Part of an elite society in colonial America consisted of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry and Robert Carter III. Carter was the richest of them and owned more slaves than Washington and Jefferson put together, almost 500 of them. "He owned a textile factory, about 20 plantations, a commercial bakery, and a 1/5 share of the Baltimore Iron Works. In June of 1777, while suffering from what he later described as "a Fever Heat" from a small pox inoculation, Carter experienced what he called a "most gracious illumination: of his spirit. Unlike the conversions of many, though, Carter's conversion went beyond pious-sounding words. To begin with, "the slaveholder who never intervened in overseers' disciplining of his slaves now began to defend them openly." He caused a scandal when he told an overseer to return a slave's property to him, based solely on the word of the slave. Even more scandalously, he began to worship at an integrated congregation. Then on September 5, 1791, Carter reached the conclusion that his faith required him to free all his slaves, "the largest number of enslaved human beings ever freed in America by anyone." Not only did Carter arrange for the slaves' freedom, but he also made "provision for their support during their transition to freedom." Some of his peers, including Thomas Jefferson and other signers of the Declaration of Independence, "objected to Carter's action as subversive to the colonies' social balance and racial relations, and potential backlash by white workers against their new competitors for wage labor." Even so, Carter believed that his freedom compelled him to share that same freedom with all people. (Obery M. Hendricks, Jr., The Politics of Jesus: Rediscovering the True Revolutionary Nature of Jesus; Teachings and How They Have Been Corrupted. [New York: Doubleday, 2006]. Pp. 185-187)

  Jesus came to turn the world upside down and in doing so, to turn it around right. He came to free people from the burdens that enslaved them. He called a bent over woman to him, one whose bent overness was explained as an evil spirit that had caused her deformity and enslavement a unique form of enslavement for 18 years. First, Jesus called her into the synagogue which was an area reserved for men only, then he touched her (by the standards of the times, she was considered unclean) and he did all that on the Sabbath. He violated the rules established by the leading religious authorities. And they called him on it. He did not have to heal on the Sabbath. The woman had already been disabled for 18 years. What could hurt to wait one more day? He could have waited that one extra day and he could have found the woman on the streets and then simply spoken to her to cure her. Probably no one had challenged the accepted way of doing things so openly before. The religious authorities had a sense of security about the ways they did things. But Jesus' reply very quickly put them to shame. What better day to cure than on the Sabbath, the day of rest and devotion to God. By being cured, the woman was set free and could participate in Sabbath without the bent over struggle of getting around, much harder work than walking upright. She could more fully participate in Sabbath rest in God, being freed from her evil spirit. Jesus turned the tables on the religious leaders and showed them a much different way of looking at Sabbath, a much freer way. Yes, Jesus came to turn the world upside down.

  Just like Jeremiah, Jesus came to pluck up, pull down, to overthrow, to destroy and then to build and to plant. The world needed an overhaul because compassion had taken a back seat to the Law. Jesus came to destroy the false sense of security that comes with knowing and implementing the rules to such a degree that there was no room for care and compassion. Jesus came to set people free. Jesus is all about destroying the status quo that keeps people enslaved to the rigidity of their rules about faith. Just as God set the bent over woman free, so God set Jeremiah free from his sense of inadequacy to the task God wanted him to carry out. God touched his mouth and gave him the freedom to go and speak.

  I want us to look for a moment at that woman who had been bent over for 18 years. The spirit within her kept her bent over, so much so that she had probably grown to not use the muscles that could straighten her out. Her capacity to stand straight had diminished over the years. The spirit that overwhelmed her logic kept her in a sort of prison. Perhaps she no longer had the mental capacity to straighten herself up. Then along comes this man who calls her over and proceeds to give her the freedom to stand up straight. This woman probably did not care that he did it on the Sabbath or that she was where she didn't belong. She had a new sense of freedom and she knew that something miraculous had happened. For her, it wasn't about rules and regulations, it was about a new freedom to get beyond what was keeping her bent over, to moving her body the way it should be moved, and a new freedom to praise and worship God. Jesus' compassion had set her free. He saw beyond the law to the needs of this poor woman who had suffered far too long. Another day did make a difference to her. The new freedom Jesus gave her released her from her prison and opened up a whole different way of walking through life.

  Robert Carter III's new found freedom gave him the courage to go against society's standards and set free the men he had kept in slavery all those years. His compassion came into full blossom as he experienced for himself the love of Christ. He acted on his new freedom by offering that freedom to those who had been bent over in another way. His compassion helped him see a new way of looking at those he called "slaves".

  Jesus came to tear down the systems and religious institutions and regulations that bound people and enslaved them with the tremendous impossibility of following the Law. Jesus came to tear down the evil that bent people over for years. Jesus came to free them to do God's work with boldness and confidence. Jesus came to give them a sense of compassion that moved them out of the institutional religion of the time, to set them free to praise God and worship God and move out of themselves and with compassion reach into the lives of others to offer them new freedom, not new burdens.

  We also have a tremendous capacity to become like the bent over woman, enslaved by our sorrows, our guilt, and our inability to follow Christ the way we believe it is necessary. Christ did not come to enslave us to impossible expectations, but to set us free from those difficulties, free to do God's work, free to praise God and worship. We have a tendency to become Pharisaic in our faith, to build walls that once again enslave and overpower the ability to be free the way Jesus wanted us to be. Over and over again I have dealt with people who are enslaved by their guilt because they see their faith as a burden rather than a freedom, a burden of impossible expectations. They are bent over with their guilt to the point of wanting to walk away from faith all together. "I must have done something wrong. My prayers are not being answered." Or "I don't feel the joy of God anymore. I must be doing something wrong." Or, like Jeremiah, we might feel inadequate to the task, enslaved by our "not being good enough" feelings.

  Following Christ is all about being set free from our bent overness, so that we can find the deep compassion we need to deal with others. When we are truly set free in Christ we see others in a different light. We begin to understand others' behavior through the eyes of compassion. I have always believed that there is a story behind the seemingly inappropriate and harmful behavior of others. The freedom I have in Christ allows me to look at them with different eyes, not with judgment or indifference, but with compassion that is far more willing to receive people without judging them.

  There was a time when I could not do that because the bent overness stemming from my childhood interfered with my freedom in Christ. There was a time when my judgments were harsh and unforgiving. There was a time when I wanted the rules and regulations of faith to condemn people for me. There was a time when I felt I could not follow the impossible demands of faith and I knew I could not be perfect. There was a time I could not stand up and talk in front of a group, let alone in a small group because my sense of inadequacy enslaved me. My freedom in Christ was not fully realized until God called me into ministry and with that call gave me the ability to speak boldly and passionately about Christ. It was then that I discovered that faith was not all about following the rules more than it was about following the tremendous compassion of Christ. It was about finding the bent over men and women in the world and showing them how to straighten up in the freedom found in following Christ. When I go back to the tendency to judge or confine my faith to the rules and regulations, God opens a new avenue of thought that calls me into the freedom to do God's work with the compassion of Christ. I can even look at a terrorist with compassion that sees a little boy filled with hatred, struggling to express that hatred in acts of destruction, and pray that he finds the freedom from that bent overness of such strong hatred. I can look at the person who has a tendency to lash out and hurt and see with compassion the hurts that must have bent them over so deeply and pray that Jesus calls them over and touches them and heals them.

  Following Jesus is about tearing down those blocks in our lives that enslave us. It's about being freed from enslavement to the hurts and losses that so often rule our lives, and being able to build a new and far more compassionate world that allows healing on the Sabbath.