August 24, 2025 Sermon
Sermon title: “Healing on the Sabbath”
Scripture: Luke 13:10-17
(Other lectionary suggestions include Jeremiah 1:4-10, Psalm 71:1-6, and Hebrews 12:8-29.)
Luke 13:10-17
Jesus Heals a Crippled Woman
10Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. 11And 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. 12When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” 13When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. 14But 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.” 15But 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? 16And 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?” 17When 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.
It is interesting that the issue of healing on the Sabbath would show up now, so soon before Jesus gets crucified in Jerusalem.
And right after I wrote those words, I had this thought: is this story an allegory? Is the woman an allegory for Israel, that seems “stuck” in one position? In a small town, everybody would be familiar with this stricken woman. Luke says she had a “spirit of weakness,” which probably means that nobody knew why she was bent double. Could she have been “stuck” that way because of psychological causes? The British scholar N. T. Wright says, “Maybe somebody had permanently abused her, verbally or physically,....until her twisted up emotions communicated themselves to her body, and she found she couldn’t get straight.” Do you remember those Burma-Shave commercials from years gone by? Maybe she couldn’t “get right with God!” Or, in this case, “get straight” with God.
In the synagogue, though, there is an unspoken power struggle going on. The synagogue president seems bound - like the woman - to protocol. But Jesus isn’t having any of the protocol. In his mind, he thinks why should this woman be kept suffering even for one more minute? Jesus was brave, I think, and maybe a little bit in the face of the synagogue president.
You have heard me say before that Jesus really challenged the legalism of the Judaism of his day. And he points out quite rightly that it’s okay in Judaism to let animals out on the Sabbath for them to get a drink of water on the Sabbath. He also says that it’s hypocritical to let animals out and not people, including this - as he calls her – daughter of Abraham. Also, I think there is some symbolism here. The number 18 is mentioned for how long the woman has been under the spell of whatever it is that has bound her up. If you write the number 18 in Hebrew, it means “To life!” Or La Chaim: to life! So maybe Luke the non-Jew is using a little Hebrew here to emphasize how Jesus is calling this woman to life!
The sermon title is “Healing on the Sabbath,” but there may be something else involved here. Jesus calls the woman a daughter of Abraham - but isn’t EVERYBODY listening to him a daughter or son of Abraham? The point is that satan the Adversary has had his hand on everybody, not only one person - and Jesus is trying to point out that healing ONE person can be instrumental in healing the WHOLE nation! What Jesus is doing for this one woman he is trying to do for the whole nation: The enemy, the satan, (or the accuser) has had Israel in his power for many years. “But,” says N. T. Wright, “Israel’s insistence on tight’ boundaries, including the rigid application of the sabbath law, is preventing” any healing from happening. “Maybe, you think, Jesus is still hoping that there is time; that Israel, bent double and unable to stand upright, will be untied from her bondage in a great sabbath celebration, a great act of liberation. Maybe, you think, Jesus intends that by going to Jerusalem this will all come to pass....” One healing of one woman in one synagogue breaks the satanic chains. Is that enough? I think Jesus thought it was. I hate to say, “Every little bit helps.” But I think Jesus believed that. What do you and I believe? Amen.
Pastor Skip
