Beloved congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, In every miracle Jesus opened up something about Himself, we learn something more about Him, and we learn something more about ourselves as well. In this miracle He not only reveals His power and compassion to a burdened and bent over woman, but also that this was for all the children of Abraham. And throughout this all Jesus reveals something to us about the nature of the Sabbath day, for is it not a day of fasting, but a day of liberation. As the prophet Isaiah said, “Is it a fast that I have chosen, A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, And to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Would you call this a fast, And an acceptable day to the LORD? “Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free, And that you break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; When you see the naked, that you cover him, And not hide yourself from your own flesh? Then your light shall break forth like the morning, Your healing shall spring forth speedily, And your righteousness shall go before you; The glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; You shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’ “If you take away the yoke from your midst, The pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, If you extend your soul to the hungry And satisfy the afflicted soul, Then your light shall dawn in the darkness, And your darkness shall be as the noonday. The LORD will guide you continually, And satisfy your soul in drought, And strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.” (Isa. 58:5-12 NKJV)

My theme then is: SABBATH LIBERATION. So we’ll follow this incident first looking at this woman’s bondage, second at the liberation Christ gave her, third at the hypocrisy of the ruler of the synagogue, and finally at how Christ ripped off this mask of hypocrisy.

Our text opens up telling us that Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath day. He was still in Galilee. The Jews had built synagogues in most of the principal cities of Galilee. The synagogue was the place where Israel came into the presence of the Word of God. For there they gathered each Sabbath day to sing Psalms, to offer prayers, to listen to the reading of the Law and the Prophets, the Old Testament, to hear again the wonderful promises of God, to bring their gifts, and to be taught out of the Word. And so Jesus was the teacher that day.

“And behold,” says our text, “there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over, and could in no way raise herself up.” Later on Jesus tells us that Satan had bound her these eighteen years. She had a spirit of infirmity. The word here means a weakness, a feebleness, a lack of strength, for, says our text, “she could in no way raise herself up.”

There is no indication that she was possessed by a demon, but only the indication that just as Satan, according to Hebrews 2:14, has the power of death, so he has the power of diseases and illness. He was the one who brought those terrible boils on Job’s body, so exquisitely painful that Job wished himself dead. Yet, as the experience of Job tells us, it is God that permits Satan to exercise this power, and it is God who finally brings relief. Why does Satan exercise that power? Well, every illness is a sign, is just another indicator that we are all falling towards death. And why is there death? That answer we know, death has come because of sin. But Jesus, who would abolish sin in the flesh, would also through that abolish death.

I don’t know if we are often that conscious of the fact that it is our old enemy Satan and his minions who brings sicknesses into our lives. On the one hand we know, from the incident of the man born blind, that his blindness was not because of his sin nor the sin of his parents. On the other hand we believe what the apostle James said, “Is anyone among you sick. Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.” I understand anointing as reference to using the medical resources available, and that through prayer and the means God has provided, He will bring relief. I also see that the reference to sin is conditional, “IF he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.”

The woman was bent over double. She could see little but the ground. Mankind walks upright, but she was bent over like an animal who walked on all fours. She wasn’t a pleasant sight. She couldn’t look people in the face. She couldn’t look up. Only down. She was literally depressed. Are there more people who are like that in an emotional and spiritual way? Depressed, only able to look down, not able to see any blue skies, but only the dark earth? Yes, there are millions that way today. Depression, not only among adults, but also among children, is a major cause for concern today. And one of the terrible things about depression is just what this woman experienced, “she could in no wise raise her self up.” She was under such a weight that she couldn’t straighten up under it.

But that describes depression too, doesn’t it? We might say to the depressed, “Just look up, there’s hope. Things are not as bad as they seem.” “Just look up.” But they can’t. . .they are as powerless as this woman to see anything bright at all. They can’t see the sun, only the ground.

Do you or I ever come to the Lord’s house a bit down about things, or even depressed? In some sense that is nothing to be ashamed about, for if you are at home among the Psalm writers you will see that they often were downcast, depressed, discouraged, and took a dismal view of things. Perhaps the real question is whether you will admit it or not? Perhaps you mask your deep seated anxieties with a mask of “I’m ok. Everything’s just fine.” Well, I want to talk more about that later.

