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Author: Stephen Weller
516 words, 3 minutes read time

The Deformed Woman of 18 Years

Scripture: Luke 13:10-14

With the previous lesson we finished another section, one in which Jesus taught about repentance and bearing fruit. With this lesson we begin a new section in which Jesus heals a woman on the Sabbath who had a disabling spirit.

^{Lk 13:10} “Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. ¹¹ And behold, 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.”

Previously in Luke 6:1 – 5 and in Luke 6:6 – 11, we covered two incidents involving Jesus’ lordship over the Sabbath; this account involves the meaning of the Sabbath.

At this point on our journey, we find Jesus in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath teaching those present. In the congregation there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. Jesus sees her and decides to involve her in his teaching. Whether Jesus called her to come to him or whether he goes to her, we are not told. We know that they are beside each other because Jesus speaks to her and touches her and immediately, she was able to straighten up and realizing her restored condition, she glorifies God.

What medical practitioner do you know today that can simply speak and touch their patients and bring about instant healing? For eighteen years this woman suffered in her deformed condition, but the creative power of Jesus was able to immediately fix her problem and restore her health; a work that did not sit well with the ruler of the synagogue.

^{Lk 13:14} “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.”’

In the mind of the ruler of the synagogue, it was more important that the laws of tradition concerning the work allowed on the Sabbath be kept than to help a person who had suffered so greatly for so long. Jesus did not violate any Old Testament commandment, but he did violate later Jewish traditions that added many more commandments and prohibitions that God had not originally given in his word.

Conclusion

The Sabbath was to be a day of rest, and this woman needed rest from her affliction, but this indignant ruler of the synagogue believed it was more important to keep their traditions than to help a person who had suffered so much. In his mind, one more day of suffering for the woman was a small price to pay to not violate one of their traditions.