The Character of Jesus 50
Healing as an illustration of the Kingdom
Luke 13:10 – 21
Not Overlooking the Seemingly Insignificant
- Characteristic: Not Overlooking the Seemingly
Insignificant.
- (10 – 13) The woman was simply in attendance. She did not ask to be healed, but rather caught Jesus’ attention by her inability to straighten up. Whether this was at the end of Jesus’ lesson, or in the middle is not given.
- (14) The
ruler of the synagogue addressed the crowd rather than Jesus.
- Perhaps rebuking someone as notable as Jesus seemed unwise.
- Rebuking the crowd would prevent others from coming to Jesus to be healed, effectively shutting down the healing session.
- The ruler’s objection centered on the idea of “work” on the Sabbath, which the Law does not define. So, many rules and traditions had been made popular by various rabbis.
- Jesus had been challenged before concerning
working on the Sabbath (see topics below).
The problems with their objections were:
- That Jesus had done a miracle, so, obviously, He had God’s endorsement, so their theory had to be wrong
- This made the Sabbath harder on people, not easier.
- The theory prevented helping, contrary to Law.
- (15 – 16)
Jesus’ response:
- Leading an animal to water on the Sabbath was common sense. No one objected.
- Unless the woman had had time to fill Jesus in on her details, Jesus added some miraculous knowledge that the deformity had been caused by Satan and that had been of 18 years duration.
- (17) The ordinary people were emboldened to celebrate the defeat of a style of teaching that had oppressed them in the past.
- (18 – 21) The real point was not defeating “traditions of men” (Mark 7:7 – 8), rather this healing was a small thing in the kingdom. But it (and the kingdom) will grow like mustard and spread like yeast.
- Application: Not Overlooking the Seemingly
Insignificant
- In the past, good things in the kingdom have been shouted down by a minority. How do we show their hypocrisy without being divisive?
- Jesus neither healed everyone nor healed no one. His good works were balanced with His teaching. How does the church do with that balance?
- Do we recognize the growth or influence potential of helping someone?
- Jesus helped in humanly impossible ways. Do we? Can we?
- How do we obtain the necessary balance?