But other things can cripple us as well, can’t they? We may have secret sins that corrode our souls. We may have sins of malice and envy, sins of greed and lust, sins from which we may seem powerless to free ourselves. The sin of sloth, laziness cripples people, and bound in that sin cannot seem just to have the will power to get up and get going. The sin of wasting time cripples us, messing around with frivolous things when there is work to do.

Fear too may cripple us. Fear of man may keep us from speaking out when we should. Fears make us hesitate, afraid to continue as we should. With all these things, with depression, with sloth and idleness, with fears and anxieties, most people are simply powerless to lift themselves up. And I don’t think we should forget that Christ was not only ministering to individuals, but in calling her later on a daughter of Abraham, inferred that the seed of Abraham was in sore need of deliverance. Outwardly she was no longer independent. Ever since the Babylonian captivity she was a subject nation, first to Babylon, then Persia, then Greece and now Rome. But, of course, more than that, she was bound by the weight of her own sins, and could in no way lift herself up. For the blood of bulls and goats and the sprinkling of blood only gave evidence of outward washing, but Israel was yet powerless to cleanse herself from an evil conscience.

The condition for some of Israel was worse that that. St. John records in chapter 8 that Jesus said, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” But they answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can you say, ‘You will be made free’?” Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.” Does that leave anyone out? “Whether Jew or Gentile, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.” Jesus didn’t stop there, for He said, “If the son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” Are any of you still slaves of sin? Or do you want to say that you were born free?

“And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over, and could in no way raise herself up.” So let me ask you, “Where was this woman?” And the answer is, “In the synagogue.” In the synagogue on the Sabbath day. And this was the right place at the right time, for Jesus saw her, and when He did, He called and said to her, “Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.”

Why was this the right place? This was the right place because it was here that she could hear again the promises of God, here again that she could hear that the promise was to Abraham and to his children, to his sons and to his daughters. This was the right place because here was the Word of God, the power of God for salvation. This was the right place because God had truly promised, hadn’t He, that Israel would have a Son whose name would be Might God, Prince of peace. This was the right place, for this is where she could hear that God had promised that One would come who said, “For the Lord has called you like a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit.” (Isaiah 54:6) This was the right place, for here she could hear those precious words again from Isaiah 61, “The Lord has anointed me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.”

She was in the right place. . .the synagogue. . .the gathering of God’s people to listen to the promises of the Word, and she was there at the right time, for it was the Sabbath day. Why was the Sabbath the right time? First of all, as every Jew should have known, in Deuteronomy 5 at the second reading of the law, in connection with the fourth commandment on the Sabbath day, the Lord said, “And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; THEREFORE THE LORD YOUR GOD COMMANDED YOU TO KEEP THE SABBATH DAY.”

Every Sabbath day was to b e a commemoration of the great deliverance God had given them. They had been slaves, bent over under the whip of Pharaoh, and in no way could they lift themselves up. Remembering His promise to Abraham, the Lord raised them up out of the land of Egypt. Of course this was the right time, the right day for liberation. God reinforced this liberation theme in Deuteronomy 15 by saying: “At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release of debts.” Everyone who had been bound by a debt had to be freed from that debt. “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” The debtors were to be freed on that seventh year.

Verse 12: “If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you.” The seventh year, like the seventh day, was a time of release. Every slave, and the Bible sometimes calls them bondservants, servants who were bound, had to be freed.

Let me bring out one more thing about this woman and her bound condition. She had been bound for eighteen years. May we suppose that all during those eighteen years she had faithfully attended the synagogue every Sabbath? I think so. For if she had simply given up on the God of Israel, if she thought that all the promises she heard from the law and the prophets were empty words, she would have stopped coming. But she persevered, she didn’t give up, but every Sabbath again she came with her need, she came with her longing to be free, to be raised up.

How easy it is for us to think that coming to the New Testament synagogue, the church, really does nothing for us, really never relieves our burdens, never really frees us from laziness, or fear, or depression. Do we persevere? Do we refuse to believe that the arm of the Lord is not shortened that it cannot save?

The woman had been bound, said Jesus, think of it, these eighteen years. Now she found liberty. “Woman,” said Jesus, “You are loosed from your infirmity.”

She had been bound. Later Jesus said that Satan had bound her. She had no power to loose herself. But Jesus liberated her. . .unbound her. . .freed her from those bonds, those cords that held her down. For the first time in eighteen years she stood upright. She belonged to the human race again. She could look people in the face. She could look up at the blue skies over her, at the clouds, at the sunrise and the sunsets. She was freed!

