Jesus Heals a Crippled Woman on the Sabbath
10 On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, 11 and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, "Woman, [a] you are set free from your infirmity." 13 Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.
14 Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, "There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath."
15 The Lord answered him, "You hypocrites! Doesn't each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? 16 Then should not this 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?"
17 When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.
The Parables of the Mustard Seed and the Yeast
18 Then Jesus asked, "What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? 19 It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds perched in its branches."
20 Again he asked, "What shall I compare the kingdom of God to? 21 It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds [b] of flour until it worked all through the dough."
Dig Deeper
One of my favorite things to do in the whole world is to take my wife and kids shopping at Sam’s Club on Saturday mornings. It’s not that I really enjoy shopping that much, mind you, although if I do have to shop anywhere I’ll take Sam’s Club every time. It’s not about the shopping at all really. What I love about Sam’s Club on Saturday morning are the samples. It seems that virtually every aisle in these rather large warehouse-type stores has some nice older lady giving out free food samples. They offer samples on everything from cake and juice to steak and pizza. Oh, it’s absolutely wonderful. On a good day you can almost get a lunch’s worth of food just from walking around and sampling the many different items throughout the store. The question that is interesting, though, is why would the store give out samples like that? It’s got to be fairly expensive to give out that many samples, so why do it at all? The reason that they do it is because there is a point to giving out samples that goes beyond just the samples themselves. The store doesn’t give out that sample just so I can enjoy it and have a slightly better shopping experience. They give out the sample hoping that it will help me to see that I need to actually but that product. That’s the purpose of the sample. It is a small little portion given out that points me to my need for the full product.
It’s important to remember that, as incredible as the miracles of Jesus could be, they had a point beyond just the miraculous action itself. Jesus just didn’t go around healing people so that their lives would be more comfortable and to show how powerful he was. The miracles were like little samples of the kingdom of God. They were intended to be small bits that pointed people to the larger thing that God would bring to those who would embrace his kingdom. The miracles were small little portions intended to point others to their need for the full kingdom of God.
As this scene opens up, Luke tells us that Jesus was teaching in a synagogue. We don’t know enough facts about how individual synagogues went about their normal business in the first century to say for sure how the situation would have come about that Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and Luke doesn’t tell us. It doesn’t take much speculation, however, to realize that this would have been an uncomfortable situation for the synagogue leader. He would have been, presumably, under a fair amount of pressure to deal with this “Jesus situation.”
Jesus certainly valued teaching as a central component of his kingdom announcing vocation, but as Jesus was teaching, he was interrupted by the sight of a crippled woman. As committed as Jesus was to his teaching, he was never more committed to that than to the people to whom he was teaching. Jesus knew that the needs of those he was teaching came first, but he also knew that this was a teachable moment. He could verbally teach the people of Israel about the nature of the kingdom of God and what God wanted to do for them as a people or he could stop and show them by giving this woman a sample of the kingdom of God itself.
Luke doesn’t give us all of the details concerning this woman’s sickness that we might like but we do know that it had crippled her for nearly two decades. This is no short-term illness. This was a debilitating problem that kept her from living a full life. The mention of the detail that she was crippled by a spirit does not infer that Luke saw her as being demon-possessed, but instead points to the fact that her crippled state was grounded in some sort of satanic bondage that extended beyond a mere physical ailment. Many theories have been put forth as to what exactly her ailment was but the reality is we don’t know and never will, but that’s not the point that Luke wants us to see. This is yet another occasion to remind ourselves as biblical readers that if the text doesn’t answer the questions we are asking, we are probably asking the wrong questions.
As she slowly approached Jesus, he freed her from her bondage instantly by the authority of his word and touch. She did not have to do anything more than come to Jesus in faith and she was freed and healed. Her immediate and appropriate response was to praise God for surely she at least understood that Jesus was the agent of God at the very least.
Her instinct to praise God as a result of this amazing act of liberation was fitting and we might expect that the response of the synagogue leader would be equally appropriate, but we would be wrong. Rather than praising God as the woman did, he found something wrong with what Jesus’ was doing. He points out that this could have been done on any day but not on the Sabbath, a day that was to see no work, so as to honor God. He appealed to Deuteronomy 5:13 to make his case that there are six other days in which to work, but not on the Sabbath.
Jesus’ response is sharp and to the point. If he wants to refer to Deuteronomy 5:13, then Jesus will go right there with him but show him his error in that he neglected to consider Deuteronomy 5:14. The prohibition on work extended to animals too, not just human beings. Yet, they had no problem with untying their ox or donkey on the Sabbath to lead it to a drink of water. Their animal’s lives were not in danger, but they found it okay to untie them them just the same. If that was acceptable behavior under the law why would he be opposed to a daughter of Abraham, who had been bound up for eighteen years under Satan’s dominion, being set free. How could he possibly be opposed to this woman being unbound from satanic oppression? If people were ready to show compassion to animals on the Sabbath, why would they deny compassion to this woman?
The fact was, said Jesus, that they were hypocrites, not in the sense of saying one thing while doing something else but in the sense that they were completely unable to discern the purposes of God. They were missing the nature of God, the point of the law, and even what Jesus was doing right there in front of them. He wasn’t just healing this woman. He was offering samples of the kingdom of God. He was showing them all that God longed to do for Israel and for all human beings what Jesus was doing for this woman. Jesus desired to free them from their satanic bondage, but ironically, they were so beholden to their version of God and his law that they were unable to see what Jesus was really doing. They had so tightly gripped their own expectations that they were unable to grab hold to the kingdom vision that Jesus was offering to the nation of Israel.
That Luke is showing us something about the kingdom of God is made clear by the fact that verse 18 begins with a linking word “therefore” (which is somewhat obscured by the TNIV’s “then”). Jesus had given them a sample of the kingdom of God and now he was going to return to teaching to drive the point home. To what could he compare the kingdom of God? From one angle the kingdom is like a mustard seed. It is a tiny and insignificant seed when put to the ground, but in time it becomes so large and treelike that birds can perch in it. The imagery likely comes from Ezekiel 17:22-24, where the Messiah would be the source of rest for his own people and for birds of every kind, meaning people of all nations. Another source of the imagery probably comes from the contrast of Daniel 4:10-12 where the Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom starts with the promise of being a tree where the birds of all nations could rest but it ultimately ended in ruin as a stump.
From another angle, the kingdom of God is like a small amount of yeast that can be mixed into enough dough to feed 150 people and will work its way through the entire batch and change it.
That’s what the kingdom of God is like. It starts out seemingly small and insignificant. In fact it is perhaps somewhat shocking that when Jesus wanted to compare the kingdom to something he didn’t grab something royal and impressive but talked of ordinary, everyday things. Yes it starts out hardly noteworthy, but it doesn’t stay that way for long. The kingdom of God can break forth even through seemingly inconsequential acts like the making whole of a stooped, little old lady. It can come through tiny things like that but it would continue to grow to become the family tree in whose branches the people of all nations could perch. It would be small and hidden but pervasively work it’s way through the whole batch.
Now, if they would but take the sample and realize that the restoring wholeness that had just been poured out on this woman, was exactly what Jesus wanted to do for the whole nation of Israel. It is, in fact, precisely what Jesus wants to do for us, for our friends, our neighbors, our communities, and for the whole world one day.
Devotional Thought
How are you at giving out samples of God’s kingdom? Do you tend to limit yourself to just talking about God’s kingdom or do you make efforts to give out small little samples to those around you of what God’s kingdom looks like when it breaks into our present age? Spend some time considering how you can give out samples of God’s kingdom to those around you.
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