Jesus Meets a Woman in Luke 13
The Lord Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath, in a city we’re not even told the name of, somewhere in the land of Israel. In that place where Jews gathered to hear the word of God taught, there was a woman. We’re not told how often she came or how long she’d been coming. We’re only told how long she’d had her problem: eighteen years. She had a spirit of infirmity — bowed together, unable in any way to straighten herself up. And we learn later in the passage that it wasn’t merely a physical ailment. It was Satan himself who had bound her.
She came that day, but she likely had no intention of meeting Christ. She had no idea that this was the day everything would change.
There’s a balance worth noticing in a meeting like this. In John chapter 3, a man named Nicodemus came to the Lord Jesus by night. Here in Luke 13, a woman responds to Christ in broad daylight, on the Sabbath, in a public synagogue. Two very different people, two very different settings — but the same Saviour, and the same need.
When Jesus saw her, He called her to Him and said, “Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.” He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight and glorified God. But the ruler of the synagogue was indignant, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath. “There are six days in which men ought to work,” he told the people. “Come and be healed on those, and not on the Sabbath.” The Lord answered him plainly: “Hypocrite! Does not each of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his 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?” When He had said this, all His adversaries were put to shame, and the whole crowd rejoiced at all the glorious things He was doing.
A Day That Could Change Everything
Maybe there’s someone reading this tonight who walked into a meeting — or opened this page — without any thought of being saved. I don’t know your background. I don’t know where you’re from. I don’t know why you’re here. But you could leave this changed.
I’ve referred to my own conversion more times than I could count. The night God saved me, I was a boy of seven at a gospel meeting in a tent in Newfoundland. I hadn’t come with any desire to be saved that particular night — there was a vague thought somewhere in the back of my mind that one day I would be — but for the first time in that whole series of meetings, I was sitting by myself, in the front row, with nobody I knew beside me. Looking back, I believe God had that orchestrated. While I sat and listened to the gospel that night, for the first time I was awakened to my need before God — awakened to the reality that I was a sinner, and that I deserved to be in hell. For the first time I understood why the Lord Jesus Christ had come.
That’s the potential of a gospel meeting: you can walk in not saved, not on the road to heaven, still in your sins — and you can leave saved, on the very seat where you’re sitting. You can receive life from God. You can trust Christ as your Saviour and know, for certain, that your sins are forgiven.
What Her Condition Shows About Sin
The Lord Jesus spoke to this woman with both clarity and compassion. I want you to think, for a moment, about her condition — because it’s a picture of ours.
Bowed
Whatever happened when Satan bound her, she lost her posture. She was bent over, fixed on the ground beneath her. I think of the direction of her fixation: she was looking down, fixed on the things of earth — the very same things that mark people in their sin today. What do you have room for in your life? Education. There’s room for that. Employment, business — room for that too. Pleasure — we certainly make room for that. People marked by sinfulness are marked by things that are temporary. That’s why the old hymn writer put it this way:
Room for pleasure, room for business, But for Christ the crucified, Not a place that He can enter, In the heart for which He died.
You might have room for all of those things. But do you have room for Christ? He wants to save you. The wonder of grace is this: God has made room for us — and He will make room for you tonight, too.
Burdened
This woman wasn’t only bowed; she was burdened. I can’t imagine what it must have been like for her — every day, getting herself out of bed under the weight of that infirmity, with nothing she could do about it. It reminds me of what the Lord said of the nation of Israel in Isaiah chapter 1: a nation laden with iniquity.
Here’s something worth noticing about the burden of sin — it never gets lighter. Day after day, it grows heavier, not lighter. Maybe there’s someone who knows exactly what it is to have sins of the past that still haunt them. The more you think about it, the heavier the weight becomes.
Bound
This woman was bound — bound by Satan. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4 of “the god of this world, who has blinded the minds of those who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ… should shine on them.”
I think of an illustration told about a painter — his name has come down through preaching circles in slightly different forms, so take it as an illustration rather than a precise historical record — who painted a mother rocking her newborn child to sleep. When it was shown at a gallery, the critics were generous: lovely colour, lovely shading. Except for one critic, who looked longer than the rest and said there was something unsettling in the woman’s eyes — almost an evil intent, as though she were trying to keep that child asleep forever. When the painter heard the critique, he removed the covering from the title. It read: The Whole World Lies in the Arms of the Wicked One — a title drawn straight from 1 John 5:19.
The devil already knows he’s been defeated. But he still wants to keep every sinner asleep, blind to the light of the gospel. He doesn’t want you saved. He doesn’t want you on the road to heaven. He wants you kept in your sins and lost for an endless eternity.
This woman’s infirmity is a picture of our condition before God: we are bowed, burdened, and bound in our sin.
Why We Cannot Save Ourselves
This woman “could in no wise lift up herself.” She could do absolutely nothing about her own condition. People try all sorts of things with their sin: a self-improvement programme, church membership, turning over a new leaf. None of it deals with the problem. And even if you could reform from this day forward — which you cannot, apart from grace — what about the sins already committed? Scripture is plain: God requires an account of what is past.
