And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath.
The scene is a Sabbath gathering in a synagogue, and Jesus is the one teaching. A woman crippled for eighteen years is in the room, and the day itself sparks the quarrel that follows her healing.
The chapter opens with warnings of perishing and a fig tree given one last season. Against that dark background, He still stands among the people He has just warned.
The Lord had shown the Jews the fate coming on them, because they were uselessly taking up the ground. Even so, He still taught in their synagogues on the Sabbath day. The time of patience had not run out. And nothing stopped grace from acting toward one person at a time.
Judgment hanging over a nation did not cancel mercy toward one person in it.
The synagogue was the place where Jews met on the Sabbath. Teaching there was His habit, not a one-off visit.
The Lord's practice was to teach and preach the word on the sabbath in the synagogues, where the Jews regularly gathered (John 18:20). People coming together like this gave Him the chance to put the truth before many at once. The Lord took that chance again and again (Matt. 4:23; Matt. 12:9; Mark 1:39; Luke 4:44). It was His "custom" to do so (Luke 4:16).
The Sabbath had been the sign of God's rest. But the world He walked into gave God nothing to rest in.
A good and holy God could not find rest on a sabbath in the middle of man's wickedness. In such a state of things there had to be either judgment or working in grace. So God's Son came down to the earth. He did not come to keep a sabbath while everything was defiled, but to work in grace.
In Luke, the Sabbath keeps showing what the people were like inside — above all those with a name among men.
The sabbath had often given occasion to show the evil state of the people, and above all of those held in high regard by men, as in Luke 6:2, 7, 11. Here the Holy Spirit brings in the grace of our Lord. The setting tells of God's moral judgment of Israel, whose state His presence both tested and made worse — He who went about doing good and healing all whom the devil oppressed.
One woman in that room was bent over and helpless, yet she had still come to the service. Her body pictured what many others were like inside.
The poor woman was bent over and helpless, yet she still attended the service of God in the synagogue. Her physical condition was a fitting picture of the spiritual state of many. They were full of spiritual infirmity. They found the law to be a crushing yoke. Its weight bent them over too, so that they could not straighten themselves and look up.
Where she sat, almost no one could see her.
It was the custom for the men to worship in the main body of the building, and the women in a gallery behind a screen. You will agree with me that a woman who could not lift herself up at all was a most unlikely person to be noticed. But such is the beautiful grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that she was the only person He singled out. His eye rested on the sufferer.
- Patience. God had announced judgment on the nation, yet the time of patience had not run out. So He kept teaching in their synagogues.
- Custom. The synagogue was where He taught, week by week. It put the truth before many people at once.
- Rest. God could find no rest in a world of wickedness. Only two answers were possible: judgment, or working in grace. He came to work in grace.
- Test. The Sabbath kept exposing the men with a reputation among people. His presence tested what they thought of a God who does good.
- One. In a room full of hearers, His eye rested on the one no one else could see — bent over, hidden in the gallery, and still there.
And lo, [there was] a woman having a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and she was bent together and wholly unable to lift her head up.
A woman bent double for eighteen years stands among the worshippers in a synagogue on a Sabbath. Two questions run through the commentators: what was holding her, and why did the Lord act now, just after warning the nation of coming judgment?
The chapter has just announced judgment on the nation. Yet the Lord kept teaching in their synagogues, and one writer weighs what that shows about grace.
The Lord had shown the fate coming on the Jews, because they were only taking up ground for nothing. Even so, He still taught in their synagogues on the Sabbath day. It was still the time of patience. And more than that, nothing kept grace from acting on one person at a time.
Luke does not call this a disease. He traces it to a spirit, which the ESV calls "a disabling spirit." One writer reads that as a hostile power over her that no human could stop.
For eighteen years that poor woman had been unable to straighten herself. Demonic power ruled over her like a tyrant, for it was a spirit of infirmity, and men could do nothing to stop it… God was glorified in the synagogue that day. The glory came from a poor woman who had suffered so much. In her, two powers were shown: the power of a demon, and the greater, kind power of God.
Notice where this bondage was on display: inside the place of worship, week after week.
