“On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years.”
—Luke 13:10-11
When Jesus was teaching in the synagogue, He saw a woman crippled. Many versions of the Bible explain that the woman was doubled over, unable to straighten her spine at all.
Imagine the pain of walking hunched over for years. Suddenly even mundane tasks like grocery shopping or cooking dinner would be unbearably painful. Your joints and muscles would constantly ache from compensating for your spinal column. Your neck would be at an angle, making conversations and eye contact difficult.
So when Jesus saw the woman, He was overcome with compassion. He called out, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” (Luke 13:12)
But an interesting thing happens. As everyone else rejoices and praises God, the church leader grows angry. He says there are six days to work and the seventh is meant to be holy. “If you want to be healed,” he says, “come on the right day!” (Luke 13:14, paraphrased).
Jesus becomes angry and calls the man a hypocrite, asking, “Should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”
Healing doesn’t always present the way we would like it to. Jesus may choose to heal a woman from her arthritis. He may choose to heal a sick man from cancer by taking him to Heaven.
It’s important as Christians that we don’t judge the healed for how they’re healed. Rather, we’re just to rejoice that Christ has done a beautiful miracle.
God, help me to rejoice with those who have been healed. I don’t want to be so caught up in what I think healing should look like that I miss it when You perform a miracle. I thank You and praise You for the healing that has happened to those around me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
