Jesus & a crippled woman, Luke’s gospel

Jesus cures the Crippled Woman

Luke 13:10-17

‘Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight.

When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said “Woman, you are set free from your ailment”. When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.

The debate about the Sabbath

The gospels were first written on parchment scrolls

But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the Sabbath, kept saying to the crowd “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the Sabbath”.

But the Lord answered him and said “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?”

A woman reaches up to take the hand of Jesus

When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.’
(Luke 13:10-17)

• This is the third Sabbath controversy – the others are in Luke 6:1-5; 6:6-11 and 14:1-6.
• In this particular story, Jesus is teaching in the synagogue.
• The objection to the healing is based on Exodus 20:9-10 and Deuteronomy 5:13-14. Jesus argues from a lesser issue of care for the needs of animals (a point granted by the rabbis; see 14:5) to the greater issue of care for an afflicted woman.
• She is called the ‘daughter of Abraham’ which identifies her as one of God’s chosen people.