Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11 And there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your disability.” 13 And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God. 14 But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.” 15 Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it? 16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” 17 As he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame, and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him.

Luke 13:10-17

Introduction

One time I was driving and saw an old woman completely hunched over. I couldn’t help but feel sad for her. She seemed haggard and helpless and her contorted body was a picture of what I imagined her life to be. In reflecting on this message, I meditated on Romans 8:20 which says: “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope.” Paul reminds us that life wasn’t supposed to have bent over women walking down the street. Before sin had entered the world, there were no crooked bones, no disease, no murder, no death. But sin has ushered in a world continually subjected to futility, where there are broken people not only spiritually and emotionally, but physically as well.

But it won’t always be this way. Paul declares in Romans 8:20-24: “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved.” Thus, there will be a day when bodies are made whole and all that can ravage our bodies from disease to disabilities to deformities to death will forever be vanquished because death has lost its sting through Christ’s broken body. And Luke 13:10-17 is a story that reveals a hint of what heaven will be like, when disability is no more. But it’s also a story that reveals not just the physical maladies of living in a sinful world, but an even far greater disability, the tragedy of the heart’s hardness to Christ and the gospel. And so, I’d like to examine the three characters of this story to highlight the story of the enabling Savior: first, the woman and her disabled body, second, the hypocrites and their disabled spirits, and third, Jesus as the enabling Savior.

The Woman: The Disabled Body (vv. 10-11, 16)

So first, let’s look at the woman and her disabled body in verses 10-11: “Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11 And there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself… And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” This was a woman who had obviously been suffering for a long time, 18 years. Scholars have hypothesized the disease to be spondylitis anklyopoietica, which is a form of rheumatoid arthritis affecting the joints often times in the spinal column. This leads to a calcification of the spinal column with the effect of such a condition leading to a doubling over, often with much pain. This condition is also more commonly found in young people.

Whether it was this disease or something different, we know life for this woman would have been terribly difficult. Unmarried women in Jesus’ day would have had an incredibly difficult time in making a living. Add to her marital status, her physical condition, and we can safely surmise that this woman was probably poor and ostracized. Her appearance would have made her ‘stand out’ to everyone who met her. Try bending over the rest of your life, and you’ll begin to realize the life she lived. Bathing would have been difficult, which would have made her an object of avoidance and ridicule. Think of how arduous sleep would have been. Getting dressed, feeding herself, let alone working to make money and getting around in a world where there wasn’t even the idea of ‘physically impaired access,’ would have been grueling and despairing. And then there is the emotional and psychological component of living a life of constant suffering and rejection. Very few people could understand her pain and sorrow. But it would be the only life she would ever know.

In verse 16, we find out one more thing about this woman’s condition. Jesus says Satan bound her for the past 18 years. The question this obviously raises is this, “Are diseases caused by Satan?” Verse 16 seems to point out that sometimes this can be the case. You see, the Bible tells us that so long as Satan still exists, this world is in his control as the ‘god of this world’ (2 Cor 4:4). And John 8:44 tells us that Satan is a murderer, delighting in the suffering and death of people. But he is not in ultimate control, even over sickness and suffering which is one of the main points of the book of Job. In fact, God says in Exodus 4:11: “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?” In other words, nothing can happen, not even suffering and death, that is beyond God’s power and strength. Satan might be a secondary cause of suffering, sin might be a secondary cause of suffering, but we must never believe that our trials are so terrible that God cannot do anything and that He merely bows to the will of sin and suffering. No my friends, this is exactly why we have stories like this in Luke 13. Whereas Satan might have bound this woman in her misery for so many years, Jesus’ healing of this disabled, hunched over woman is an example of the very fact that Satan and sin have been defeated through the power of God through His Son Jesus Christ. This woman, a hunched over, emotionally broken outcast of society, is a visual reminder to all the world that Jesus Christ has conquered death and its power once and for all.

The Hypocrites: The Disabled Spirit (v. 14)

The second character in the story is the synagogue ruler. Imagine the scene. Jesus had just healed this woman from this debilitating disease. She’s probably shouting with joy. Tears have filled her eyes because for the past 18 years she has only had one perspective in life, a life hunched over in severe pain. Some in the congregation are bewildered by what has happened. And then out of the commotion, the synagogue rule (the religious leader) says: “There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.” Can you imagine that? How unfeeling and cold. This man was so concerned about the law being broken, that he forgot what the law was created for. And also, as if coming on that Sunday or Monday when it wasn’t the Sabbath would have healed her. He had no such power.

