Our Response to God’s Intervention

“ ‘And this woman, a daughter of Abraham as she is, whom Satan has bound for eighteen long years, should she not have been released from this bond on the Sabbath day?’ As He said this, all His opponents were being humiliated; and the entire crowd was rejoicing over all the glorious things being done by Him.” (Luke 13:16-17)

Jesus had just straightened a woman who had been bent double for 18 years. The text said that the condition had been caused by Satan. As usual, a synagogue official was ‘indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath.’

Now here is what is interesting. This official uses the argument against Jesus that you may have used or heard used in other contexts. He wasn’t objecting to the woman being healed, but why couldn’t Jesus have done it the next day just as easily. ‘There are six days in which work should be done; so come during them and get healed, and not on the Sabbath.’ But apparently, Jesus thought the Sabbath was an especially good day to restore a woman’s health. It was a good day to break the bonds of Satan.

I don’t know if the teachers of the law had previously determined that laying hands on someone for the purpose of healing was defined as work, but they decided it was in Jesus’ case, although He seemed to do it with relative ease.

However, we see that ‘all His opponents were being humiliated’ in contrast to ‘the entire crowd rejoicing over all the glorious things being done by Him.’ This apparently wasn’t the only healing taking place, this day or other days. And people were rejoicing as a crowd.

When we see the hand of God performing wonders our joyful response is not something planned. Being joyful is not something you do, but something you are. In this case, it is a response to God’s direct intervention on our behalf.

Heather Jean Torosyan