We may move in religious circles today, but that alone does not prove we have been set free. The woman in Luke 13 had been bound for eighteen years in full view of the synagogue. No one realized that it was Satan's work. Then the Lord Jesus, who came to undo the works of the devil, set her free.
Several writers read her bent frame as a picture of something deeper. The number of years is weighed too.
A woman was there who "was bent over and could not fully straighten herself." This is a vivid picture of every person's spiritual state through sin. He cannot look up into the face of his God, and he has no strength to mend his own evil plight (Ps. 40:12; Rom. 5:6). The woman had suffered in her deformity for eighteen years. If numbers in Scripture carry meaning, as we believe, then eighteen — three times six — points to evil in its full display. Compare Rev. 13:18. So she becomes the picture of the worst of sinners.
Commentators differ on whom exactly she pictures. Another sees in her the burden of law rather than the guilt of the worst sinner — noting that, bowed as she was, she still turned up for the service of God.
The poor woman, though bent over and helpless, was one who waited upon the service of God in the synagogue. Her physical condition was a fitting picture of where many stood spiritually. They were full of spiritual infirmity. They found the law a crushing yoke. Under its weight they were bent over, unable to straighten themselves and look up.
Later in the account the Lord calls her a daughter of Abraham. One writer says that name settles who she was.
She was clearly a child of God, not an unconverted sinner, for the Lord speaks of her as a daughter of Abraham. Those words carry a spiritual meaning, as we may learn from Galatians 3:7: "It is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham." This woman was a daughter of faith… Yet for eighteen long years Satan had bound her, and that is astonishing. From this we learn what power Satan may have over a true child of God. In her case it was a physical infirmity. She was bent double, so bent that she could see nothing but herself.
She asked for nothing. The Lord saw her, called her, and touched her — and one writer notes what He set aside to do it.
What did the great man in the pulpit care for her? She was only a woman, unattractive, deformed, a cripple. But to the Lord she was a daughter of Abraham, a needy woman held by Satan's power, an object of mercy longing for deliverance from the chains that bound her. He interrupted the service for her sake, He broke in upon its miserable formality and called to her. He singled her out and spoke to her directly in that crowded congregation… And He did more. He laid His hands on her — not one hand, but both. At once she was made straight and glorified God.
- Bound. Her trouble was not weak health but a spirit — a real power holding her down that no one could stop.
- Hidden. For eighteen years she sat bound in full view of the synagogue, and religious surroundings never named her captor.
- Seen. She asked for nothing. The Lord saw the woman no one else noticed and called her out of the crowd.
- Loosed. He spoke, then laid both hands on her — and at once she stood straight and glorified God.
- Owned. He named her a daughter of Abraham: a true child of faith can still live in bondage, and Christ alone breaks it.
And Jesus, seeing her, called to [her], and said to her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity.
A woman bent double for eighteen years comes to hear God's word in the synagogue, and before she asks for anything, Jesus notices her and speaks. Two things stand out. He acted first. And His word announced her freedom as something already done.
Nothing in the account suggests she came looking for healing. She came to listen, and He saw her.
It was still a time of patience, and nothing stopped grace from acting for one person... She did not look for the gracious power of Jesus. But when He saw her, "He called her over and said to her, Woman, you are freed from your disability."
He did not wait for a private moment. He stopped the meeting and spoke to her in front of everyone.
But to the Lord she was a daughter of Abraham. She was a needy woman held by Satan's power, someone to show mercy to, longing to be free from the chains that bound her. He interrupted the service for her sake. He broke through its dreary formality and called to her. He picked her out of that crowded congregation and spoke to her directly: "Woman, you are freed from your disability."
The verb is the language of untying, not of medicine. It treats her condition as a bond, and Jesus as the one with the right to cut it — a right He later presses on His critics, since they untie their own animals on the Sabbath to water them.
One Sabbath the Lord was teaching in a synagogue. He saw a woman who had been bent over so long that she could not look up. Yet she had come to hear God's word. Neither she nor anyone else asked Him for help. He spoke to her with words of compassion that work wonders... He had defeated the strong one. He would strip him of all the armour he trusted in and divide his spoils. The Lord had the right to proclaim release to the captives and to set free those who were bound.
