Luke 13:10-13 KJV And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. [11] And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. [12] And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. [13] And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.
I. INTRODUCTION—THE MIRACLES OF THE SABBATH
-This striking miracle falls into the category of one of the miracles that Jesus performed on the Sabbath.
-The seven Sabbath miracles were special miracles in themselves. Each one represented something beyond just a healing or deliverance.
• The man who was demon-possessed—Mark 1:21-26
• Peter’s mother-in-law—Luke 4:38-39
• The man with the withered hand—Matthew 12:9-13
• The woman who was bowed down—Luke 13:10-16
• The man with dropsy—Luke 14:1-5
• The crippled man at the Pool of Bethesda—John 5:5-9
• The man born blind—John 9:1-14
-All of these miracles proved the authority of Jesus over the spirit world and the physical world. Not only was their physical deliverance but there was also spiritual deliverance. In fact, I believe that we can go as far as to say that all healing is for the sake of holiness.
-To the man at the pool of Bethesda, the Lord said,
John 5:14 KJV Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.
-God never just transforms us for our own comfort but for His greater purpose.
II. THE WOMAN WHO WAS BENT
A. The Woman
-This woman, who is identified just a few verses later as one of the daughters of Abraham, had suffered from a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years.
-Eighteen years is a short time.
• Eighteen years can fly by when life is spent in happiness.
• Eighteen years is a short time when it is involved with the blessings of life.
• Eighteen years is a short time when you are reaching and accomplishing all you had hoped for.
• Eighteen years is a short time when you are involved in the joys of raising children.
• Eighteen years is a short time when you are surrounded by friends that help you overcome the challenges of life.
• Eighteen years is a short time when you are advancing in your job and enjoying the milk and honey of the Promised Land.
-But eighteen years can be a very long time.
• Eighteen years can drag by when you are consumed with the pain of a bent back.
• Eighteen years is a very long time to have to struggle to leave your home.
• Eighteen years is a very long time to have a body and mind that is vexed with despair.
• Eighteen years is a very long time to always be looking down at the ground.
• Eighteen years is a very long time to struggle with a mistake that changed your life.
• Eighteen years is a very long time to try and wash away something from the soul with soap.
• Eighteen years is a very long time to have to cover up with words what inflames the mind.
• Eighteen years can be an awfully long time to fight an infected, wounded spirit.
-The picture of this little woman is terrible. She was badly crippled up, bent at the waist, shuffling steps, ill-fitting clothes, and depressed in spirit. Everything she did was hosted by difficulty.
• Keeping her home was difficult.
• Walking was difficult.
• Sleeping was difficult.
-I have a feeling that it was over a period of time that her back was bent and deformed. It was a gradual deterioration that came on her. It is similar to the experiences that many of us have here today. It was not suddenly that this thing took place but over a period of time and suddenly she woke up one day and discovered that her life would never be the same again.
-She continued to keep the faith but there was very little peace, no joy, and no comfort. It had been so long since she had really just been able to feel the liberty of life and worship. But it is remarkable that she continued to go to church.
-It had been a very long time for her to really grasp what it was to be comfortable. After a while the physical need had become a huge mental obstacle for her. Slowly as time passed, her warped back finally warped her spirit. That is what Dr. Luke was pointing out to us when he writes that she had a “spirit of infirmity.”
-Various translations put it like this:
• Goodspeed—Had a sickness caused by a spirit.
• Berkley—Had suffered from a weakening spirit.
• Knox—Had suffered under some influence that disabled her.
• New English Bible—Possessed by a spirit that had crippled her.
• Moffatt—Suffered weakness from an evil spirit.
• Phillips—Had been ill from some psychological cause.
• ESV—A disabling spirit.
-She literally could not get away from this horrific malady. After a while because of the deformity of her body, she begins to realize that she was not attractive or beautiful to those around her. Like a slow metastasis of cancer, what was in her back soon got into her mind and ushered her to a place of utter inferiority.
-She would look at other women who had strong and straight bodies and a sense of resentment and bitterness started tugging at her soul.
-Her sickness bent her over. That means that she walked around with downcast eyes and only saw the ground. She was acquainted with dirt and filth of the world. She missed the blue skies, the birds in the air, and the rainbows and sunsets. Her problem had literally blocked every bit of the vision she had.
B. The Spirit of Infirmity
-We all have met a lot of people in life who have a spirit of infirmity. They have allowed some handicap or setback get into their minds in such a way that is has made them bitter, complaining, and self-centered.
-As time has passed they have allowed the incentives of life to no longer motivate them. They have sunk into depression and become cynical. When you talk to them, they have become critical, pessimistic, and unhappy.
-Every area of their life has been affected by this spirit of infirmity:
• Personal wars go on inside of people because of events that took place years ago.
• Emotional traumas that happened years ago are wilting them down now.
• Relationships are poisoned by their need to control.
• Fear ushered them to the place that they try to control and manipulate simply in an effort to survive.
• Bad decisions take place because they are so desperate to get fixed.
-Just like the woman in John 4:
John 4:16-18 KJV Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. [17] The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: [18] For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.
-What you have to understand is that the spirit of infirmity that has settled in the mind can create the pressure of making bad decisions in relationships. Healing can never come to a desperate person rummaging through other people’s lives.
-You cannot use other people like a drug to numb the pain of the dull aching of an inner emptiness. The more you suppress the symptoms the less of a chance that God will have to heal you.
C. Bent Backs From Handicapped Minds
-Their bent back may be a physical handicap or something deeper that cannot be seen. I have no doubt that if we were all able to put on some sort of spiritual vision goggles like the night-vision goggles used by our soldiers and could really see, we might be appalled at what is around us.
