Bending Rules

11 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. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, "Woman, you are set free from your ailment." 13 When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. 14 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 day." (Luke 13:11-14)

When Jesus healed a bent over woman in a synagogue on the Sabbath he entered into a debate that had already been raging - what is work and what work is allowable on the day set aside to honor God. In his response to the synagogue leader, Jesus points to the reason God called the Israelites to set aside the Sabbath.

15 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. (Deuteronomy 5:15)

The Sabbath was set aside to commemorate God bringing the Israelites out of slavery so, Jesus argues, the Sabbath is in fact the perfect day to free this "daughter of Abraham" from the ailment that had held her prisoner for so many years. Jesus didn't just free the woman physically - she was freed mentally and emotionally as her perspective of the world shifted, and as her perspective of what God could do shifted. It's possible that the synagogue leader was also freed from his misunderstanding and legalistic mentality. God is able to do "exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think" (Eph. 3:20)

May we rejoice as God sets us free from our limited thinking and low expectations.

15 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? 16 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?" 17 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 13:15-17)