Judgment was already hanging over the nation. This healing happened in that shadow.
But the Lord then lets us see that grace could still act in such a state. So He heals the woman bowed down with the spirit of infirmity. In this He shows the goodness of God, even at a time when judgment was at the door. And He rebuked the wicked hypocrisy of a heart that found fault with His goodness, because it was the Sabbath day.
Commentators read her bent back as more than a medical detail.
A woman was there who was bent over and could not straighten herself at all. She is a telling picture of every person's spiritual condition because of sin. Such a person cannot look up into the face of his God, and has no strength to mend his own sorry state (Ps. 40:12; Rom. 5:6).
One writer applies the picture to believers. He takes "daughter of Abraham" to mean she already had faith:
This woman was a daughter of faith, because she walked in the steps of Abraham's faith, and he was the father of all who believe... This woman was one of them. The astonishing thing is that Satan had held her bound for eighteen long years. From this we learn what power Satan can have over someone who is a true child of God. In her case it was a physical infirmity. She was bent double, so bent that she could see nothing but herself.
The forces stacked against her were real, and every one of them gave way at once.
Yet Satan had a hand in her sad state, taking advantage of her infirmity. What is more, the ruler of the synagogue would have used the ceremonial law to block her healing. But the Lord brushed all this aside. By His word, and by His own touch, He set her free at once. Many would say, "For me it was law, infirmity, hopeless bondage and the power of Satan, until Christ stepped in with the might of His grace. Then what a change!"
- Seen — She never asked. He saw her, and grace moved first, even in a nation already facing judgment.
- Called — He interrupted a whole service to speak to one bent-over woman, out loud, in front of the crowd.
- Loosed — The word means release, not repair. He had already defeated the strong one who held her, so He had the right to set captives free.
- Straightened — Her bent back pictures a person who cannot look up into God's face and cannot mend it. His word and His touch undid in a moment what eighteen years had set.
- Changed — Law, infirmity, bondage and Satan all gave way at once. Many since can tell the same story: then what a change!
And he laid his hands upon her; and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.
For eighteen years a woman had been bent double and could not lift herself. In a synagogue on a Sabbath, Christ freed her with a word and a touch — and the first thing she did upright was give God glory.
Christ had already set her free by speaking. A word alone could have healed her, so why did He also touch her?
She did not seek the gracious power of Jesus. But when He saw her, He called her over and said to her, "Woman, you are freed from your disability." Not satisfied with this, He laid His hands on her. There was far more grace in acting this way than in curing her by a word alone. He could have done the one as easily as the other.
Another writer takes the two acts as a pattern for how anyone comes into freedom: first a word, then a personal touch.
How did the Lord produce this wonderful change in her? Instead of always looking at herself, she could now stand upright and give glory to God. He did it by His word and by His touch. These, I believe, are symbolic. What sets our souls free and gives us happy freedom before God? It is first the word of the Cross… Then came the touch. The Lord laid His hands upon her, and the work was done.
Her bent back pictured more than a physical problem. Even the number of years carries meaning.
A woman was there who "was bent over and could not fully straighten herself." This is an expressive picture of every person's spiritual condition through sin. Such a person cannot look up into the face of his God, and is without strength to remedy his evil plight. The woman had suffered in her deformity for eighteen years. If Scripture numbers are significant, as we believe, then eighteen is three times six, and that suggests the full display of evil. So she becomes the picture of the worst of sinners.
Commentators differ over whom she pictures. One calls her the worst kind of sinner. Another sees a believer held down, and names everything Christ had to sweep away.
This woman was a "daughter of Abraham," that is, a true child of faith. Yet Satan had a hand in her sad state, taking advantage of her weakness. The ruler of the synagogue, too, would have used the ceremonial law to block her healing. But the Lord brushed all this aside. By His Word, and by His personal touch, He set her free at once. Many would say, "For me it was law, and weakness, and hopeless bondage, and the power of Satan, until Christ stepped in with the might of His grace. Then what a change!"
What happened to her body pictures what grace does inside a person — and it happens just as fast.