-What if you could see the outward forms of our spiritual states? You might see people who are nearly dead sitting in the pews. The glassy eyes of death could be seen on people who had very little life in them. Some you would see who were literally dead in their trespasses and sin.
-Others would be like blind men and others would be like those who were crippled. Spiritual deformity takes on a lot of different shapes and we would shrink back from all of them. It would almost be like the pool at Bethesda where there were the blind, the maimed, and the halt.
-Bent backs caused by a spirit of infirmity. Our world is such a place that the devil has used it as his kingdom to wither backs but even more to wither souls. It is crushing on the righteous soul to consider how some people managed to get their backs and spirits “bowed down.”
-Bent backs and handicapped minds can take place in a lot of different ways. Things that happened in the past can warp our sense of perspective:
• Parents who divorced and left a feeling of abandonment.
• Child abuse that was physical, emotional, and even sexual.
• The pain of being left out and rejected.
• Expectations that were left unfulfilled.
• Having to fight for everything.
• A spouse who cheated and made you feel like you were the cause.
• A father who failed to be a leader or a mother who failed to nurture.
-All of those things working together can destroy a sense of trust that needs to be present in life. Then you come to a church and you have to interact with imperfect people and it is hard to ever bring yourself to trust again. “I’ve been hurt before and I won’t ever be hurt again!” And the spirit of infirmity locks onto your mind.
-So the insecurity, the jealousy, the envy, the anger, the malice and the unshakeable spirit that wants to bend your mind causes you to live in a state that renders you useless in everything you do.
-Have you ever been to that place where the spirit of infirmity seemed to literally overwhelm you? Bowed backs and handicapped minds does something to our spirit!
• It sets our affection on earthly things when would wish to fix them on heavenly things.
• It takes worldly and selfish cares and aims them at our most spiritual hours.
• It mars with skeptical suggestions the peace that we would enjoy from the hand of God.
• It lowers our highest resolves and frustrates our best purposes and desires.
• Because of the attack of the spirit of infirmity, we can never seem to be true to our passionate spiritual convictions.
III. THE MIRACLE
-It is remarkable that we find Jesus on this Sabbath, going to the synagogue. If the Lord went to church on the Sabbath, I would think that it would be a great example for us to continue to follow even in our modern times.
-There is nothing like the church! I have no complaints against the Church! In fact, the world doesn’t want me back, I have slapped at the devil too many times, I have called the world to task too many times, I have given myself to prayer too often, and I have absorbed this Word and the world would never take me back! I am not alone in this situation either.
-Not only did Jesus come to church on that Sabbath, He saw something that no one else saw. All others saw a poor woman who had been among them suffering for eighteen years. The church saw:
• The humped back.
• The downcast eyes.
• The depressed spirit.
• The weary walk.
• The acceptance of defeat.
-But Jesus did not see this because He was in the position of constantly seeing things in a different light.
• He saw in Simon Barjona, the hidden Cephas, the son of a timid dove, the steadfast rock that he would build the church on.
• He saw Nathanael and looked beyond the outward appearance and saw the inward man of the heart, an Israelite in whom was no guile (deception).
• He looked on Judas Iscariot and knew who it was that would betray Him.
-The Lord had the ability to read men’s past histories and futures by looking at their faces. He looked on this woman who had endured the cruel bondage of eighteen years and in her face saw the battles of her mind.
-He knew that against her will, she had been taken in by this spirit of infirmity, and He knew that she had fought mightily against it until finally it had compassed her about.
-There comes a time in all of our lives that He understands the struggles:
• He reads our stories.
• He understands our infirmities.
• He knows our deepest hurts.
• He sees our maladies.
• He knows the force of our temptations.
• He has insight into the darkest storms and battles of our soul.
-In His grace, He puts a value on all of our poor struggles and longs to fill us with just as much surprise as He did on that Sabbath almost two millennia ago.
-When Jesus visits the church, what chains and dungeons the devil had worked to build for eighteen years can came crashing down immediately. It will not take the Lord eighteen seconds to rip down what the devil has been working on for years to destroy you!
-That is why we need the Lord to show up every time that we have church. Faith and deliverance need to be at work in the church. There needs to be people who speak with tongues, shout with joy, and pursue the authority that can only come from Heaven!
IV. WHEN BRACES COME OFF OF THE MIND
I recently read of a prominent newspaper that had to overcome some huge obstacles in his life. At a very young age, he was smitten with polio that left him with braces on his legs. As he grew older he realized that he could not run or climb trees like other boys. Little by little he began to feel he could not keep up in the race of life or climb the ladder of success like others could. What was happening to him was that those braces on his legs were getting into his mind.
His father had told him that some day he would carry him to a big church in the city and there he would be healed. Finally the day came. As he walked down the aisle his braces went “thump, thump, thump.” The people looking his way made him feel very self-conscious. They knelt at the altar and very earnestly his father prayed. After a while the father turned to the boy and said, “Son, I have the answer. You have been healed.”
They got up and started back up the aisle. But his braces were still going “thump, thump, thump.” He could not tell any difference, but before they got out of the church a feeling came over him that he was all right; that in spite of the braces he could be a successful man. From that moment on he went on to be very successful in life. What happened was that though God left the braces on his legs, He took them out of his mind. Jesus did for him what He did for the woman whose back had been bent for eighteen years. He said to her, “Thou art loosed from thine infirmity.”
-There is not a person in this house today who does not have an infirmity of some kind but I also have to tell you this. . . There is never a situation that God’s power cannot make us able to overcome!
-You can be loosed from your infirmity!
Philip Harrelson
November 30, 2011
