Luke 13:10 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

Navigator

Luke 13:10

Comments

(Synoptics: Luke 13:10-17)This is about breaking the bonds that bind human beings spiritually, the bonds of the soul. This poor, bent over woman becomes a tremendous lesson to us. Some people think that that means she was demon possessed, but most of the old writers do not think that, although undoubtedly Satan took advantage of her condition. Luke does not tell us that any demon was cast out of her. What he means is that she had this terrible physical deformity, and because of it she was easy prey to the devil, who would come and make her so sad and depressed, and remind her so often of her deformity, and that is what is meant by this spirit of infirmity.‘And could in no wise lift up herself.’ That not only refers to any struggles or efforts on her part to straighten out her body – that was just impossible – but the term probably includes the fact that she had spent a great deal of money in seeking the medical help of the day, but all in vain. There was no help, there was no cure for her, and she ‘could in no wise’ – either herself or with the assistance of others – ‘lift up herself.’ So she was a woman with a crippling limitation, this terrible deformity. She could probably only look up above a certain level with great difficulty. Yet she was in the synagogue, she was a worshiper, she still sought after God. Whether she could see the Saviour who would have been in a somewhat elevated position on a synagogue platform of some sort is questionable. Why did he heal this woman? Well obviously to demonstrate his divinity, that he was from God, that he was God, and by a word he could heal – not in the name of God, but by his own power, in his own name. Sometimes it was just a word, but however he chose to do it, it was by his own authority. But everything the Lord Jesus Christ did, whenever he healed, is more than just a demonstration of his power to heal physical sickness. The healings are also a demonstration of his way of healing spiritual sicknesses and needs. Not only do they demonstrate his power as God, not only do they show his heart of compassion and kindness, but perhaps chiefly they demonstrate what he had come to do in the healing of souls, in the blessing of men and women, cut off from God and far from him. As he healed a person who was blind, so he will heal spiritual blindness. As he raised the physical dead, so he restores us from spiritual death and inertia and lifelessness. And as he raised this woman so dramatically limited in her lifestyle, so he shows how conversion to Christ releases us from tremendous limitations in life that we don't even recognize when we are away from God. It is a great visual aid, a literal healing which provides an analogy for soul healing. There is no sign of her family here, no sign of husband or friends. Maybe we shouldn't read too much into that, but it does rather look as though she was alone in the world. And in the society of those days, someone in her condition, who had been in that condition for so long, might well have been regarded as a person without any value, and relatively ignored. What a terrible thing! She seems to have had, dare we say it, some love for God or some desire for him, because despite her condition, she is to be found on the Sabbath day in the synagogue as a worshiper. What did this woman look like in this deformed condition? The Greek word indicates that she was so bowed over that the parts of her body actually touched. That may well be a little exaggerated, just to bring home to us the seriousness of it, but she was very disabled and in great difficulty. She couldn't raise her head above the crowd. Her vision was severely limited and curtailed. If you had seen her in this terrible plight, the first thing you would have said is that she was not meant to be like that. That wasn't how she was made, that wasn't how she was intended to be as a human being: poor, bent double, staring constantly at the ground, in such a terrible, ugly condition.

Application

So it is with us spiritually. Without spiritual life we are fearfully ignorant of the world and of God. You may know everything there is to know about the prices in the shops, and your profession or occupation, but when it comes to God and why he made the world, and what he is doing with the world, and what his plans are, and the character of Christ, and how he saves souls, and what it is to walk with him; as far as knowing any Bible or any theology or anything about spiritual matters, eternal matters, we are bowed down and we cannot see those things. They are at rarefied levels to us. We are ignorant spiritually, ignorant of God. We don't understand his holiness, his power, his goodness, his knowledge. We just don't see these things. If you have never come to Jesus Christ, that is your condition. You never thought of yourself as a person with limbs missing, parts missing, somebody seriously disabled and handicapped. Maybe you are young, and people tell you that you are pretty, and you may be, and that is how you think of yourself. I am a smart and a pretty girl; I am a handsome fellow. I am able. I can do this sport, understand this subject, that subject. I have got a nimble mind. I have got powers. You never saw yourself spiritually as crippled, limited, deformed, inside yourself, depraved in your heart, sinful, guilty, unable to understand.

We have to be tough to be kind. This is the truth. The Lord healed this poor woman, not only because he wanted to – it was his great kindness and compassion – but to say to us, ‘Look, you are like this too’, but at a different level, in a spiritual way. This poor woman could be so disabled and even in pain, but if she loved God and trusted in Christ, she could still go to heaven. But with your kind of disability: if you have never come to Christ for conversion, you are not going to heaven. Your disability will ruin you for all eternity. Don't be tempted to respond, ‘Well, a lot of what you say may be true. Yes, I have to admit it. I sin and I have lusts. I have done some awful things, and I have been cruel and deceitful and greedy and proud. But this is in everybody; I can change it.’ You cannot. You may be able to change yourself a little bit, but you will soon slip back, because you don't know God and you don't know Christ, and you haven't got his help, and without it you cannot do it. You cannot alter these things, and what are you going to do about the past even if you could? You are under God's condemnation for all the sins you've committed up till now. This woman could not cure herself and nor can we.

Her condition was also unsightly and so is ours. Her condition was also unhappy and so is ours. We can be happy even when we are not converted in fits and starts for periods of time, when we have got things we want, when things are going our way, when somebody loves us, when we are in a very beautiful place. That is the goodness of God even to those who do not serve him. However, you have also known times when you wish there was more to life, when you come to the end of your tether, when you know that this life is not worth it, if this is all there is. Some people are buoyant up to the age of 20, 25, and they seem to rise over everything, and then a bad period hits them, maybe at 25, maybe at 30. You cannot have peace and satisfaction and inner happiness and harmony with yourself without Christ, without being a complete person, without knowing him.

Before we are converted to God, before we ever seek him and find him, we are deformed and we are not as we were intended to be. We were not intended to be like animals with no spiritual life, no communion with God, no understanding of the things of God and the purpose of life. We were not intended to have buried within us this great sin tendency so that we don't do the things we ought to do but we do the things which we should not do, and we love doing them. We were never meant to be depraved and hopeless: this is a deformity and we are ugly in God's sight. What characterises us? There is so much pride; we are so pleased with ourselves, so driven by our pride, so shallow, full of deceitfulness. The trouble with us is we don't see it. We don't realise how deformed we are, viewed from heaven.

Questions

Outline

Purpose

Introduction

Luke 13:10 Commentary and Bible Study