Luke 13:10-17

On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, 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. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God. 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.” 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? 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?”  When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.

The Place

Jesus had begun to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51) and was travelling one last time through Perea on the other side of the Jordan

Jesus was in a synagogue for the last recorded time during His earthly ministry.

“And behold, there was a woman, which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together” (v. 11).

The Woman

This woman's frame was completely pulled together. Her back was bent, not slightly, but as the original says, bent together, or completely bent over.

She had been this way for eighteen years. She couldn’t look up into the sky or into people’s faces.

We also know that this woman had been bound by Satan. In verse 16, Christ tells us that Satan bound this woman eighteen years ago. She had a “spirit of infirmity” (v. 11).

This was both a medical and spiritual problem. The devil had bound her so that she shuffled around every day as if chained by him

Finally this woman was in a situation where she could do nothing to straighten herself. Verse 11 reiterates this: “and could in no wise lift up herself.”

The Miracle

Despite her pain and the shame she could have felt, her feet shuffled down the cobbled streets of this town until she was present to hear the Word of God read and explained.

This particular time, Christ was the preacher, anointed from heaven “to preach liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound” (Isa. 61:1-3).

1. First, He looked at her. “Jesus saw her...” (v. 12). This emphasizes the one-sided work of God’s grace. Many oth­ers came to Jesus asking for healing; this woman may also have prayed to the Lord many times for healing. But here, the Lord Jesus saw her in a way that no one can see.

2. Second, He called her to Him (v. 12). She likely couldn’t see Christ, but, shuffling, she followed His voice until she came to Him.

3. Third, He touched her. “And he laid his hands on her” (v. 13). Under His touch, the spirit of infirmity left, the devil gave way, and this woman was no longer crushed, but stood upright.

You can receive healing

Have you experienced the freedom of your spiritual chains falling off?

It is not unusual for people to come to a house of wor­ship burdened – perhaps not physically, but emotion­ally or spiritually.

Leviticus 26:13

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high

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