Luke 13:10-17

THE RHEUMATISM OF EIGHTEEN YEARS HEALED

Luke 13:10-17. “ And He was teaching in one of their synagogues on the Sabbath. Behold, a woman having a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over, and not able perfectly to straighten up; and Jesus seeing her, called to her and said, Woman, thou art loosed from thy infirmity, and put His hands on her; and immediately she straightened up, and continued to glorify God. And the chief ruler of the synagogue, being angry because Jesus healed her on the Sabbath, continued to say to the multitude that there are six days in which it behooveth to work; therefore during these, coming, be healed, and not on the Sabbath-day. But the Lord responded to him and said, Ye hypocrites, does not each one of you loose his donkey or ox from the stall, and leading it away, give it water on the Sabbath? But did it not behoove this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan bound, lo, these eighteen years, to be loosed from this bondage on the Sabbath- day? And He, thus speaking, all those opposed to Him became ashamed; and the whole multitude continued to rejoice over the glorious things done by Him.” In this case, when this poor woman, bent down in the shape of a curve, suffering from muscular rheumatism eighteen years, hobbled out to see and hear the wonderful Prophet of Galilee, whose fame had gone to the ends of the earth and raised the nations on tiptoe, thrilling all with burning enthusiasm, and stood before the sympathetic Savior in the crowd, the very sight arousing the sympathies of His pure, unfallen humanity, so that He immediately, to her joyful surprise, calls aloud, thus commanding the attention of the entire multitude, “ Woman, thou art loosed from thy infirmity;” simultaneously, forgetting her spinal curvature and incurable rheumatism, she leaps into the air with shouts of victory, again His old enemies raised the Sabbath question. You see, Jesus calls them hypocrites, and why? Because the people who are so overzealous for mere forms and ceremonies, as a rule, are destitute of the inward reality, taking the form for the substance, which is a literal definition of hypocrite. They are numerous this day as the locusts of Egypt, devouring the heritage of the Lord; and, like the vampire, sucking away the life-blood of the Church, while they fan her into lethean slumber. The argument of Jesus in reference to the man loosing his ox or donkey, and leading him to water on the Sabbath, was an irrefutable stunner; consequently the whole multitude turn on the scribes and Pharisees, who thus assaulted him, such an uproarious laughter that they dropped their heads, and retreated crestfallen from the controversy. You see here that Jesus imputes this chronic rheumatism to Satan, who is equally the author of sin and sickness, both alike having emanated from the fall, besides being manipulated by demons in their universal prevalence to the destruction of soul and body. The responses and arguments of Jesus are a constant and an irrefutable confirmation of His Divinity. His enemies were the men of highest learning, and official position in the Church of His day. They studied, day and night, to fix up hard questions and dilemmas, in hopes that they might entangle Him in His speech; but all in vain. His unanswerable arguments everywhere literally swept controversy from the field, utterly dumbfounding all of His enemies. “ You loose your ox and donkey on the Sabbath, lest he should be bound in the stall two days. Here is a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound, lo, these eighteen years; shall I not loose her on the Sabbath?” What a knock-down argument! No wonder the multitude laugh the priests out of countenance.