This is a beautiful illustration of the work of grace in the soul, and of its practical result, in every case. Everyone Christ lays His blessed hands on is "immediately made straight," and is enabled to glorify God.
Her praise is only part of what happened here. Behind the cure stood a beaten enemy. Kelly quotes the verse in an older wording: "was glorifying God."
She never asked, and no one asked for her. He spoke to her with words of wonder-working compassion… Then, not content with what was already enough, "He laid his hands upon her; and immediately she was made straight, and was glorifying God." He had defeated the strong one. He would take from him all the armour he trusted in, and divide his spoils. The Lord had every right to proclaim release to the captives, and to set free those who were bound.
Not everyone in that synagogue felt what she felt. The same writer adds that her nation could have had what she had.
Israel could have received the same grace, if only she had admitted her crooked condition — and one day she will, when she faces the great tribulation. The woman clearly had faith, and she glorified God. That was a lovely contrast to the cold criticism that the religious leaders had spread among the people.
- Bent. For eighteen years she could not lift herself. She pictures a condition no one can fix from the inside: "without strength to remedy his evil plight."
- Spoken. The word came first and was enough on its own: Christ could have cured her by speaking only.
- Touched. He added His hands anyway, and there was "far more grace" in that than in a word from a distance.
- Straightened. The change came at once. Christ brushed aside law, weakness, Satan and the objections of religious men.
- Glorifying. A straightened back looks upward. Her praise shone against the cold criticism around her.
But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus healed on the sabbath, answering said to the crowd, There are six days in which [people] ought to work; in these therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day.
Jesus has just straightened a woman bent double for eighteen years, and she is praising God. The man in charge of the synagogue is furious: he cannot deny the miracle, so he attacks its timing.
Nobody could deny that the woman was standing straight. The ruler's anger exposes him, not the healing:
The ruler of the synagogue should have acknowledged God and blessed Him for the goodness and power He had just shown. Instead he was "indignant." He hated the grace he could not deny. So he proved himself to be under a deeper slavery to Satan than the woman who had been set free.
Where he was standing, and who stood in front of him, makes the anger worse:
An indignant synagogue ruler in the presence of the God of grace, the God of Israel! Indignant, and why? Because the Lord made a poor, suffering woman straight on the Sabbath day. Had she asked for it? The story says nothing of the kind.
He spoke to the crowd. His target was elsewhere:
The ruler spoke to the people, but his real attack was on the Lord, made under cover. He took his stand on the law (Ex. 20:9). If need be, he would use that law to block God's work in grace. He turned the commandment God gave to Israel against the God of Israel Himself... It is true that the ruler did not speak to Him or name Him. But the words the Gospel writer records — "There are six days in which work ought to be done" — pointed to a condemnation of the Lord. He, not the woman, had been working that day.
His rule does not survive a moment's thought:
Religion on its own, without Christ, is sadly unreasonable and cold with prejudice. This ruler spoke to the people, not to the Lord, and scolded them for coming on the sabbath day to be healed. He did not stop to think that if the healing the Lord was doing counted as work, then preaching was work too. But this was not the kind of daily labour done for gain, which is what the law forbade (Lev. 23:7). Under the law God did not forbid things like healing the sick. Only men with legal minds could imagine such cruel restrictions.
A second inconsistency runs deeper:
He was indignant at the gracious work of healing, yet he did not care at all about her humiliating condition... This poor, hollow religious man had no idea that he stood in the very presence of the Lord of the true sabbath! He was completely blind to the moral contradiction of trying to keep a sabbath while man's condition cried out for God to work!
The problem ran wider than one bad ruling about one day. He held real truth and used it to shut more truth out:
One weakness of the human mind is to use the truth it already holds to resist the truth God is now revealing. Paul is an example. He was, "as to righteousness under the law, blameless." Yet he was convinced that he "ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth"... Men use right doctrine to shut truth out. When truth is the ground a man stands on, it earns him credit. But when a new truth arrives, it puts his faith to the test... He should have known that the Lord of the sabbath was there. That one phrase, "daughter of Abraham," should have told him who was standing in front of him.
