Luke 13:10-17 –
10
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 leader 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 your 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.
Prayer
Remember we talked a few weeks ago about Jesus laying out his mission through a passage in Isaiah.
This was the portion of scripture that he read to the people in his home town synagogue that day: “The
Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent
me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
In today’s passage we see Jesus living out a portion of that purpose statement. Today we read about
Jesus setting free the oppressed.
Oppression can take on a lot of forms. We probably most often think of oppression as something
someone does to someone else. We have seen oppression in our own country’s history. Many of the
first settlers came here to escape religious oppression. The colonies rebelled against England because of
financial oppression. We then became oppressors ourselves to our black brothers and sisters and only
recently has that oppression been loosened. We have come through times of oppression as a country
and a people based on sex, economic status, religion, orientation, nationality, and race.
Oppression is something that we as a country have had to deal with in the past and will continue to deal
with in the future. We do not live in a world today free from oppression, far from it. And so when I read
to you that Jesus sets the oppressed free that should be good news. That is the Gospel, for Gospel
means simply good news. That Jesus sets the oppressed free should be something that we share with
any and all who feel trapped and beaten down in this life.
I spoke of oppression that comes from other people, but oppression does not only come through other
people. Sometimes oppression comes from our own selves. Sometimes our minds are so twisted by
doubt and depression that we are oppressed. The sin that we commit puts shackles of oppression on us.
Today’s passage is about a woman whose very own flesh was her oppression. Can you imagine being
trapped in a body that will not bend to your will? Can you imagine being in constant pain and constantly
fatigued? That was this woman’s life for 18 years, but then Jesus came to town.
Luke 13:10-17 –
10
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.
Here is the testimony of a modern day woman with a very similar ailment: I feel the pain as a big lump –
red and hot – of muscles, nerves, tendons bunched together in my upper back. Feels as if everything has
been ripped after being pulled in different directions…The pain shoots up into my neck, which feels stiff
sometimes and other times vulnerable, weak, like it could break off. The pain controls me. It’s limiting. I
can only go so far and then the pain stops me. Whenever I have to do something really physical or deal
with a stressful situation, the pain increases terrifically. I’ve had to stop thinking about decisions I need
to make in my marriage and relax and get my pain under control. Can’t deal with my financial and career
needs either. The pain is just too bad.
That modern day woman has the blessing of doctors and medicine and lumbar support. The woman in
today’s story had none of that. She had lived in constant pain for 18 years and yet she still went to the
synagogue to worship on the Sabbath. That faithfulness was about to be rewarded.
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.
That woman had put herself in a situation to be freed from her oppression. She might not have thought
of going to church in those terms, but God is in the business of freeing people and so there was no
better place for her to be.
We need to make sure that we are putting ourselves in situations that free us and not in situations that
bind us. Worship and Bible Study and Christian fellowship are all great places to go to find freedom from
oppression. Or they should be. Sometimes a silent room with just you and God can be a great place to
be freed. The location isn’t always important, but the substance is.
We need to make sure that we are putting ourselves in situations that free us and not in situations that
bind us and we need to seek the same thing for our friends, family, and loved ones. There are plenty of
forces in this world that oppress. There are legalistic systems. There is hate. There is sin. There is selfdestruction aplenty in this life. Let’s be guides to freedom. Let’s create holy spaces in our church, our
homes, our offices, wherever we go. That’s what Jesus did.
14
Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, “There
are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”
The synagogue leader was right. Jesus could have healed this woman any day of the week. And there
were plenty of rules against what Jesus just did for that woman.
Here are a few Sabbath rules that Jews had: 1) One was to avoid deliberately taking medicine, but could
eat or drink things that could be either medicinal or normal food and drink if it was something one might
eat or drink on a normal occasion. 2) Injures that could wait should, “They may not straighten a
deformed child’s body or set a broken limb. If a man’s hand or foot is dislocated he may not pour cold
water over it, but he may wash it after his usual fashion, and if he is healed he is healed.
Those were the kind of rules that the synagogue leader was working under. Those laws clearly stated
that if an injury could wait for the day after the Sabbath, then no matter the pain, it should wait. Clearly,
this woman’s injury could wait it had waited 18 years. What was one more day?
To a person in pain how long is one more day?
15
The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your 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?”
For Jesus, one more day of pain for this daughter of Abraham was one day too many. Forget the rules,
God desires freedom from oppression for His people and this woman was not free. This woman was
trapped and for Jesus that would not do.
If you are anything like me then at about this point you begin to think about all the people who suffer
and don’t find immediate release. There are many suffering souls in this world. Some are in this very
room.
As I was pondering that very thing I came across quote from a random sufferer who also is a follower of
Jesus: “Loneliness is not a thing of itself, not an evil sent to rob us of the joys of life. Loneliness, loss,
pain, sorrow, these are disciplines, God’s gifts to drive us to his very heart, to increase our capacity for
him, to sharpen our sensitivities and understanding, to temper our spiritual lives so that they may
become channels of his mercy to others and so bear fruit for his kingdom. But these disciplines must be
seized upon and used, not thwarted. They must not be seen as excuses for living in the shadow of halflives, but as messengers, however painful, to bring our souls into vital contact with the living God, that
our lives may be filled to overflowing with himself in ways that may, perhaps, be impossible to those
who know less of life’s darkness.”
I know that if you are suffering talk of freedom from oppression might sound empty without the
freedom from pain. After all, Jesus brought this woman freedom from pain why not you? I don’t have an
answer to that, but I do see wisdom in that quote from that unnamed man. It echoes these truths we
find in scripture.
Romans 5:3-5 - More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame,
because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
James 1:2-4 - Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the
testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be
perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
Maybe you haven’t found freedom from your pain yet, but I hope that you have found freedom from
self-loathing, self-pity, sin, and doubt. I hope that your mind and your soul has been set free even if you
are still waiting for your body to follow.
The woman in today’s story waited faithfully for 18 years and then unexpectedly Jesus came to her
town, to her very synagogue, and he touched her and she was healed.
The leader of that synagogue had a lot of reasons for why Jesus shouldn’t have done what he did, but
Jesus had one reason to trump all the excuses. She was in bondage and he could do something about it.
Are there people around us that are in bondage? Are there people around us that maybe we can have a
hand in setting free? What is your excuse for inaction?
I know that I have told this story before, but I love it.
One time Tony Campollo and his son Bart were in Haiti. Bart was only 17 years old at the time. They
were walking down the street in Port-au-Prince when they found themselves surrounded by
impoverished, raggedy children. They were begging for pennies, and Tony said, “Bart, don’t give them
anything! If you do, they won’t let up until they’ve got everything we have.” Bart looked at his Dad
quizzically and said, “So?”
Bart understood that even if the timing and circumstances weren’t perfect if they could do something
right then to alleviate the pain and suffering in those kids lives then they should.
We have the good news. We have resources and manpower. We have the Holy Spirit inside us. If there is
something, anything, we can do to bring freedom to the oppressed then we should.
17
When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the
wonderful things he was doing.
There will always be detractors when you do good. There will always be people who want to hate when
you show love. There will always be naysayers and doubters in the face of the truth of the Gospel. So
what? Let them.
“All his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was
doing.”
Let us pray now that the oppressed will be set free. Let us pray that God will use us to loose the ties that
bind. Let us pray that our detractors will be humiliated and that all people everywhere will be delighted
at the amazing things Jesus is doing in our midst.