Stand Up Straight When I Am Talking To You Series

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.