A Touch From Jesus - Luke 13:10-17

Our passage for today is found in Luke chapter 13

Luke 13:10-17  On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, ¹¹ and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. ¹² When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, "Woman, you are set free from your infirmity." ¹³ Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God. ¹⁴ Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue ruler said to the people, "There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath." ¹⁵ The Lord answered him, "You hypocrites! Doesn't each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? ¹⁶ Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?" ¹⁷ When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.

There are some interesting, and somewhat challenging, things going on here

Let’s go ahead and break this passage down to see what’s happening

Luke 13:10-17  On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, ¹¹ and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all.

It was the Sabbath and Jesus was teaching in a local synagogue

This was not at all unusual

Pretty much anywhere Jesus went He was teaching

Jesus was also a recognized Rabbi and was becoming very popular, so it would have been very natural for Him to get the chance to teach at whatever synagogue He happened to come across

So, while Jesus was teaching He noticed a woman that was there who had a serious back issue

We don’t know much about what the woman’s condition was other than what Scripture tells us

For 18 years this woman had been bent over and could not straighten up at all

I read one commentator that said he thought she might have Marie-Strümpell Disease

Marie-Strümpell Disease causes severe back pain, which is relived somewhat if the person bends forward

The problem is that the disease also causes the spine to fuse, and therefore since the patient is bent forward the spine fuses bent forward, making it impossible for the patient to stand upright

This disease would fit into the limited information that we have, so it is very possible that this woman had Marie-Strümpell Disease

But the bottom line is that there is no way we can know what specifically was wrong with this woman

I do want to point out something interesting before we go on however

Verse 11 states that this woman had been “crippled by a spirit,” which implies that it was a demonic spirit that was causing her infirmity

“Wait, does that stuff really happen?”

Well, it’s in the Bible to apparently it does!

Actually, we see several places in Scripture where a demonic spirit causes some kind of physical ailment

Does this mean that all disease is caused by demonic spirits?

No, of course not

But certainly there are some diseases that are

This was apparently one of those situations

I love what happens next

 ¹² When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, "Woman, you are set free from your infirmity." ¹³ Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.

Of course Jesus healed her – that was a given

But what sticks out to me is the phrase “he called her forward”

Why does this phrase stick out?

Because generally, when someone was healed by Jesus they sought Him out

They came to wherever He was and asked Him for healing

This time Jesus was not asked

Certainly this woman knew about Jesus – everybody knew about Jesus!

She must have known that people had been healed by Him, so why didn’t she approach Jesus?

The Bible doesn’t say, so we can’t know for sure

But you know me and you know that I like to speculate!

My guess is that this woman’s back problem had been with her so long it became “normal” for her

She had this issue for 18 years – that’s a long time!

So long that, even though I’m sure it bothered her, she was probably convinced nothing would change, and possibly got to the point where she didn’t even think about it

We can do the same thing

We can have issues in our life – physical, spiritual, emotional – that become normal

So normal we don’t even think about them

We feel they will be with us for the rest of our lives

In some circumstances these issues are all we’ve ever known

We may not even be aware that there could be another way because this is how it’s always been

In a way we are not a lot different than this woman

When she went to the synagogue that day she was expecting to go home the same way she came

What she didn’t expect was Jesus calling her out!

But that’s exactly what Jesus did

He saw her need and called her out

He didn’t wait for her to come to Him – that may have never happened – He just saw the need and did something about it

Jesus laid hands on the woman and her life was changed – she was able to stand up!

You would think that everyone around would have been happy

I’m sure most of them knew this woman and the struggles she had dealt with over the previous 18 years

I’m sure that many of them even prayed for her, prayed that God would heal her

But when God decides to do something the reaction is anything but what you would expect

 ¹⁴ Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue ruler said to the people, "There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath."

Why was the synagogue ruler so upset?

The 4^th commandment says “Remember the Sabbath day.”

According to the instructions given to Moses by God the 7^th day of the week – Saturday – was to be a day set apart when no work would be done

No work at all – you even needed to cook your meals the day before

You were also not allowed to travel more than 1 mile from your home

Like most things, the religious leaders took God’s instructions very seriously

Too seriously sometimes

What really is work?  How do you define it?

Was Jesus really working when He healed this woman?

Of course not!

Jesus was sinless – if healing on the Sabbath really was work then Jesus would not have done it

 ¹⁵ The Lord answered him, "You hypocrites! Doesn't each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? ¹⁶ Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?" ¹⁷ When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.

Jesus goes on to point out the double standard of the synagogue ruler

He says that they have no problem untying an animal on the Sabbath so it can get some water, but for whatever reason do not want people to be healed

Think about the difference

It took Jesus no effort at all to heal this woman

Laying hands on her was no different than patting a friend on the back

But because she was healed, the synagogue ruler was mad

We need to watch out for double standards

It’s fun to point them out in others, but not so fun when they are revealed in us!

Example: don’t drink because your body is the temple (then don’t eat junk food)

Here’s the thing – the problem was not the law of the Sabbath, the problem was the synagogue rulers interpretation of that law

We see that all the time today

I believe with all my heart that the Bible is the inspired and infallible Word of God

However I do not believe that man’s interpretation of the Bible is always inspired or infallible

We make mistakes in our interpretation

We often go to Scripture with preconceived ideas as to what we want it to say, and in turn can easily spin what Scripture is really saying into what we want it to say

Example – Civil war and slavery

Think about it for a minute

How was Jesus usually received among the religious leaders?

Not well at all

We do not know what Jesus was teaching in the synagogue, but based on what we know about Him there is a good chance that His teaching had the synagogue ruler riled up to begin with

Then Jesus calls this woman up front – something that was not done in that male dominated society – and heals her

Now the synagogue ruler, who was already upset with Jesus, makes a connection equating healing with work

He let his personal feelings get in the way of his interpretation of Scripture

We cannot afford to do this!

We must read the Bible for what it is, not what we want it to be

How do we do that?

Honestly, I have not gotten that one totally figured out yet

The only thing I can suggest is that before we seriously study we need to pray that God would open our eyes to His truth

Also notice that it was only the ruler of the synagogue that had a problem with what Jesus did

The people also knew the Sabbath law very well, yet verse 17 says that they were delighted with what Jesus was doing

There is one more thing I need to point out before we wrap up

In verse 16 Jesus specifically stated that the woman’s back problems were from the devil

Way too often we blame God for all our problems when God had nothing to do with them

Many times our problems are there because of poor decisions that have been made – sometimes poor decisions by us, sometimes poor decisions by others

Sometimes our problems are the result of the fact that we live in a sinful world, and sometimes bad things happen to good people

And sometimes our problems are the result of the devil

Why would he want to cause us problems?

Because he will do everything he can to get us to either turn our backs on God

Or if he can’t do that, at least make us ineffective in our walk

But remember – Jesus saw the woman’s problem, sought her out, and healed her

God wants to do the same with you today

Whatever your problem, whatever your issue, Jesus wants to deliver you

Maybe it’s a physical issue like to woman in our story today had

Maybe it’s a spiritual issue like the synagogue ruler had

Maybe it’s financial, relational, or any other issue

Jesus is calling you forward today to receive your healing

Will you respond?