Luke 13:10-17
WOMAN THOU ART LOOSED
March 20, 2022
Intro: This passage is all about how Jesus can set us free. In John 8:36 Jesus said, “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” As we watch Him deliver this sick woman from the bondage of her sickness, we get a picture of what He can do for us, if we will wait on Him! This woman waited 18 years for her healing and the Bible records that it happened while she was in the House of Prayer on the day of Worship.
I. V. 11, 16 HER PROBLEM - This woman had a “spirit of infirmity” and was in severe physical pain. Her body was contorted and bent over at the waste. She found herself in a physical condition that prevented her from looking up. The great motivational speakers of our day have said things like, “If you fall in life, never fall on face but turn around and fall flat on your back, because if you can look up you can get up!” That worldly lesson of hope would not work for this woman because she was bent over! She could not, by her own power, overcome her condition. Many church goers today have found themselves in a spiritual state which is just like her physical state in which they cannot look up either! Totally unable to see past the pain they are experiencing in their lives. I remind you today that the Bible says, Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers us from them all! Psalm 34:19 - Verse 16 lets us know that this woman was an Israelite and a believer. Yet, she is under the attack of the devil! Satan has bound her and has caused her body to be bent by her affliction. Note: Even saved people can be attacked by the devil. Now, we need to understand that no saint of God can be demon possessed! This “spirit of infirmity” did not control her, it just made her life harder. Jesus did not cast out any demons here. He merely spoke to her condition. She was not demon possessed, she was demon oppressed! The point here is that believers can come under the attack of the enemy.
I want to point out something about this woman. She is one of the most powerful pictures of faith and faithfulness in the New Testament. She has been in this condition for 18 years! If she has been to the synagogue every Sabbath for those 18 years, she has attended almost 1,000 services. She has been sick for 18 years. She has not been healed, yet still she believes in God! She prays, but even when it seems like God isn’t going to answer, she remains faithful. She comes to the services, in spite of the fact that no one would think a thing about her if she did not. What a rebuke she is to the mentality that abounds today! We allow the slightest bump in the road of life to derail us and cause us to want to throw in the towel. She persisted in her faith, even when life didn’t go her way, because she loved the Lord her God! She was committed to the Lord! Are we that committed?
II. V. 12-17 HER PASTOR - When this miracle occurred, the people in the synagogue began to rejoice, as well they should have, verse 17. However, the ruler of the synagogue told the people that they could be healed any of the other six days of the week. He was implying that the Sabbath was more important than the needs of the people! Jesus rebuked this idea and merely told this man that he was placing the needs of animals above the needs of people! Jesus, taught in Mark 2:27 that, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” In fact, Jesus tells him that he is a hypocrite! He loves his religious work more than he loved God, or God’s people!
ILLS: I once served in a ministry we called, “The Samaritan Ministry.” The workers were faithful as they came to church every Sunday morning at 5am to cook a hot breakfast for the homeless in our community. The bus ministry was engaged with us as they picked the men up from the Star of Hope Missions and brought them to church and after Sunday School and Morning Worship and a bag lunch, they took them back to the shelter. We began to notice a pattern with some of the ministry workers! When they were finished in the kitchen instead of coming to Sunday School or Morning Worship to hear from our pastor, they went home. They would tell us that they had done their part for God. So, I asked a few of them who would consistently leave after their work was done, “When do you worship? When do you fellowship with the rest of the saints? When do you learn from your pastor about the doctrines of God? They would say that they were doing enough for this church. I wish I was stronger and more confident back then, I think I would have asked, “You may be doing more than enough for your church but are you doing enough for your God?” - The ruler of the synagogue was determined to carry out his religious work without being distracted by the needs of the worshipers.
III. V. 13 HER PRAISE - People did not see her as a woman, but as a freak, an object of mockery, pity and probably disgust. Yet, Jesus saw her as a woman! Others may not have recognized her significance, but Jesus did. He loved her like she was! Though she did not look like the woman He created her to be, He calls her by who she was born as and not what she looked like. Then He spoke the words that changed her position, “Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity.” What she had tried and failed to do, Jesus did with a word! What she or anyone could never could have accomplished, Jesus did with a word! Note: I don’t know what has you bound this morning. I don’t know what has you bent over. I don’t know about your valleys and your burdens, but I know Who does! I know that if you will come to Him at His call, Matthew 11:28, He can speak the word of liberty that will set you free. He didn’t save you to leave you in bondage! He saved you to set you free, John 8:36. “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”
I have found that in these 30 years of preaching that the Word of God will surely do these two things we see in the text: First, it will “Shame the Enemy!” “His adversaries were put to shame” Second, it will “Unite the People in Praise” “And the multitude rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by Jesus.”