Notice also that the ruler does not confront Jesus discreetly, but rather stands before all of the people and criticizes Him without directly speaking to Him. He is the epitome of the self-righteous man, expressing red-faced anger because he believes he has been wronged, and does all he can to shame anyone who would break his rules, his laws, and his sense of control over the situation. So what was his problem? Jesus had healed on the Sabbath. But Jesus was the perfect law-keeper and He’s not advocating a rejection of the Sabbath. But if you look at the two texts in the Bible that refer to the Sabbath commandment (Deut 5:12-15 and Ex 20:8-11), you’ll find that God never tells His people that they cannot show mercy on the Sabbath. But sadly, further interpretation of these texts by Jewish religious authorities placed all sorts of rules and regulations on the people and it made the Sabbath a day of dread for people, than a day of delight.

When the ruler looked at what Jesus did, the healing of this woman, he didn’t see the wretchedness of this woman. That’s the reality of self-righteousness. You can’t see the world apart from anything you believe to be right and true. And so, he was blind to her suffering, to her life of rejection and agony, to her need for healing not just from her pain, but from her spiritual suffering. The ruler was the arbiter of truth and morality, and no one could disrupt that universe regardless of the reason. This is why he was blind to the reality that the Sabbath was intended as a day for God’s mercy. And thus, he stood there believing that Jesus did not honor God because God can only be honored in the way he deemed righteous. Tim Keller comments: “If…you seek to control God through your obedience, then all your morality is just a way to use God to make him give you the things in life you really want.”(Tim Keller, The Prodigal God)

And this is exactly why Jesus calls this man and all who were listening to him and believing what he said, hypocrites. Notice, the word is plural. Jesus knew the hearts of every person there. There were people sitting in those seats in full agreement with the ruler. They believed that they were righteous because they weren’t sinners, unlike the uncouth, lower class people of the world. And they become the masters of their own lives, arbiters of what’s right and wrong. They become their own gods. But when suffering enters the lives of such people, and suffering and trials will come, they are predictably unable to handle it. Because in their lives, they have believed themselves to be righteous and good and moral. They believed that something that have done (donating money to the poor, adopting a child, serving the church, door-to-door evangelism, homeschooling, raising a good family, being a faithful husband, etc.) has made them worthy enough of a life without trial. But once the trials come, also come anger at God, anxiety that floods the heart, and a sudden questioning of one’s faith. Why? Because there is always the assumption that my good works makes me right before God.

You see my friends, we are no different than this ruler. When he stands up to say, “Come on those days and be healed,” he ultimately cares nothing about the other person. He is concerned about his reputation (how dare this man usurp my authority by healing on this day and making me look like a fool by upstaging me), about the control he has over his world, and about his own righteousness (the healing was a clear sign that nothing he did would ever make him able to understand and know the power of God). I know I have done this, but how concerned are we about our reputation (what we look like before others), about control over our world (does knowing Christ affect my comforts), and about our own righteousness (surely what I have done for God keeps is enough to make me free from trial and suffering)? Perhaps we too have told others, ‘Come on other days,’ to those in need when I’m ready to follow Jesus, when I’ve made my career to the place it needs to be, when I’m comfortable and so long as it does not take away such comfort from me.

And the result of such a heart, the heart that is full of such self-righteousness, is to be critical, vengeful, judgmental, merciless, hateful, envious, joyless, despising, and jealous of others. Theologian Richard Lovelace insightfully writes:

[People] who are no longer sure that God loves and accepts them in Jesus, apart from their present spiritual achievements, are subconsciously radically insecure persons…Their insecurity shows itself in pride, a fierce, defensive assertion of their own righteousness, and defensive criticism of others. They come naturally to hate other cultural styles and other races in order to bolster their own security and discharge their suppressed anger. (Quoted from Tim Keller, The Prodigal God, 54)

The synagogue ruler’s root sin was the firm belief that his way is the best way and that his way was the only way to rightly honor God. It kept him from seeing that when God looked at him, God saw that he was spiritually every bit as hunched over as this woman was physically. He needed help. He need God’s healing power over his life. But he was like all who are addicted to something (alcoholics, drug addicts, gambling addicts, workaholics, self-esteem, etc.), he was so addicted to himself that he was unable to see just how hunched over he really was and how desperately he needed the gospel of Christ.

