Bottom line up front (BLUF): The Refusal to See

Introduction: The passage in Luke 13 where Jesus heals a woman of a disabling spirit on the Sabbath is a physical healing of the woman, of course, but it’s much more than that. It is God’s rebuke of people of who are more caught up in their personal power plays and traditions than in seeing God deliver, redeem, and restore people. Some folks simply refuse to see and embrace the truth.

The Text: Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And behold, there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your disability.” And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God. But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.” Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” As he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame, and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him. (Luke 13:10-17, ESV).

Teaching: Rather than rejoicing in God’s work, the ruler of the synagogue was indignant (v. 14). That’s a strong term. Why is the religious hypocrite so exercised? Because God did work on the Sabbath. Catch that? In modern parlance, we might say it like this: “That’s not the way we do things around here. Don’t go upsetting our traditions.” Jesus freed this woman from her disability. You’d think that Jewish religious leaders in the 1^st century A.D. might connect the dots to their history of enslavement and what it means to have come out via the exodus wrought by the sovereign hand of God. But, nope; I guess that is asking too much. You’d think that the Sabbath healing, on a day commemorating creation week, would be met by the religious leaders’ cries of thanksgiving, as a picture of liberation. But, nope; I guess that is asking too much. There’s a refusal to see what God was doing in their midst.

Encouragement/takeaway: The tragic reality is that some hearts are just stony. They do not want the truth of God. They are hostile to God’s work. They are instead caught up in their own jockeying for their traditions and their ways and their fiefdoms. Their god is not God, but themselves and their idols. Some folks, as evidenced in this passage, too, simply refuse to see. But this woman was healed; she saw. She was delivered. The gospel of God continued to go forward, despite the refusals to see by the hardhearted religious establishment demonstrated by the indignant witnesses to Christ’s work. This is where we should take encouragement: God’s work will succeed despite the naysayers and detractors. Why? Because it’s his work, and God is undefeated.