This is the liberation that Jesus gave. And this is the liberation that the apostles proclaimed throughout the world, first of all going into the synagogues of the Jews every Sabbath day. They proclaimed the blood of the Lamb of God that freed them from the guilt of sin which the law of Moses was powerless to do. They proclaimed that through the gospel of Jesus Christ men and women were free from the power of superstition, so the men and women of Ephesus burned books of magic worth 30,000 pieces of silver. Men and women every where were freed from bondage, from slavery to demons, and brought into the glorious liberty of the sons of God.

“But when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him, and said to her, “Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.” And He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.”

“But the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath; and he said to the crowd, “There are six days on which men ought to work; therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day.” What a mind and heart full of malice and hatred. And he didn’t even dare to speak directly to Jesus, but instead tried to get at Him by talking to the crowd instead. Why doesn’t this ruler forbid everyone from entering the synagogue on the Sabbath day, for wouldn’t that take effort, wouldn’t that be work?

“Come on other days for a cure.” As if the power of God lay asleep on the Sabbath day, and rather that the power of God is not chiefly exerted on that day.

We confess that it is, don’t we? In the Heidelberg Lord’s Day 38, we say that on the Sabbath we should attend the house of God so that God may work in us by His Holy Spirit.

For what purpose is our assembly, why do we come to the house of God, to the temple of the living God, as church is, if we cannot come to plead for the grace and help of God to free us from our sins, from our fears, from our depression, from our cares?

Why a hypocrite this ruler was, talking as if the lawful observation of the Sabbath interrupted the course of God’s favors, hindered men from calling upon Him, and took away from all feeling of His kindness. Jesus replies: “Hypocrite! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and lead it away to water it? So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound – think of it – for eighteen years. . .be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?”

“Hypocrite!” The word Jesus used we have taken over directly into English. The word meant and means actor, pretender. Everyone listening was familiar with the Greek theater and in the plays the actors wore masks. Those masks covered who you really were and presented another face to the public. And what Jesus did was to tear the mask off his face. Jesus said, Listen, if it is lawful to perform the office of common humanity to cows and donkeys, it is ridiculous to think that due observance will keep assistance from being granted to the children of God. You hypocrite, you show more kindness and consideration to beasts than you do to one of your own people.

For this man himself was bound up in his own hypocrisy. He was the man bound by Satan. He was a ruler of the synagogue. His job was to see that the Word was read, that Psalms and prayers were offered to God, and that the Word was explained. But he acted as thought the house of God belonged to him. He was only a servant in the house. Servants then, and servants now, whether ministers or elders, do not own the house of God. Jesus is the Son who owns the house. And proper conduct in the house of God must be done according to the Word of Jesus Christ, and the word of Jesus Christ is that the house of His Father is to be a house of prayer, a house of liberation.

What was wrong with this man? Never had such an honor been done to a synagogue of which he was ruler, and yet he was furious.

Verse 17 tells us that after Jesus said these things, all His adversaries were put to shame. Adversaries, those who opposed Jesus. Jesus, who went about doing good, they were adversaries, opponents to good. They were opposing God, for God is good. They were friends of Satan, for the name Satan simply means adversary, opposer. He is the great opposition, the great opposer to all that is good, the great adversary to the good work of liberation. He is the one to whom Jesus said, “Let my people go that they may serve me.” But like Pharaoh of old, he will not, until he is broken.

“Ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?” This daughter of Abraham. Jesus had another time referred to someone that way, and that person too was lowly, and rather despised at that, for he was a very little man, half a man we might say, and despised and loathed by many of the Jews. That man was Zacheus, you remember. Jesus, by referring to them both as children of Abraham, gave them height, the woman could stand tall, and Zacheus could stand taller, for they were children of Abraham, not only by birth, but by faith, by the power of Jesus who freed them.

Are you able to stand tall? Has Jesus freed you from the guilt of your sins?

“And when He said these things, all His adversaries were put to shame; and all the multitude rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by Him.”

Now let me draw two main lessons from this miracle of Jesus, the first about the way we come and conduct ourselves in the house of God. And the second, related of course, some strong hints as to how we should observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

When we prepare to come to church we put on clean clothes that honor the Lord Jesus before whose throne we assemble. Perhaps we also put on a happy face. And we should. We should come with thanksgiving in our hearts, ready to present to the Lord our gratitude and praises for all His blessings during the week gone by.

