Bond Loos­ing on the Sab­bath Day

It was the Sab­bath, and Jesus was in a syn­a­gogue. We are not told which syn­a­gogue He was in, nor are we even sure of the city. Judea? Galilee? Both are likely, but each con­tained a mul­ti­tude of syn­a­gogues. What we do know was that Jesus was there, for He in per­fect obe­di­ence was remem­ber­ing the Sab­bath day, keep­ing it holy.

He was there, and He was teach­ing. Since the age of twelve, Jesus would be found in the syn­a­gogues of Israel, leav­ing in awe even the most learned of Israel’s teach­ers. Should we be sur­prised? No one was like unto Jesus. At the Trans­fig­u­ra­tion, when Jesus was in the com­pany of Moses the Law­giver and Eli­jah the Prophet, the Father spoke down from Heaven, pro­claim­ing that we should lis­ten to Jesus the Son.

But this was not your typ­i­cal Sat­ur­day ser­vice at the syn­a­gogue. If Jesus’ uniquely author­i­ta­tive teach­ing wasn’t enough to get the reli­gious lead­ers on edge, it just so hap­pened that at this par­tic­u­lar syn­a­gogue, a woman who was vexed by Satan with phys­i­cal infir­mity for eigh­teen years came to worship.

We are told that she was “bent over,” that she could not in any way “raise her­self up,” but she was there. And Jesus saw her.

And He freed her.

For eigh­teen years she was stooped over, bound by that Old Ser­pent… Today, with but a phrase uttered by the Lamb of God, she stands up straight, and she glo­ri­fies God.

It’s curi­ous that eigh­teen years it took for some­one to free her. It was no med­ical prob­lem that afflicted her; rather, her prob­lem was spir­i­tual (being caused by Satan himself).

Had she been going to that syn­a­gogue or oth­ers like it through­out all those years? Had any­one even tried to res­cue her from the afflic­tion of the devil?

The woman could barely walk; you think arthri­tis of the back is bad? Try liv­ing with Satan on your back for two decades! This def­i­nitely was not the woman you’d see out every­day on her morn­ing jog, yet she did not let that get in the way of her obey­ing the Fourth Commandment.

Today, Jesus Christ rewarded her faithfulness.

And the reli­gious lead­ers? “There are six days that she could have come to me to be healed! She kept com­ing on the Sab­bath, and I’m just not going to do that kind of thing on the Sabbath!”

Jesus response was terse. “Hyp­ocrite!” He bit back. “Every sin­gle one of you take time to care for your own don­keys and oxen, loos­ing them to take them to water; should not this woman, this dar­ling daugh­ter of Abra­ham, not have been freed from the bonds placed upon her by Satan?”

Upon the woman was shown unyield­ing com­pas­sion on the part of Jesus, and in so doing He revealed the hypocrisy, the futil­ity of the reli­gious leaders.

Years later, the Apos­tle Paul would write that regard­less of what he may have, if he has not love, it is all worth­less. These reli­gious lead­ers lacked the love that ought to have been char­ac­ter­is­tic of their whole ministry.

Jesus put them to shame by doing what they ought to have been doing. Could you imag­ine that? The reli­gious lead­ers, who poured over the Scrip­tures, who taught them to to oth­ers, were put to total shame by He of whom the Scrip­tures testify.

Their zeal for the Law caused them to com­pletely miss the Judge when He walked into their presence.

And by the time He left the build­ing, all the mul­ti­tude of peo­ple who had gath­ered were rejoic­ing, giv­ing praise for the glo­ri­ous things which Christ had done.

Tomor­row morn­ing, I hope that’s the atmos­phere at your church. May Christ be glorified.

And take care not to over­look those who may be stooped over, bur­dened by Satan. Jesus is still able to free them!

This account from the life of Jesus found in Luke 13:10 – 17.