The Miracles of Jesus

The Crippled Woman

Luke 13:10-17 ^NLT

“One Sabbath day as Jesus was teaching in a synagogue, he saw a woman who had been crippled by an evil spirit. She had been bent double for eighteen years and was unable to stand up straight.”- Luke 13:10-11

            Once again we find Jesus teaching in a synagogue as was his practice whenever he came into a town. The Pharisaic law prohibited healing on the Sabbath, which was the day Jesus happened to be teaching.  The sad fact regarding the religious leaders of Jesus day was that they were unable to see past the laws that they themselves had instituted in the name of YHWH (YAWEH)* to what Jesus, out of compassion, was doing. We take note that when the leader of the synagogue protested about a healing taking place on the Sabbath he spoke to the crowd and not directly to Jesus. The thought here was that healing was considered part of a physician’s profession; therefore, Jesus was essentially working on the Sabbath. The Lord replied that the leaders of his day were hypocrites, in that they were working when they untied their animals and brought them out of their stalls for water. Which is greater, caring for your animals or healing a human being?

            The woman that Jesus healed had been in physical bondage to Satan for eighteen long years. It is incredible to see that with one statement she was totally healed. He didn’t touch her, but simply called her over and told her she was healed. The praising of God began all over again, as with every other time a miracle had taken place. The reason for the miracles was to reveal that God indeed was among his people and was able and willing to not only heal their sicknesses and physical disabilities, but forgive them of every sin they had ever done. 

            What does this mean for us today?  So many events in scripture relate to us today because God doesn’t change. He is consistently the same. He shows no favorites and has mercy and compassion toward His entire creation. That includes us. God heals as He so wills. He administers blessings to us regularly, even when we seem least aware of it. There are no such binding religious rules that would keep us from healing an individual on the Sabbath today. Yet God heals when and where he chooses and not when we ask all the time. We are to praise God for who He is and not withhold our praise because things don’t turn out the way we’d like them to. God knows what’s best for us and will never shortchange us in any facet of life. Until next time, walk with the King and be a blessing.

In His name & for His glory,

Richard Keller

Bread of Life Ministries

Resource: The Life Application Study Bible, p. 2234, c.2007; Expositor's Bible Commentary (Abridged Edition): New Testament, Copyright 2004.

* YHWH was the way the Jews wrote God’s name because they felt unworthy to even speak His name. Today we refer to God in some cases as YAWEH, the complete name.