We also come with needs, don’t we? All those things I mentioned before, the sins that still cling to us and keep us from the full life of service. The fears that still plague us. The anxieties that gnaw at our hearts. Then too, so often we can be depressed, about ourselves, about others, about the church, about the country, about the world.

Do we bring them to Jesus? He said, “Come unto Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Well, how do we bring them to Jesus? We must bring them to the temple of Jesus, this church worship service. We must not wear a mask, and pretend as though we come here with no burdens at all. We have them, and we must bring them. Unless we want to say to God, “I thank You Lord, that I am not like other people. I am never depressed, never discouraged. I have no fears. There are no sins in my life that I haven’t taken care of and conquered.” That would be wearing a mask.

But how do we come. . .and what do we do with our burdens? First let me tell you that you must come in honesty. . .without a mask, and then come in faith. Faith, believing that the Word of God is powerful, discerning the very thoughts and intents of your hearts, and that all things are naked and laid bare before the eyes of Him whom we worship. Faith. . .believing that we have a high priest who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Faith. . .believing that from that throne of grace there is help in time of need. Read Hebrews.

How do we come, and how does Christ relieve us? Has not Christ appointed shepherds for this flock? Can you not come to minister or elders? What about each other? “Share one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.” Share them with one another. So often our conversations can be so shallow. But these people here are the church of God, and it is these people through whom Christ ministers relief. Approach one another, and especially if you notice or know of the anxieties and fears of others, talk to one another. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.

Confide in one another. Confess your faults to one another. These are commands from Christ, are they not? Confide in one another. . .this takes care and integrity, doesn’t it. . .and perhaps we don’t all have that. We must care for one another, be concerned for each other’s welfare, and at the same time, avoid, what the apostle Paul and especially Proverbs warns against, being busy bodies, meddling in one another’s affairs. We must have discretion, so that others, confiding in us, do not run the risk of having their innermost cares broadcast. We remember what havoc Solomon says is wrought by those who reveal secrets.

Yet, as we come to maturity in Christ, as we grow, we should more and more discover that the church of Jesus Christ is the place where we find that we are loosed from our burdens, relieved of our fears, and instead of replying to someone who asks, “How are you?” by saying, “Oh, I’m just great!” we will share some of our burdens.

That’s the first lesson, and the second lesson is to revise our understanding of the Sabbath day. It is the great day of liberation, the great day when we celebrate the resurrection of Christ from the dead for our justification. To make some activities consistent with the liberation theme of the Sabbath, let me read from Isaiah 58 again. First from verses 13 and 14, well-known verses about the Sabbath: “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, From doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, The holy day of the LORD honorable, And shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, Nor finding your own pleasure, Nor speaking your own words, “Then you shall delight yourself in the LORD; And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, And feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

The question then is, how do we do this? There are a series of not’s here. . .not our own ways. . .not our own pleasure. . .not our own words. That means that we have been freed from the tyranny of self, and finding this day an opportunity to serve ourselves.

But how do we do it then? How do we honor the Lord? Well, perhaps we should listen to the words that come before this text and put meaning into it.

“Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free, And that you break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; When you see the naked, that you cover him, And not hide yourself

Do you see the theme of liberation here? And do you see that your own liberation, your own freedom from what burdens you is linked to your service to others? Is this not what Jesus meant in the parable of the sheep and the goats, for He welcomed the sheep into an eternal life free from depression, cares, anxieties, and fears because they had ministered to the hungry, the thirsty, the sick, and the imprisoned.

Are there no nursing homes with children of Abraham who are lonely, burdened, and anxious? Are there no prisons? Are there no hospitals with the sick and depressed? Are there no hungry and homeless? Is there no opportunity to minister the great gospel of Sabbath liberation?

Now we come to the great question. . . Where will I receive the power to do all this? The great answer is in Jesus Christ, for as we come now to the Holy Table, Jesus presents Himself to us. We then are to take Him, take His body and take His blood, in full assurance that His liberating power will free us from service to self, just as He gave His body and blood for others, we will give ourselves to others. We then must take Him, in full confidence that with the body and blood of Christ that is filled with compassion and love, so we will be filled with that same compassion and love.

Amen.