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Luke 13:10-13

Luke describes the woman as crippled by “a spirit of infirmity eighteen years” and “bound” (verse 16) by Satan. Without denying the historicity of the event, Luke's placing this miracle at this point in his narrative has obvious symbolic value. Jesus' mission among the Jews was to “loose” them from crippling influences and bring them to uprightness. This miracle is a graphic example of Jesus making a literally crooked woman upright.

Jesus healed her by His words and by touching her. He could have healed her by a word only, and as seen in other miracles, He did not even need to be in the same place, city, or country. However, in laying His hands on her, He shows everyone the value of her obeying God and coming to Him. Had she refused, He could not have touched her. Nothing good comes to those who disregard God's Word (Romans 2:8; II Thessalonians 1:8; I Peter 4:17).

People often pray for the “touch” of God upon their lives, which is not a bad prayer. Yet, if we want God to touch us, we must draw near to Him. We cannot keep our distance from Him in fellowship. We must walk closely with Him at all times if we want His influence upon our lives.

Martin G. Collins
The Miracles of Jesus Christ: Healing a Stooped Woman (Part Two)



Luke 13:10-11

Though physically disabled and disfigured by her stooped spine, she, just like the man with the withered hand (Luke 6:6), does not allow her problem to keep her from formal worship of God on the Sabbath. Her physical condition makes it very difficult for her to go to the synagogue and sit through the service. It is also humbling for her, since people often feel awkward around those with disfigurements. She goes anyway.

Surely, she has prayed and asked God for help, yet she has not been delivered. However, God's seemingly neglectful and unconcerned lack of intervention does not make her bitter or resentful. She attends synagogue despite the obstacles, appreciating her spiritual opportunities and cherishing the worship of God. Her dedication and faithfulness do not go unrewarded.

How many blessings do people give up when they skip going to church? Spiritually and physically, we benefit by regularly attending where we can hear God's Word and worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:23-24). This woman learns that the best help she can give her body is to be first concerned about her spiritual health. Had she not been concerned enough about her spiritual needs to be in the synagogue in spite of her condition, she would never have been healed. As Jesus promises, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).

Martin G. Collins
The Miracles of Jesus Christ: Healing a Stooped Woman (Part One)



Luke 13:10-17

Luke records one of the few miracles of Jesus Christ performed in a synagogue, His healing of a stooped woman (Luke 13:10-17). His Sabbath-day miracles picture the purposes of God's plan of salvation. The Sabbath incidents recorded in Luke 6:1-11 involve Jesus' lordship over the Sabbath, while this account illustrates its meaning.

The seventh day is a holy convocation (Leviticus 23:3), and Jesus uses it to teach God's way. The Sabbath service's purpose is not for entertainment, as so many churches seem to stress today, but it is for vital and joyful worship of the one true God.

Jesus' adversaries closely watched Him, especially on the Sabbath, in hope of trapping Him in some breach of the law concerning it. In their unbelief and perversity, those blind leaders of the blind failed to understand that they were condemning the original Giver of the law. That they were supposed to be the religious leaders of God's chosen people exacerbated their sin. Instead, they burdened the people with humanly-reasoned restrictions and taboos.

Martin G. Collins
The Miracles of Jesus Christ: Healing a Stooped Woman (Part One)



Luke 13:11-12

The woman has a strange derangement of the nervous system, having its source in the mind rather than in the body. Her stooped condition results at least partially from psychological instability, making her depressed. Her strange malady, then, is partly physical and partly mental. Satan has had his hand in her disability to the extent that her mind is susceptible to his influence, and her body has malfunctioned, producing a severe case of an unhealthy, hunched condition.

Jesus' words in verse 16, “whom Satan has bound,” do not mean that Satan's involvement here is demon-possession but more like demon-oppression. Luke does not indicate that Christ exorcised a demon from her, which would have been the case had she been possessed. Satan oppresses her in a way that affects her physical body, like Paul, who describes his affliction as “the messenger of Satan to buffet me” (II Corinthians 12:7).

God's people in every age—Job, for instance—have been aware of this work of Satan. “Whom Satan has bound” reminds us that Satan does not free anyone; he only enslaves. Not only does Satan bow people down, but so do sin (Psalm 38:6), sorrow (Psalm 42:5), and suffering (Psalm 44:25). Only God can set a person free. While creating the illusion that breaking God's law liberates, sin and Satan never truly free anyone (John 8:34). In reality, evil habits grip people with terrible tenacity. Unbelievers sometimes criticize believers, saying that their church and religious convictions restrict their fun and freedom, but such an argument is the exact opposite of the truth.

Martin G. Collins
The Miracles of Jesus Christ: Healing a Stooped Woman (Part One)



Luke 13:10-13

Jesus and His apostles touched the sick when they healed, yet miracles often occurred without this physical act. The miraculous power to heal derives from God's authority, not from the physical touch of the hands.