Jesus: The Enabling Savior (vv. 12-13, 15-16)

Of course, this leads us to the last main character of the story, Jesus, who is the enabling Savior able to heal those who are disabled physically and spiritually. Luke records for us in verses 12-13: “When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your disability.” 13 And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God.” And then he adds Jesus’ response to the ruler in verses 15-16: “Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it? 16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” Notice Jesus saw her. He took notice of her among all of the moral, religious people. He realized she actually needed Him, actually realized that she was broken and in pain. She didn’t cry out to Him for help. Jesus simply decided to heal her out of sheer grace. She didn’t respond in faith. She didn’t do any good works where she deserved healing. As only God can do, Jesus simply acted out of mercy.

And then Jesus lays hands on her. Perhaps it was the first time that anyone had touched her in a long time. Just like the leper who would certainly have been avoided at all costs, this poor bedraggled woman was probably shunned. And here was Jesus, who sees her as He’s teaching about God and His character and His mission to save the lost, goes towards the woman whom society would reject. And He touches her and heals her and again notice that ‘immediately’ she was made straight. God’s power over sin and suffering was evident. Jesus had come into the world to undo that which was corrupted by sin and Satan and nothing could stop His power.

And yet, the ruler and the people reject Jesus’ offer of grace out of hand. John describes their hearts in John 1:10-11: “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.” The ruler and the people couldn’t see that they were as needy of the Lord’s grace as this woman. They felt they were morally righteous. And so they were willing to show more mercy to their ox or donkey than to the poor and the lost. They were so full of themselves that they were blinded by their arrogance and pride.

Matt Chandler, pastor of Village Church speaking at the Desiring God National Conference, gave this illustration that demonstrates the difference between the reaction of the ruler and the people and the heart that Jesus has for the lost:

During my freshman year of college, I sat next to a 26-year-old single mother trying to get her degree. We began a dialogue about the grace and mercy of Christ in the cross. Some other guys and I would go over and babysit her child and try to talk with her. A friend of mine was in a band playing in the area and we invited her to hear him. She agreed. She thought it would be a concert. I knew better. It was shady and she agreed to come.

The minister got up and said, “Today I want to talk to you about sex.” And I immediately thought, Uh oh. He took a red rose, smelled it, showed how pretty it was. Then, threw it out in the crowd and told them to smell the rose. “I want you to smell it and touch it and feel the texture in it.” (There were about 1000 people there.) He then began one of the worst, most horrific handlings of what sex is and isn’t that I ever sat through. It was fear-mongering at its best.

I’m thinking, with Kim beside me, What are you doing? As he wrapped up, he asked, “Where’s my rose?”

Some kid brought the rose back and it was broken. The petals were broken. And he lifts it up. And his big crescendo is to lift up that broken rose and say, “Now who would want this?”
Anger welled up within me and I wanted to say, “JESUS WANTS THE ROSE! That’s the point of the gospel! That Jesus wants the rose. That he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

My friends, the synagogue ruler and those who agreed with his law-keeping would look at that 26 year old mother single and would say, “Who would want this?” Who would want to be associated with such an ‘immoral, broken person’? Who would want to be associated with a hunched over, poor, broken, uncouth, dirty woman? Who would want to be associated with this person who does not meet your standard of morality and rightness and comfort and goodness? Jesus would. Jesus wants you regardless of your state and condition and morality. Jesus didn’t heal the synagogue ruler. The ruler wanted her to come back when it was proper for her, when she kept his laws rightly. But Jesus healed her as she was. And He wants to heal you as you are, not when you are all cleaned up, but hunched over, not when you are sinless, but as a sinner. If you’ve turned from Him or have never trusted in Him, and you feel as though you’re not good enough for Him or ready for Him, my friend, if you wait for that, you’ll never be good enough. He is the healer of hunched over people, not of straight people. And so come and turn to Him and trust Him and He will heal you.

And for Wellspring, may we be a church that welcomes people as they are. We can’t be a church that welcomes people when they’re cleaned up, standing straight, living life as we are in our sense of what is proper or right. The church can’t be a place solely for a certain type of people. We must never say, “They aren’t my type/kind of people.” We can’t be so comfortable that we have no room for those even vastly different from us. Jesus has a name for such people, hypocrites. Because every person was once an alien, a stranger, and enemy of God, hunched over and disabled before Him, and yet, He still welcomes us into His family. He has enabled every one of us to join Him, even though we were once disabled.