Sabbath Liberation Text: Luke 13:10-17
Introduction: Two Kinds of Religion
There are fundamentally two kinds of religion in the world. One is the religion of glory, and the other is the religion of grace. One is the religion of the ladder, where man tries to climb up to God on the rungs of his own performance. The other is the religion of the cross, where God comes down to man in an act of sheer, unmerited favor. One is about what you do for God; the other is about what God has done for you. In our text today, we see these two religions collide in a synagogue on the Sabbath, and the explosion reveals the very heart of the gospel.
The Sabbath day was given by God as a gift. It was to be a day of rest, of joy, of feasting, of liberation. It was a weekly reminder of God's finished work in creation and a weekly foretaste of the final rest to come in Christ. But fallen man has a diabolical talent for turning gifts into burdens. The Pharisees and synagogue rulers of Jesus' day had managed to wrap the Sabbath in so much red tape, so many petty regulations and man-made restrictions, that they had turned a day of freedom into a day of bondage. They had transformed a feast into a funeral. They had taken God's good gift and weaponized it, using it to measure their own righteousness and to beat others over the head with it.
Into this stuffy, self-righteous atmosphere walks Jesus, who is the Lord of the Sabbath. He is what the Sabbath has been pointing to all along. He is our rest. And when the Lord of the Sabbath encounters a daughter of Abraham who has been in bondage for eighteen years, He does what He always does. He brings liberation. This miracle is not just a random act of kindness; it is a calculated act of war. It is a direct assault on the dead, formalistic, grace-less religion that was strangling the people of God. Jesus is about to show them what the Sabbath is really for.
The Text
And He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And behold, there was a woman who for eighteen years had a sickness caused by a spirit, and she was bent double, and could not straighten up at all. But when Jesus saw her, He called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your sickness.” And He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made erect again and began glorifying God. But the synagogue official, indignant because Jesus healed on the Sabbath, answered and was saying to the crowd, “There are six days in which work should be done; so come during them and get healed, and not on the Sabbath day.” But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites, does not each of you on the Sabbath release his ox or his donkey from the stall and lead it away to water it? And this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for, behold, eighteen years, should she not have been released from this bond on the Sabbath day?” And as He said this, all His opponents were being put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing over all the glorious things being done by Him.
(Luke 13:10-17 LSB)
A Divine Interruption (v. 10-13)
We begin with the setting and the subject.
"And He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And behold, there was a woman who for eighteen years had a sickness caused by a spirit, and she was bent double, and could not straighten up at all. But when Jesus saw her, He called her over and said to her, 'Woman, you are freed from your sickness.' And He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made erect again and began glorifying God." (Luke 13:10-13)
Jesus is in the proper place on the proper day, teaching the Word of God. This is His custom. But His teaching is never merely academic. It is always life-giving and disruptive. And "behold," a woman is there. Luke wants us to see her. For eighteen years, she has been bent over, unable to look up. Her gaze is fixed on the dust. This is a picture of humanity under the curse. We are fallen, stooped, unable to look heavenward. We are curved in on ourselves.
And notice the source of her affliction. It was a "sickness caused by a spirit." The physical ailment was the manifestation of a spiritual bondage. This was not just bad posture; this was demonic oppression. For eighteen long years, this woman has been a prisoner of war in enemy-occupied territory. She comes to the synagogue, week after week, bent over, and the religion she finds there has no power to set her free. It can only manage her misery.
But Jesus sees her. In a crowd, the Lord of glory sees the individual. He doesn't wait for her to ask. Her condition is her petition. He calls her to Himself, and with a word of sovereign power, He declares her liberty: "Woman, you are freed from your sickness." This is not a suggestion. It is a divine decree. He then lays His hands on her, and the power of the new creation flows into her. Immediately, she who was bent is made erect. And what is her first act? She begins "glorifying God." True healing, true liberation, always results in worship. Her eyes are no longer on the dust; they are on her Deliverer.
The Indignation of Dead Religion (v. 14)
You would think that everyone would rejoice at such a stunning display of mercy and power. But you would be wrong. The reaction of the synagogue official is immediate and venomous.
"But the synagogue official, indignant because Jesus healed on the Sabbath, answered and was saying to the crowd, 'There are six days in which work should be done; so come during them and get healed, and not on the Sabbath day.'" (Luke 13:14 LSB)
This man is not just annoyed; he is "indignant." He is seething. Why? Because Jesus has violated his religious code. In his mind, healing is "work," and work is forbidden on the Sabbath. His religion is a religion of rules, not a religion of redemption. He is more concerned with the preservation of his traditions than with the liberation of a human soul.
