Luke 13: 10 – 17
Stand Up Straight When I Am Talking To You
10 Now He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11 And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up. 12 But when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him and said to her, “Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.” 13 And He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. 14 But the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath; and he said to the crowd, “There are six days on which men ought to work; therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day.” 15 The Lord then answered him and said, “Hypocrite! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and lead it away to water it? 16 So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound—think of it—for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?” 17 And when He said these things, all His adversaries were put to shame; and all the multitude rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by Him.
The story that we are going to review today is only listed by Luke. Have you ever heard this spoken to you as a kid, ‘stand up straight when I am talking to you.’ Well, in today’s study we are going to see The Lord Jesus Christ set free a woman who is totally bent double and releases her from Satan’s power. It is a picture of what He has come to do for Israel, and for all who will respond to Him, and descriptive of what this section is all about, the making straight of people and their deliverance ‘from the power of Satan to God’ like we read in the book of Acts chapter 26, “18 to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’
There is an interesting parallel in the passage between the woman who was bent double and the Ruler of the synagogue. Here the woman’s vision was restricted due to the fact that she was bent over. The ruler also could not see things clearly due to his lack of belief. He had just seen an amazing miracle of deliverance, and he wrote it off as a piece of everyday work, as though people regularly popped in to the synagogue to be healed. He was blind to the glorious working of God, a typical representative of the men who opposed the Son of God. This miracle was a glorious working for it was symbolic of what God will do for all who come to The Lord Jesus Christ.
‘And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath day.’
You might note that this occasion is the last mention of our Lord Jesus teaching in a synagogue, although that is not necessarily decisive, for such visits are usually only mentioned at this stage when specifically connected with incidents, although the latter undoubtedly carried on to the end. It was on the Sabbath day, and our Lord Jesus was there, having been invited to teach.
‘And behold, a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and she was bowed together, and could in no wise lift herself up.’
‘And behold.’ This may well indicate that He suddenly spotted her while He was teaching. What He spotted was a woman who was bent double and could not straighten herself. The woman had been affected in this way by an evil spirit for ‘eighteen years’. She was bowed double and could not lift herself up. She was a picture of a world bent double by sin, and unable to stand tall.
‘And when Jesus saw her, he called her, and said to her, “Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.”
When our Creator Lord Jesus saw her He called out to her, “Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.” This was probably the equivalent of a command to the evil spirit to leave her.
‘And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.’
But while released from the evil spirit she had been so long in that condition that she could not straighten herself, and so our Precious Master Lord Jesus went over to her and laid His hands on her and immediately she was made straight. And the not unsurprising result was that she glorified God.
Now here is something everyone needs to understand. It should be noted that nowhere else does our Great God and King Jesus cast out evil spirits by any other means other than His word. Thus here also we should see that He casts out the evil spirit by His word before He touches her. The evil spirit is to be seen as unclean in an unusually in depth sense. The earthly Jesus wants no contact with unclean spirits, for they cannot be made clean. The laying on of hands is then used in order to heal the physical impediment so as to give assurance to the woman.
‘And the ruler of the synagogue, being moved with indignation because Jesus had healed on the sabbath, answered and said to the gathered crowd, “There are six days in which men ought to work. In them therefore come and be healed, and not on the day of the sabbath.”
The ruler of the synagogue, who led the synagogue committee, was angry. Possibly he recognized that he might be called on by certain of the Pharisees to explain why he had allowed this to happen in his synagogue on the Sabbath day. An enquiry might even have led up to a beating. But the fact of his anger suggests that we are to see his feeling as personal as well.
Please note where this guys comments were directed at - his anger is directed at the crowd. Perhaps he felt wary of challenging a person with the powers that The Lord Jesus had. Or indeed perhaps he did not wish to. He may even have been secretly sympathetic, but dared not show it, while recognizing that he had to make some protest. Perhaps he even acknowledged that as the miracle had happened God was clearly not displeased with it this time. It is so difficult accusing someone whose miracles actually happen of not being pleasing to God. It took certain types of Pharisees to argue like that. It may be that it in fact was the reaction of the crowd that angered him, as they surged around and clamored for more. So he covered himself by rebuking the people who were gathered there. He pointed out to them that there were six days in every seven in which men should work, and therefore that if they wished to be healed they should come on a day other than the Sabbath. The weakness of his position comes out in the fact that our Lord Jesus was not a doctor. Had He been the ruler may have had a point. But everyone knew that only God could have done what had happened that day. Possibly that was what the ruler had recognized and had thus felt that it would probably be unwise to rebuke God by rebuking The Lord Jesus. He would feel that he was on safe ground in rebuking the crowd.
According to the Pharisaic rules, however, he was totally in the right. The only healing that was allowed on the Sabbath was dealing with possible life threatening conditions to the minimum required.
‘But the Lord answered him, and said, “You hypocrites, does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering?” ’
Our Holy Adoni Jesus answer was not to the ruler alone. He addressed the group of bristling opponents. He clearly saw that there were a group whose attitude demonstrated their backing of the ruler’s words, for He addresses them in the plural. He accuses them of saying one thing and doing another (as being ‘hypocrites’) because, as all knew, they were all ready to loose their ox or ass on the Sabbath day so as to lead it to watering as long as it was not being used for work. Later it would be stipulated that they could also pour water into its trough, although could not themselves hold a bucket to its mouth, and that too may already have applied. So relaxation of the Sabbath was allowed for domestic animals even when their lives were not in danger.
“And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan had bound, lo, these eighteen years, to have been loosed from this bond on the day of the Sabbath?”
So if they were willing to loose domestic animals on the Sabbath day so as to water them (not a life threatening condition as other provision could have been made), why did they make all this fuss at our Lord Jesus for loosing a woman who had been bound for eighteen years, who was of far greater worth than a domestic animal as she was a daughter of Abraham -a full Jewess?
‘Daughter of Abraham’ may well indicate that He was asserting that she was a godly woman, something that some may have doubted because of her condition. Was it not right then to also loose her on the Sabbath?
Here is another possible great point. ‘Eighteen years’. This was three times six. Possibly He was saying that they should recognize that she had completed not just ‘six days’ but six years, three times over, and had not been loosed on any of them, because they were unable to loose her, and thus it was right that at last she be loosed by God on the ‘seventh’ day, the Sabbath, on a day when God was at work.
‘Loosed.’ This example was probably chosen to be the centerpiece of this section in which the word of deliverance and the Kingly Rule of God is in mind precisely because it illustrated so well the Messiah Jesus’ commission to ‘loose the captives’ and to ‘loose those who are oppressed’.
It should be noted that our Lord Jesus does not just defend His healing on the Sabbath, but seems to suggest that it was right that it happen on the Sabbath. This might be seen as confirming that to Him the Sabbath pointed forward to the ‘rest’ of the people of God into which He wanted all to enter. It was thus the most suitable day for healing and revealing the compassion of God. After all Satan had still been at work in the woman on the Sabbath day. Was he then to have it as his sole preserve?
‘And as he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame, and the whole crowd rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him.’
‘All his adversaries were put to shame.’ The result of His words was that all His adversaries were put to shame. We must not lose sight of the wonder that had been done before their eyes. Luke does not for he declares ‘the whole crowd rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by Him.’ They gave glory to God and their full approval to what He had done.
It case you have not been out and about, things have not changed since this incident. When our Precious Holy Spirit is alive in a certain church many religious people from nearby locations get very angry. They are also jealous that God has selected a certain Pastor and fellowship to anoint. In many cases their attacks can get quite ugly.
If you are a Pastor or attending such a church that is bitter at another person’s blessing, then repent, leave what you are doing and go and join the party.