Christ could have waited a day. He did not:
Grace stoops tenderly to people in misery. But it does not bend to the stubborn unbelief of men, and least of all to men who make a show of their religion while they have nothing real in the sight of God. Christ healed her on the Sabbath, in front of the whole congregation. He knew it would stir up the hatred of the ruler of the synagogue. There is no use trying to stay on good terms with men who claim to be God's friends but are really His enemies... Strong feeling in religion never stops to think. It stands completely apart from true faith, so it tends to follow whatever suits the moment.
- Indignant. He hated a grace he could not deny, and showed a bondage deeper than the woman's own.
- Indirect. He spoke to the crowd, never to Jesus, yet his words condemned the only person working that day.
- Inconsistent. If healing was work, so was preaching. The law forbade work done for gain, not mercy shown to the suffering.
- Insensible. He guarded the day of rest and ignored the woman who needed God to act. He never realised whose day it was.
- Immovable. Grace stoops to the miserable, but it will not bargain with religious pretence. Christ healed her in the open, knowing the cost.
The Lord therefore answered him and said, Hypocrites! does not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the manger and leading [it] away, water [it]?
A synagogue ruler had just found fault with Christ for healing a woman on the sabbath. The Lord answers by giving that objection its true name. Then He points to what these same men do for their own animals every sabbath.
The Lord does not answer the ruler alone. One writer notes that the better reading is plural. The argument then weighs what these men allow an animal against what they refuse a woman.
"You hypocrites" — that is how we should read it. The Lord addressed a whole class, not only that ruler, who was just the mouthpiece of others. How absurd to plead the holiness of the day against setting a human being free from Satan's power! In their own eyes that holiness was not broken when they cared for the needs of their animals. Was it wrong to care for the animals? Not at all. Then it certainly could not be wrong to set the woman free. Where their own daily interests were at stake, their practice showed that the ruler's objection was hollow and his indignation had no ground.
Another writer explains the ruler's silent supporters as sharers in the same half-heartedness:
"The Lord therefore answered him and said, You hypocrites!" — for he had not a few who shared his half-hearted unbelief.
Their everyday care for their animals showed what they thought a person was worth.
It was, in fact, only loud-voiced hypocrisy. They had no problem leading their animals away to water. They valued a person at less than an animal.
The same word "loose" covers both the animal and the woman. What stirred the ruler was not the bondage but the release from it.
As far as the ruler of the synagogue cared, that poor woman might have gone on to the end of her days, bent over and unable to straighten up. He would have been quite content to let her stay a sad witness to Satan's power, as long as he could keep his sabbath. What stirred his religious anger was not Satan's power, seen in the woman's condition. It was Christ's power, seen in her complete deliverance.
That indignation says something about the man himself:
The ruler of the synagogue should have acknowledged God and blessed Him for the goodness and power He had shown. Instead he was "indignant." He hated the grace he could not deny. So he proved himself to be under a deeper slavery to Satan than the woman who had been set free.
One writer traces the ruler's blindness to a habit of mind that Paul also once shared.
One weakness of the human mind is to use the truth it already holds to resist the truth God is now revealing. Paul was an example of this — "as to righteousness under the law, blameless"; yet he thought he "ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth"... People use their orthodoxy to shut truth out. When truth is the ground of a man's standing, it gains him credit; but when a new truth comes in, it puts faith to the test... But he ought to have known that the Lord of the sabbath was there; for that one phrase "daughter of Abraham" should have told him who was standing there.
The absurdity, as one writer puts it, is a creature legislating for his Maker about his Maker's own day.
If he had stopped to think for a moment, he would have seen the folly and wickedness of his pretended pious anger. He would have seen that he was fighting against God. But religious passion never stops to think. It stands wholly apart from true faith, so present interests usually rule it... Vain and wicked man, that dared to lay down the law to God! He was far from keeping the law himself, yet ventured to give law to Him who was not more truly man than God. God is not to work on His own Sabbath day!
The healing sits in a chapter about coming judgment.
But the Lord afterwards lets us see that grace could act in the middle of such a state. In healing the woman bent over by a spirit of weakness, He displays the goodness of God even in a day when judgment was at the doors. And He rebuked the hypocritical wickedness of a heart that found fault with His goodness because it was the sabbath day.
