: AMEN. May it so happen, may it become true!

Rev. Dr Jana Opocenska of the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren gave the original version of this meditation during the African consultation on Partnership in God's Mission in Limuru, Kenya, in March 1994.