Notice the cowardice of his response. He doesn't address Jesus directly. He turns and lectures the crowd. He is trying to reassert his authority and shame the people for participating in this glorious event. "There are six days for this sort of thing," he says. In other words, "God's mercy operates on our schedule, not His." This is the voice of every graceless bureaucracy. It is the spirit of legalism, which always prizes the letter of the law over the spirit of the law. He sees a healed woman glorifying God, and all he can see is a broken rule. His heart is so cold that a bonfire of divine glory cannot warm it.
The Hypocrisy Exposed (v. 15-16)
Jesus does not suffer this foolishness gladly. He answers him directly and exposes the rotten foundation of his entire religious system.
"But the Lord answered him and said, 'You hypocrites, does not each of you on the Sabbath release his ox or his donkey from the stall and lead it away to water it? And this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for, behold, eighteen years, should she not have been released from this bond on the Sabbath day?'" (Luke 13:15-16 LSB)
Jesus begins by calling him and those who think like him what they are: "Hypocrites." A hypocrite is an actor, someone playing a role. These men were playing the part of being zealous for God's law, but in reality, they were zealous for their own honor and control. Jesus then springs a logical trap. He uses an argument from the lesser to the greater, what the rabbis called a qal wahomer argument.
"You would untie your donkey on the Sabbath to give it a drink, wouldn't you?" Of course they would. Their own rules permitted acts of necessity and mercy toward animals. Their livestock was valuable property, and they weren't about to let their assets dehydrate for the sake of a rule. Jesus' point is devastating. You show more compassion to your farm animals than you do to a fellow human being made in the image of God.
And she is not just any human being. Jesus elevates her status with a glorious title: "a daughter of Abraham." She is a member of the covenant family. She belongs to God. And then He identifies her captor: "whom Satan has bound." This isn't just a sickness; it's spiritual warfare. Satan, the enemy of God, has had this daughter of the covenant in chains for eighteen years. Jesus' question is the climax of the story: "Should she not have been released from this bond on the Sabbath day?"
The question is rhetorical, and the answer is thunderous. What is the Sabbath for, if not for liberation? What is the purpose of God's day, if not to set captives free? The Sabbath commemorates God's rest from His work, and it anticipates the great redemptive rest that Christ provides. To forbid a work of restoration on the Sabbath is to fundamentally misunderstand the entire point of the day. It is like forbidding a celebration at a wedding feast. It is to say that the sign is more important than the reality it signifies.
The Great Divide (v. 17)
Jesus' words have a powerful effect. They draw a sharp line in the sand, dividing the crowd into two distinct groups.
"And as He said this, all His opponents were being put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing over all the glorious things being done by Him." (Luke 13:17 LSB)
First, His opponents were "put to shame." They were publicly humiliated. Their hypocrisy was laid bare for all to see. Their arguments were shown to be hollow and self-serving. They had no answer. The truth has a way of silencing error. When the light shines, the cockroaches scatter.
But the reaction of the people was the polar opposite. The "entire crowd was rejoicing." They saw the glory. They understood the mercy. They felt the joy of liberation. They were not bogged down in the legalistic minutiae. They saw a woman, crippled for eighteen years, now standing tall and praising God, and they knew they were in the presence of the Holy One of Israel. This is always the effect of the gospel. To those who are perishing, it is foolishness and a stumbling block. It is an offense. But to those who are being saved, it is the power and wisdom of God, and it is the source of all our joy.
Conclusion: Whose Sabbath Do You Keep?
This encounter forces a question upon all of us. Whose Sabbath are we keeping? Are we keeping the Sabbath of the synagogue ruler, or the Sabbath of the Lord Jesus Christ? The Sabbath of the ruler is a day of restrictions, of anxiety, of measuring up. It is a day for polishing your own righteousness and looking down on those who don't meet your standards. It is a dead thing, a fossil of religion.
But the Sabbath of the Lord Jesus is a day of liberation. The Lord's Day, the Christian Sabbath, is the weekly celebration of our release from bondage. We were all like this woman, bent double by our sin, bound by Satan, staring at the dust. We were unable to straighten up. But Jesus saw us in our misery. He called us to Himself. And through His death and resurrection, He spoke the word of power: "You are freed." He broke the chains of sin and death and stood us up straight, so that we could finally look up and glorify God.
Every Lord's Day is a commemoration of that release. It is a feast of freedom. It is the day we untie our souls from the stalls of this world's anxieties and lead them to the living water. It is the day we celebrate the fact that the strong man, Satan, has been bound, and his prisoners are being set free. If your observance of the Lord's Day feels more like a burden than a blessing, more like a prison than a party, then you have fallen into the trap of the synagogue ruler. Repent, and see what Jesus is doing. He is the Lord of the Sabbath, and He came not to bind men with rules, but to unbind them with His grace.