- Untie — the ruler unties his ox on the sabbath and leads it to water. The Lord turns that habit against him.
- Hypocrites — the plural shows the Lord addressed a whole class. The ruler spoke for others who thought as he did.
- Cheap — men who watered an animal without hesitation valued a person at less than that animal.
- Exposed — Satan's long grip on the woman did not anger him; Christ's power breaking it did. That left him in a deeper bondage than she was.
- Grace — judgment stood at the doors, yet God's goodness was still at work. The objection to it only exposed the objector.
And this [woman], who is a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound, lo, [these] eighteen years, ought she not to be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?
Jesus has just healed a woman bent double for eighteen years. The ruler of the synagogue is angry that He did it on the Sabbath. Jesus does not argue about the law. He names who the woman is, who had been holding her, and what should happen next.
The Lord could have called her a sufferer or a cripple. He chose a title that placed her inside the family of promise. Commentators read it as a mark of faith, not bloodline alone.
The Lord spoke of the woman as a daughter of Abraham. This means more than a natural relationship. It means the relationship of true faith (Gal. 3:7). She had been in bondage to Satan for eighteen years. Should the Sabbath day keep her there? The Lord knew how to express matters in such a way as to show up the cruelty of mere religious prejudice.
One commentator finds meaning in both the number of years and her bent posture.
The woman had suffered in her deformity eighteen years. If Scripture numbers carry meaning, as we believe, then eighteen is three times six. It suggests the full display of evil. Compare Revelation 13:18. She becomes the type of the worst of sinners. She "was bent over and could not fully straighten herself" — a vivid picture of every person's spiritual condition through sin. A sinner cannot look up into the face of God, and has no strength to fix his own sad plight.
Sitting in a religious setting is not the same as being free.
We today move in a circle of religious profession. That in itself does not mean we have been set free. The woman in Luke 13 had been bound for eighteen years in full view of the synagogue. No one realised that it was Satan's work. Then the Lord Jesus set her free — the One who appeared to undo the works of the devil.
He frees her, and He deals with the one who tied her.
She did not ask, and no one asked for her. He spoke to her with words of wonder-working compassion: "Woman, you are freed from your disability." That was already enough. Yet He went further: "He laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God." He had defeated the strong one. He would take from him all the armour he trusted in, and would divide his spoils. The Lord was entitled to proclaim release to the captives, and to set at liberty those who were bound.
The comparison shows how these men ranked a suffering woman against their animals.
What! the Lord says. Does keeping God's rest unbroken mean leaving a daughter of Abraham in bondage to Satan? Notice the emphasis He puts on this, that she is a daughter of Abraham. How unfitting to keep someone who inherits Abraham's faith bowed over! In fact it was nothing but loud-voiced hypocrisy. They had no difficulty in leading their animals away to water. They simply valued a human being at less than a beast.
Behind the question lies a view of God that will not sit still while people suffer.
How can God rest where sin is? where misery is? He cannot have His rest in a world like this. Christ had come to work... God did not cut off the sinners or leave them in their misery. He made Himself a workman in His grace, and the whole thing changed. The law required man to work... But in the gospel, it is God who works.
The ruler's outrage revealed exactly where his interest lay.
Nothing in all this world is so blinding to the mind and so hardening to the heart as religion without Christ. Nothing so deadens the conscience or so damages the whole person... The ruler of the synagogue did not care. That poor woman might have gone on to the end of her days, bent over and unable to lift herself up. He would have been quite content to let her go on as a sad witness to the power of Satan, provided he could keep his Sabbath. What stirred his religious indignation? Not the power of Satan seen in the woman's condition, but the power of Christ seen in her complete deliverance.
- Bound. The eighteen years were not bad luck. Jesus names Satan as the one who tied her, and no one in that synagogue had seen it.
- Belonging. "Daughter of Abraham" marks her out as a child of faith. That is why leaving her bent over was unfitting.
- Loosed. Christ unties her bond. He defeats the strong one, takes his armour, and divides his spoils.
- Ought. They led their animals to water on the Sabbath but left a woman bound. They valued a human being below a beast.