Martin G. Collins
Basic Doctrines: The Laying On of Hands



Luke 13:10-17

In Luke 13:10-17, Christ heals another chronically ill person on the Sabbath. This time, though, He did not wait for anyone to ask Him questions. The episode plainly discloses the redeeming and liberating intention of God's Sabbath. When Jesus says, "You are loosed," the ruler of the synagogue reacts immediately because to him the Sabbath meant rules to obey rather than people to love.

Jesus replies in verses 15-16 by emphasizing the Sabbath principle:

The Lord then answered him and said, "Hypocrite! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and lead it away to water it? So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound—think of it—for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?"

Christ makes a play on words here. He uses the same verb, "loose," to describe the ox and donkey as He does the woman being "loosed" from Satan through healing.

Jesus acts against the tradition of the Pharisees, but no where challenges the binding obligation of keeping the Sabbath. Rather, His example shows that we should make merciful evaluations to help others cast off their heavy burdens. He argues for living the true values.

John W. Ritenbaugh
The Fourth Commandment (Part Two): Christ's Attitude Toward the Sabbath



Luke 13:10-17

On this occasion, Jesus did not wait for somebody to ask a question, as He did in Luke 4. He just went out and did what needed to be done. This episode shows God's purpose for the Sabbath very clearly. Jesus says, "You are loosed." When one is loosed, one is made free. The lesson is clear. This woman was in bondage to an infirmity, something Satan had afflicted her with.

On the other hand, there were the Pharisees. To them, the Sabbath was rules to obey—their rules, their traditions. To the ruler of the synagogue, then, the Sabbath was unfit for loosing somebody from his pain or from his infirmity.

Jesus calls him a hypocrite in verse 15. "Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose [untie, free] his ox or donkey from the stall? So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound—think of it—for eighteen years, be loosed [freed, delivered, redeemed] from this bond on the Sabbath?"

How plain! Once we begin to see what Jesus did and talked about on the Sabbath, it becomes clear that He was magnifying its use. The Sabbath is the day of liberation; it is the day God blessed so that we can remain free and no longer be brought into bondage. (Incidentally, the verbs translated "loose" are the Greek word that means "to free.")

Does Jesus say, "Oh, it doesn't matter. We're going to do away with the Sabbath anyway"? No! Instead, He argues for a right, merciful evaluation of a person under a heavy burden and then using the Sabbath to relieve him of it. He is arguing for true values in the use of God's Sabbath.

John W. Ritenbaugh
The Fourth Commandment (Part 2)



Luke 13:11

The woman has a severe and pitiful physical problem, which she has endured for eighteen long years. She is bent completely forward, utterly unable to straighten herself or to look upward. The phrase “bowed down” (KJV) or “bent over” (NKJV), found only here in the New Testament, is a medical term indicating a harmful curvature of the spinal vertebrae.

Her stooped posture aptly illustrates humanity's spiritual condition due to sin. Sin does not straighten a person up but bends him over so all he can see is the way of the world. The sinner, unable to look up into the face of God, cannot remedy his evil plight before being called (Psalm 40:12; Romans 5:6).

Her stooped condition is so severe that she has no power to straighten herself, and in this weak condition, she is thus unable to help herself. Unless Christ heals and saves, the condition will only worsen with time.

Martin G. Collins
The Miracles of Jesus Christ: Healing a Stooped Woman (Part One)



Luke 13:10-17

Luke 13:10-17 relates the story of Jesus' healing of a deformed woman who had endured a debilitating infirmity for eighteen years. What began as a slightly bent posture developed into a stoop so profound that she could no longer look up. Every year increased her suffering, and after all those years, her situation became extremely severe.

In this, we see a parallel with sin. Its effects begin slowly and almost unnoticeably, but with the passing of time, its influence increasingly corrupts the sinner. The longer the sinner continues in his sin, the more his heart hardens.

While teaching in the synagogue, Jesus sees the deformed woman in the audience and is immediately moved with compassion and grace to heal her (Luke 13:10-12). She does not appeal to Him for help, but He takes it upon Himself to help her, expressing His deep compassion. It is inherent in God's character to take special notice of the needy.

What He saw would certainly not have been attractive, but, unlike men, Christ does not aid just the beautiful but those who truly need His help. Sinners sometimes feel they are too repugnant to God to be saved (Psalm 44:24-26), but Christ's healing of this disfigured woman emphasizes that His ability to help is determined, not by the state of the needy person, but by the limitless power of God. Christ's blood is able to wash away even the greatest of sins!

Martin G. Collins
The Miracles of Jesus Christ: Healing a Stooped Woman (Part Two)




Other Forerunner Commentary entries containing Luke 13:11:

Exodus 20:8
Exodus 31:12-17
Matthew 13:1-53
Luke 13:10-17
Luke 13:10-17
Luke 13:10-17
Luke 13:10-17
Luke 14:1-6

 

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