A Liberating Church

Luke 13:10-17

Luke 13:10–17 NRSV

10 Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. 11 And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” 13 When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. 14 But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.” 15 But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? 16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?” 17 When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.

This is the word of God, for the people of God.

Thanks be to God.

Introduction:

One of the most frustrating things in life is when somebody tells you not to do something, but they turn around and do the very same thing. We call it hypocrisy, and it drives us crazy.

Let me give you a picture: imagine a coach telling his players, “Stay disciplined, don’t lose your temper, don’t argue with the referee”—but the moment a bad call is made, the coach is the first one storming onto the court, red in the face, shouting at the official.

Or think about politics, where leaders tell us to “tighten our belts,” “make sacrifices,” and “live within our means”—but then we find out they’ve been using taxpayer money to fund their own luxury trips.

Or even closer to home: a parent might say to their child, “Don’t be on your phone at the dinner table”—while scrolling through Facebook at the very same time.

We shake our heads at that because it’s inconsistent.

And it’s exactly the kind of inconsistency Jesus exposes in Luke 13.

The religious leaders were quick to lecture the people about what not to do on the Sabbath. They told Jesus healing this crippled woman—who had been bent over and suffering for eighteen long years—was a violation of the rules.

But Jesus points out the hypocrisy: “Don’t you untie your ox or donkey on the Sabbath and lead it to water?” In other words, you’ll care for your animals, but you won’t let a daughter of Abraham be set free?

Jesus shines a light on their mixed-up priorities. They valued their rules, their image, and even their property more than they valued the people made in God’s image.

Here we are in Luke’s gospel, a woman has been crippled for eighteen years.

For eighteen years she has experienced spinal pain.

For eighteen years she has been cast aside from the community.

This lady has likely been told that her condition is a result of either her sin or her parent’s sin.

Could you imagine living a life crippled for eighteen years. People are staying away from you because they believe that you’ve done something to upset God.

You are not part of the community.

People stare at you whenever you come around.

They whisper.

You can’t work a job nor can you be productive.

Your life may literally be that of a beggar.

This woman’s life is miserable and she wants to change it.

She goes to the synagogue to seek healing. Now we don’t know exactly what led her to the synagogue. It could be that she wanted to simply worship God.

Maybe she was hoping that this visit to the synagogue would be one that would bring healing.

Maybe the synagogue, that is the church was the only place where she could find community.

Remember this woman is tormented by her condition. As a matter of fact, in the very first verse of this story, Luke plainly tells us that the woman had been crippled by a spirit. In our translation today, the NRSV, Luke says, “a spirit that had crippled her.”

I don’t think Luke uses this phrase to be cute. I think that Luke is being intentional by describing the woman’s condition as a spiritual bondage.

I think that Luke wants the reader to recognize that this was not just a condition of weakness. Luke wants to make it plain to us that this woman was living in bondage.

This condition prohibited the woman from having any quality of life. The condition was so bad that Luke describes the woman as bent over. She couldn’t stand straight up. So, this woman’s ailment was very visible.

Again, we don’t know why the woman came to the synagogue on that Sabbath day. We don’t even know what the catalyst was for that decision.

I could imagine that the woman had heard all about this rabbi who was teaching in the synagogue and how he was going around healing people and she hoped maybe just maybe this man would notice me or heal me.

That very well could be the case but whatever it was that led her to the synagogue on that fateful Sabbath day, we know that her life would never be the same again.

Jesus is there teaching in the synagogue, then he sees this woman whose condition obviously goes beyond discomfort. He sees her and he does something that certainly would have been frowned upon.

He called her forward.

Now when Jesus does this, I can imagine that the synagogue ruler and his possie were upset about this.

A rabbi isn’t supposed to associate with a sinner. Look at this woman’s condition, he’s not supposed to associate with her. It’s obvious that she’s done something that upset God and as a result, her life is miserable because of this.

Not only does Jesus associate with the lady. He brings her up in front of the entire congregation.

Then he does something that makes them even more angry with him.

He tells the lady, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” Then he lays hands on her and Luke tells us that immediately the woman straightened up and she praised God.”

Right here is where we see the power of Jesus and we also see how liberating it was for this lady to finally have no pain.

Jesus has essentially given this woman her life back.

He has freed her from that which had her bound.

You’d think that everyone would have been in that synagogue praising God along with that woman after seeing her being freed.

But no that didn’t happen at all.

At least from the synagogue ruler.

He was angry! And guess why he was angry.

He wasn’t angry about the woman being healed. He was angry because Jesus healed on the Sabbath.

And to be quite frank, that sounds stupid.

I mean that would be the equivalent to having a water ration because of a drought and all of a sudden your house catches fire because of dry, humid, and windy conditions.

The city has an ordinance where you can’t use water before a certain time. All the neighbors see your house burning and everyone pitches in to save the house by running their own water.

Y’all put the fire out. The city officials find out about it. They fine you and all of your neighbors because you used water and violated the ordinance.

So to clarify this, your house would’ve burned to the ground had you waited. You would’ve lost everything and possibly those living around you as well. But the city is upset because you violated the ordinance.

Or it’s like having a hole in your roof and bad weather is about to come but the HOA doesn’t want you to fix the hole until they approve the repair.

I don’t know about y’all that sounds stupid to me.

I mean here it is, this woman is suffering, Jesus heals her and frees her from her ailment. All the religious leaders could think about is that Jesus broke the Levitical law by healing a woman on the Sabbath.

“Oh no Jesus, you weren’t supposed to heal her on the Sabbath”, you were supposed to simply pray for her and send her on her way.”

