Knowing Jesus through His Miracles

From Chapter 11: The woman bent with a Spirit of Infirmity Luke 13:10-17 The woman with the spirit of infirmity was present while Jesus taught. She had come to the synagogue to worship. She had a severe case of curvature of the spine. Weymouth (1903) translates it as “bent double”. She had been bent over for eighteen years. Kistemaker (p 84) describes it as a deformity of the vertebrae that gradually fused. The Bible says she had a spirit of infirmity, implying that some external force prohibited her from standing straight and walking with ease. One can only imagine what an effort she expended to get to the worship service. There was no public transportation. People walked on the Sabbath carefully, counting their steps so that they did not break Sabbath day rules by exceeding the number of steps allotted for the Sabbath. The Sabbath Day’s journey is broadly defined in Exodus 16:29. The Bible is not clear about the exact number of steps approved by God for the Sabbath. The expectation of the correct distance one could travel on the Sabbath is taken from Acts 1:12, where it states: Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city. A Jew was permitted to walk 2000 cubits on the Sabbath, about three-fourths mile (Oxford Dictionary). This would correlate with the distance between the Mount of Olives and Jerusalem. This woman came to church to worship. There is no mention that she expected a miracle of healing. She sat in the women’s courts with other females and most likely did not even see Jesus. Her infirmity kept her looking down. Bent over so completely, she saw the ground and possibly Jesus’ feet, but she was unable to see Jesus’ face. She recognized people by their feet and their voices, not their faces. She was unsteady on her feet and used a walking stick. She may have heard that a healer was in town. No one doubted Jesus’ ability to heal. His healing was well documented and witnessed by crowds. This woman was disadvantaged in that she was unable to directly approach Jesus for healing. She had no spokesperson to plead on her behalf, and women in this culture were not permitted to address a male. The Bible calls her malady a spirit of infirmity, which aligns the physical issue with a mental problem. Lockyer reports that her physical condition is connected to her nervous system, and the subsequent stress kept her bound by a spirit. The Book of Luke tends to be a study in contrasts. He presents evil and good. The infirm woman’s problem was rooted deeper than a mere physical condition. Luke describes Jesus' words regarding her condition as: 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 (Luke 13:16)? Attributing her bondage to Satan extends this woman’s issue to the mental and spiritual realm. The woman’s inability to lift herself physically and emotionally from her melancholic state is analogous to humans being unable to lift themselves from the pits of sin that confine them physically, emotionally, and spiritually unless the Lord reaches down and lifts them to higher ground. After Jesus concluded His teaching, He looked at the crippled woman and said: Woman, you are released from your infirmity. He placed His hands on her shoulders as He said these words, and the power of God flowed from Him to her, through her body with a jolt much like electricity. The woman felt it, straightened up for the first time in eighteen years, and praised the Lord. This action on the Sabbath caused great consternation for the religious leaders. Women were never permitted to utter a word in the synagogue. They could listen, and even if they had a question, they were commanded to ask their husbands after the service and at home. As an aside, Jesus addressed this woman as “Woman”. This word, woman, is considered by some today to be a word that places females in bondage to or in a submissive role to men. Their understanding is that the word woman is a derivative of man or men, seemingly placing a woman in an inferior position to men. However, it was a word of respect in Jesus’ day. In the miracle of Cana, Jesus addresses His mother as woman. As another side issue, men in this culture did not touch a woman in public or private, other than their own wife. Again, Jesus broke with tradition by touching a woman in public. The leader of the synagogue was distressed. He was responsible for his congregation. Jesus was recognized as a learned scholar. He was called Rabbi by his followers. It was customary for the ruler of the synagogue to invite guest speakers. This leader was not expecting anything beyond the reading of the Old Testament and possibly some teaching on the scripture. In his distress and anger, the synagogue leader bypasses an open encounter with Jesus and addresses the congregation by explaining that the Sabbath is a day of worship. They had six days for healing, but never on the Sabbath. He does not deny that Jesus had the power to heal. He acknowledges this power. He only condemns the practice on the Sabbath. It appears that the religious leaders are beginning to believe there is something supernatural in this man they call Jesus. Whereas the leader rebuked his congregation for their uproar of praise at the healing, Jesus directed His words to all. He asks them what was lawful for them to do in terms of their stewardship over their animals. Do they release their donkeys and oxen on the day of rest to get water? If animals can be released from their stalls or bondage on the Sabbath, how much more should this woman, a daughter of Abraham, be released from the spirit and influence of Satan, who had kept her in bondage for eighteen years? Jesus broke the chains that bound this woman and gave her a new life. He removed the strict legalism and religious pretense that had bound the Jews and proclaimed the Sabbath as a day of love and acts of kindness. At this, Jesus’ adversaries were humbled, and the people continued to rejoice in the Lord. What this religious leader did not understand was that he was chastising the one who issued the laws to Moses, who was the creator and, as such, exists outside the law and is above the law. He is attempting to restrict Jesus to man-made perceptions of the nature of the Sabbath. God designed the Sabbath for man, prohibiting him from work on that day. He merely said in the Ten Commandments to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. God (Jesus) did not bind Himself to the commandment to “remember the Sabbath and keep it holy as holiness was defined by the religious leaders. He was the God of the Sabbath, and He was/is holy. It was not improper for God, Jesus, and/or the Holy Spirit to show mercy on the Sabbath. Jesus was the Lord of the Sabbath, and He was able to show grace and mercy on that day. The religious leaders were not empowered to design laws for God and His Son to follow. It was not in their job description to dictate to the God of the universe.