Luke 13

Jesus Heals a Crippled Woman on the Sabbath

¹⁰ On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, ¹¹ and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. ¹² When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, "Woman, you are set free from your infirmity." ¹³ Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.

¹⁴ Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, "There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath."

¹⁵ The Lord answered him, "You hypocrites! Doesn't each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? ¹⁶ Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?"

¹⁷ When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.

This story is similar to several within the varied Gospel accounts where Jesus heals on the Sabbath and is opposed by the religious leaders. Note in verse 15 that Jesus calls them "hypocrites", which according to verse 17 greatly humiliates them. Not the way to "win friends and influence people" (Dale Carnegie), is it? Well, our focus today will be on Jesus and the woman.

The account begins with Jesus teaching in the synagogue on the Sabbath. As we've noted before, it was Jesus' faithful custom to attend worship in the synagogue and often these occasions led to an invitation to teach. In the congregation is this woman who has suffered greatly for eighteen years. While verse 16 indicates that she is bound by Satan, we do not see Jesus treating this as some kind of exorcism. Most likely the Gospel writing is just expressing the way many physical elements were viewed in that culture at that time; as results of one over whom Satan had control; as the result of one's sin. Thankfully, we modern Christians do not see things that way. We long ago gave up the idea that one's physical or emotional calamities are inherently a result of one's sinfulness.

Next we note that Jesus sees her and calls her forth. It certainly would have been hard to miss someone with such a physical appearance and such physical issues. Yet, it also was typically inconceivable for a rabbi to stop his teaching and take such action. In those settings of worship and teaching, nothing mattered more than the proclaimed word and proper praise to God. By his action, Jesus reminds us that our worship and our adoration must never separate us from the very real suffering in people's lives nor our responsibility to be a compassionate and sensitive people. We must never be so sanctuary bound that we lose sight of the pervasive suffering in our world we are called to help address.

Naturally, after she is healed, the woman glorifies and praises God. Who wouldn't? Well, we would hope that would be our natural reaction as well. Just as I was writing these words I received an email from one of our staff members telling about a special possibility which has come our way for increasing our ministry efforts in the lives of people. Her summation was God is good!!! That says it all!