I. Healing a bent woman (13:10–17)
I. Healing a bent woman (13:10–17)
The right use of the sabbath was a continuing source of controversy between Jesus and his opponents. Luke tells of a healing on the sabbath which provoked a dispute about the right use of that day.
10–11. Neither the time, other than that it was on the sabbath, nor the place, except that it was a synagogue, is indicated. This is the last time Jesus is recorded to have taught in a synagogue or even to have been in one. The woman’s deformity is described by A. Rendle Short as ‘spondylitis deformans; the bones of her spine were fused into a rigid mass’.11
12–13. There is no indication that the woman believed in Jesus, or indeed that she knew him at all. Jesus himself took the initiative. He pronounced her cured, laid his hands on her and she was made straight. Jesus did not usually lay hands on people when performing exorcisms. Perhaps Luke means that the spirit (11) was already cast out (12) and that Jesus now completed the cure with the laying on of hands. It is interesting that the woman’s gratitude is shown in her praising of God, not Jesus.
14. The cure annoyed the ruler of the synagogue (for this official see on 8:41). Luke’s explanation puts emphasis on the day: ‘it was on the sabbath that Jesus had healed’. The ruler may also have felt that there was an invasion of his prerogative, for he directed what went on in the synagogue and this took place without reference to him. He did not rebuke Jesus, but spoke to the people at large. He took the fourth commandment to prohibit such healings as this. People should get themselves healed on six days.
15–16. Jesus’ plural, hypocrites, castigates not only the ruler but all who agreed with him. The hypocrisy consisted in his talking to the crowds when he really aimed his rebuke at Jesus, but even more in his professed zeal for the law in objecting to a deed which fulfilled the spirit and the purpose of the law. Jesus chose to rebuke the hypocrisy of this approach by pointing to the Jewish practice of looking after animals. The rabbis were greatly concerned that animals be treated well. On the sabbath, animals could be led out by a chain or the like as long as nothing was carried (Shabbath 5:1). Water could be drawn for them and poured into a trough, though a man must not hold a bucket for the animal to drink from (Erubin 20b, 21a). If animals may be cared for in such ways, much more may a daughter of Abraham be set free from Satan’s bondage on the sabbath. In fact Jesus uses a strong term and says she ‘must’ (dei) be loosed. The afflicting of the woman was due to Satanic activity and Satan must be overthrown. This does not, of course, mean that the woman was wicked. She was attending worship, and Jesus’ description of her seems to show that she was pious. But her illness was evil.
17. The effect was twofold. Jesus’ adversaries were put to shame and all the people kept rejoicing (the tenses are continuous). Evidently public opinion was solidly on Jesus’ side. And people were impressed not only by this one miracle, but by all the glorious things that were done by him.