- Works. God has no rest in a world of misery. So the Sabbath was never a reason to make her wait — in the gospel, it is God who works.
And as he said these things, all who were opposed to him were ashamed; and all the crowd rejoiced at all the glorious things which were being done by him.
Two groups walked out of that synagogue: one carrying shame, the other carrying joy. One act of mercy caused both, and Luke uses it to show what Christ's presence does to the human heart.
The Lord's reply worked because it used His critics' own habits against them. Each of them would untie an animal on the sabbath and lead it to water. They would not allow a woman the same freedom.
How absurd to appeal to the holiness of the day against setting a human being free from Satan's power! In their eyes that holiness was not broken when they looked after the needs of their animals. ... Their own practice, where their own earthly interests were at stake, showed that the ruler's objection was hollow and his anger had no ground. How easily and how completely the Lord refuted the hypocrites! The people rejoiced. Meanwhile the ruler's hypocrisy, and that of everyone who backed him, stood exposed in a way the least educated person could understand. The ruler tried to raise a moral question to condemn the Lord in front of everyone. It is a very old trick, and here it plainly failed.
The shame fell on a whole system, not one man's bad argument. Notice what did and did not stir the ruler up.
Only think how badly the two things fit together: a sabbath, and a daughter of Abraham held by the cruel hand of Satan for eighteen years! Nothing in all this world so blinds the mind, hardens the heart, deadens the conscience and corrupts the whole person as religion without Christ. ... What stirred up his religious anger was not the power of Satan, seen in the woman's condition, but the power of Christ, seen in her complete deliverance.
Set the two groups side by side, and the contrast shows what each kind of religion was worth.
What a striking contrast! On one side stand the defenders of a powerless, heartless, worthless religion, exposed and covered with shame and confusion. On the other side stand all the people, rejoicing in the glorious actions of the Son of God. He had come among them to free them from the crushing power of Satan, to fill their hearts with the joy of God's salvation, and to fill their mouths with His praise!
Luke's Gospel keeps showing hearts like this. Here it happens while judgment already hung over the nation.
But the Lord afterwards lets us see that grace could act in the middle of such a state. So He healed the woman bowed down with the spirit of infirmity. In this He shows the goodness of God even in a day when judgment was at the doors. And He rebuked the wicked hypocrisy of the heart that found fault with His goodness, because it was the sabbath day. ... As always, Luke brings out what is in the heart — the adversaries of the truth on one side, and on the other those whom grace made the friends of Christ.
Four things held the woman down: law, weakness, hopeless bondage and the power of Satan. Christ removed them all by a word and a touch.
This woman was a "daughter of Abraham," that is, a true child of faith — see Galatians 3:7. Yet Satan had a hand in her sad condition, taking advantage of her weakness. On top of that, the ruler of the synagogue would have used the ceremonial law to stop her being healed. But the Lord brushed all this aside. By His Word and by His personal touch He set her free at once. Many people would say, "With me it was law, and weakness, and hopeless bondage, and the power of Satan, until Christ stepped in with the might of His grace: then what a change!" Deliverances like these shame the adversaries and fill many with joy. They are indeed, "glorious things that were done by Him."
Commentators weigh the crowd's gladness differently. Hole takes the joy as the fitting answer to such a work. Kelly warns that a cheering crowd proves little about the human heart.
Here the aim is to press home the solemn lesson of what man is in the presence of "all the glorious things that were done by him." Adversaries might be put to shame, and the whole crowd might rejoice. But man is the same as ever, and turns everything to vanity and self-exaltation.
- Cause. Christ pointed to their own sabbath habits with their animals. The answer was plain enough for anyone in the room to follow.
- Exposure. They were not just beaten in an argument. Their hearts could put up with Satan's work for eighteen years, yet flared up at Christ's power.
- Contrast. One deed divided the room: a religion without Christ covered in confusion, and a people filled with the joy of God's salvation.
- Gift. The glorious things are freedom by His word and His touch. Anyone whose bondage ended when Christ stepped in can tell the same story.
- Caution. Shamed opponents and a cheering crowd are not the same as changed hearts. Man is still man, and turns even Christ's glory into self-praise.