Set free on the Sabbath

She’s a walking picture of brokenness. 

For more than eighteen years, this daughter of Abraham suffers a spiritual disabling of her physical body. She moves through life unable to straighten up at all. Bent over, face to the ground. Seeing dirt. Rocks. Feet.

Eighteen years of facing dirt, rocks, and feet—wherever she goes.

Set free

Then, one Sabbath she trudges into the place of worship. 

Crippled, bent and bound. The usual.

Only nothing is usual about this day. Everything changes. Because Jesus sees her. He calls out freedom. “Woman, you are free of your disability.”

Then He places His hands on her. Restoring. Healing. Untying the bonds of a captive.

And her immediate response to this instant healing? Glory! Glory to God!

The crooked is made straight. Her eyes can look up to the skies. And into the eyes of her Healer.

Indignant on the Sabbath

But there is another immediate response. A quick reaction to the wonder of this healing. It’s the leader of the synagogue and he is indignant. Ticked off. 

The leader doesn’t even speak directly to the Healer. He speaks to the crowd gathered, to drive his point home. “There are six days when work should be done; therefore come on those days and be healed and not on the Sabbath day” (Luke 13:14). 

He’s calling out Jesus, yet his words blame the woman. She picked the wrong day for healing. 

What? Well, it’s like this. Healing is work. No work is allowed on the Sabbath. And today is the Sabbath. So, no miracles on this day. Not on his watch. 

It’s a holy day, after all. Does he need to pull out the Book of the Law to remind everyone what’s required?

Jesus sets the record straight

Jesus doesn’t hesitate. He speaks directly to the leader and those like him. 

“Hypocrites!”—Wow. Wasting no time getting to the point.—“Doesn’t each one of you untie his ox or donkey from the feeding trough on the Sabbath and lead it to water? Satan has bound this woman, a daughter of Abraham, for eighteen years—shouldn’t she be untied from this bondage on the Sabbath day?”

The question is hanging in the air. 

The woman is protected.

The hypocrites are humiliated. 

And the whole crowd rejoices over all the glorious things He is doing. (Luke 13:17).

He interrupts our routines

Those bent and bound by the evil one walk by us every day. 

We don’t always see their spiritual disability, but Jesus does. His word pierces protective layers that often hide the inner brokenness of sin and death. 

Sometimes His way is startling, even jarring when it interrupts our comfortable religious routines. 

Somedays we need reminders to wake up and listen to His voice. To keep in step with the Spirit. And resist the slow ebb of mediocrity.

Setting captives free

It’s no secret that we serve a Master who sends His followers to share the gospel. It’s the good news that sets the captives free. And breaks the chains that bind and cripple in our communities and around the world. 

He calls us to live sent. Daily. Praying as we go. Sharing and serving, wherever we live and work.

His glory revealed

Then we watch, amazed, as He heals the hopeless with stunning grace.  

We witness heads long bowed to dirt and gravel, now lifted to the radiance of the One and Only Christ Jesus, our Lord.

And we rejoice. For He is glorious.

Glory! Glory to God!

[A reflection on Luke 13:10-17]