As a matter of fact, Luke tells us that the synagogue ruler addressed the congregation and said, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”

Do you see how he’s focused on the wrong thing.

And to me this story here and this synagogue ruler’s response to Jesus freeing the lady points to the flawed thinking and theology of the Jewish leaders in that day.

This man was so focused on the law that he didn’t even recognize that God was right there in front of him.

He was more concerned about the law than he was about another person’s quality of living. And this lady would’ve been in that group that God instructed them to care for.

He was worried about the wrong thing.

He missed what God was doing in that moment because he was busy worshipping theology and the law .

My sisters and brothers, there are moments when we are just like the synagogue ruler.

We become so focused on what the Bible says, theology, and other church related things that we miss what God is doing or trying to do.

When we worry about those things I just named, we begin to place God in a box and say what God can’t or shouldn’t do.

The synagogue leader literally told God what he could and couldn’t do on the Sabbath.

Jesus tells the man, I am God.

I am the one that gave you the law.

God can work on the Sabbath if he wants.

Let me tell you something, if we are limiting God to six days of work, we are all in trouble.

This so called interpreter of the law is completely missing the point of why Sabbath even exist.

Sabbath is for us:

to be renewed, to rest, to reset,

to focus on God,

to focus on family,

to be healthy.

to be set free

How can you even enjoy a Sabbath when you are essentially being tormented by a condition that is not your own.

How can you observe the Sabbath when you don’t know where you next meal is going to come from.

How can you observe the Sabbath when you need to be set free.

How can you observe the Sabbath when you are bound to the problems that torment your life.

You can’t have repreave from the world when things are burning down around you.

Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us, must’ve understood this.

He understands that the Sabbath is a day of liberation, so he points out the synagogue ruler’s hypocrisy in front of everyone.

I can imagine Jesus looking at the man and saying to himself...hmmm hmmm, you want to and shame me and put me in my place. I got something for you.

He calls the synagogue leader and his crew hypocrites. Then he asked them, Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath, untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water?

In my Gary Coleman voice, “what you talking about Jesus.”

What Jesus was saying wasn’t false. In an effort to simplify the Sabbath and make it convenient for them, the Jewish religious leaders in Jesus’ day analyzed the original law about the Sabbath.

After analyzing that law, they realized that the law was a hindrance to them because if they went by the letter of the law, then they couldn’t do a thing.

They didn’t like that and they wanted to make their lives more convenient.

They added loopholes to the law.

They defined what constituted work.

They even established the limited distance one could travel on the Sabbath; travel was limited to two thousand cubits, which is about six-tenths of a mile, from home.

To get around their own restriction, they would build a crude structure around a public well, converting it into a private residence.

Since the well was now “a home”, animals could be take there for water, provided “the greater part of a cow shall be within [the enclosure] when it drinks”. They even had instructions on how one should tie their animals to keep them from straying.

Do we see how much effort they went through to make the Sabbath convenient for them?

Now we see why Jesus is point out their hypocrisy of taking such measures to protect their property while objecting to an act of human compassion.

They would rather feed and water their animals while disregarding those in need of healing on the Sabbath.

Jesus tells them that if you can untie your ox or donkey for a drink on the Sabbath, then you shouldn’t be upset when a 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.

Jesus is doing more than pointing out their hypocrisy. He is doing three things in this text.

He is showing them that he is divine.

He is the living and eternal word of God.

He is God right here in the flesh.

He is reminding them that they should see the value in everyone.

He does this by speaking their language.

Notice what Jesus refers to this ailing woman as. He doesn’t say this woman.

He calls her in verse 16, “A daughter of Abraham.”

He’s using the synagogue leaders’ language against them.

By referring to this woman as a “a daughter of Abraham. He is forcing them to view this lady in a totally different light.

You see, by calling her a daughter of Abraham, Jesus is forcing them to see the dignity in this lady.

If you call yourselves sons of Abraham, and this is a “daughter of Abraham, then this is your sibling.

This is your sister.

Does your sister not deserve to be healed.

Not only that but by reminding them that she is a daughter of Abraham, he is also driving home the point of how much she matters to God.

You see, sometimes it’s difficult to see the humanity in people.

Sometimes it’s difficult to see the worth in others, particularly when they don’t look like us, smell like us, or come from the same side of town that we come from.

It’s difficult to see the worth in people when they are unemployed, homeless, addicted to something, or deal with mental illness.

As your pastor, I can relate to this. There are times when I come here and I see an unsheltered brother or sister or on the bench.

My mind immediately goes to, “oh Lord what do they want”, but after reading and studying this text this week, it caused me to look deep within myself to ask the question.

“How would I respond if that person came into this sanctuary one Sunday to worship with us?

What would I be thinking in that moment.

Would I view the person as a nuisance or would I view them as a son or daughter of the king.

Would I view that person as a brother or sister or would I be focused on how unsavory they look and smell?”

These are the questions that Jesus is wanting the religious leaders of his day and his church today to wrestle with.

iii. Finally, Jesus is reminding them that the synagogue is indeed a place for healing. It is not merrily a house of prayer. It is a place where people should come for healing.

Y’all, sometimes we only get one shot for someone to experience healing. This was this woman in the text one shot. Had she come a day later, she likely would’ve missed Jesus. She likely would’ve missed her moment.

I don’t know about y’all but I don’t want people to miss their moment of healing when they come to church.

People bring all sorts of things that have them bound and God wants his church to be that place where healing can begin.

And here’s the thing, we may come here some Sundays with things weighing us down but when we come we need to recognize that the church is a place where healing and liberation can happen.

Let us pray....