Romans 5:6 puts it this way: “When we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” I once spoke with a man from Newfoundland who told me about a man who, wanting to be saved, was asked by the evangelist at the door one night, “Are you saved?” He answered, “I’m trying.” The evangelist gave him an answer he didn’t expect: “Well, keep trying.” That man later said it was the best answer he could have been given — because he tried, and tried harder, and the harder he tried, the more he realized he could do nothing at all. It wasn’t until he came to the end of himself and admitted, “I’m helpless. I can’t save myself,” that he was ready to simply receive what Christ had already done.
As the old hymn says:
I was sinking deep in sin, Far from the peaceful shore, Very deeply stained within, Sinking to rise no more. But the Master of the sea Heard my despairing cry, From the waters lifted me, Now safe am I.
When I was a boy of seven, I was just as helpless. I couldn’t save myself. But I found out that’s exactly why Jesus Christ came, and why He died on the cross. I couldn’t do anything. He had already done it all.
Jesus Saw Her
There’s more to this woman’s condition than sinfulness and helplessness — there’s hopefulness too. Notice what we read: He saw her.
Is there hope for a sinner tonight? Heaven sees you. Heaven knows your need. The Lord Jesus knows exactly where you are — just as He saw this woman. The Bible tells us the eyes of the LORD are in every place, watching the evil and the good, and He sees every individual. There is hope for a sinner like you, because He sees you exactly where you are.
The Authority of Christ’s Word
I want you to think not only about her infirmity but about the authority of the Saviour’s call. The Lord Jesus called her to Himself and spoke — and that word carried absolute authority. It’s not the word of any preacher. It’s the very word of God.
There is no greater authority than the word of God — nothing. We don’t point people to any other authority, because, as one of tonight’s other readings reminded us from Acts 4:12: “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” We don’t point people to a church. We don’t point people to a ceremony or a lifestyle change. We point people to a risen Christ.
The word of God is also persistent. How many times has God tried to get your attention? Sometimes it’s in the ordinary course of a day. Sometimes it’s an invitation dropped in a mailbox or handed to you personally. Sometimes it’s a family member speaking to you about the gospel. There’s a verse in Job that says God speaks once, yes twice, yet man does not perceive it. God wants your attention. God wants you to hear His word. The question is whether you want to hear it.
The word of God never changes — unlike the words of men. When I was saved as a boy of seven, I was listening to a preacher named Elvin Blake, who has since gone home to be with the Lord. I don’t need to search for him now to ask exactly how he phrased things that night, because I don’t turn to his words — I turn to the Bible. It tells me the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost. That means I was found, because I was a lost sinner and the Lord Jesus was seeking. Romans 10:13 says, “Whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.” That’s not the word of a preacher — that’s the word of God.
Why Jesus Went to the Cross
This woman received the word of Christ, and then she felt the work of Christ. After He spoke to her, “He laid His hands on her” (v. 13). She was touched by the Saviour Himself.
That work has a past, a present, and a future. In the past, it’s the marvel of the cross. Why did the Lord Jesus go there? Some look at the cross and shake their heads: “He was a good man. He shouldn’t have died like that.” And that’s true — He was righteous, He was just, He didn’t deserve to die on a cross. But He was there to suffer for our sins, to take the guilty sinner’s place. Scripture says it plainly: “Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). “Christ died for our sins… He was buried, and He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).
We preach a Saviour who finished the work. His triumphant cry from the cross was one word in the Greek, three in our translation: “It is finished.” The work was done — and God confirmed His satisfaction with that work by raising His Son from the dead on the third day. There is a living Saviour, seated at God’s right hand in glory, who saved me and who can save you too.
Can Christ Save You Today?
This woman experienced the work of Christ in the past — but she also experienced it in the present. She felt His actual touch. There are people marked tonight by the infirmity of sin, still bowed under it — and yet you can be loosed. You can be set free. You can know what it is to be free from your sin.
Why? Because He is able. He is able to save to the uttermost all who come to God through Him. You might say, “You don’t know my background. You don’t know what I’ve done.” It doesn’t matter what you’ve done — the Lord Jesus already knows all about it. In John 6 He said, “The one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.” His arms are extended tonight. He receives sinners. He has received sinners before, and He can receive you.
I’m the least worthy person to have God’s salvation, of anyone reading this. And yet the Lord Jesus saved me. Surely, then, He can save you too. The word of Christ was spoken. The work of Christ was experienced. And the wonder of Christ was known — and can be known again.
As the old hymn puts it:
Face to face with Christ, my Saviour, Face to face — what will it be, When with rapture I behold Him, Jesus Christ, who died for me?
Why will I see Him one day? Not because I’m worthy — absolutely not. But the Lord Jesus saved a sinner like me. Surely He can save a sinner like you.
She Glorified God
When this woman was made straight, what was the first thing she did? She glorified God. Worship welled up inside her — appreciation for what she had just experienced.
The passage has an animosity in it too — the ruler of the synagogue, indignant at what Jesus had done on the Sabbath. But notice how the account ends: not with animosity, but with glory — the whole congregation giving glory to God for the things they had seen.
I wonder how this room will leave tonight. The potential of a meeting like this is that people could leave glorifying God — not only for the gospel they heard, but for sinners who trusted Christ. Maybe you’ll be among them, trusting Christ for the very first time — and for the very first time, heaven will rejoice because your name is written there. That’s a tremendous thing. May God help you to come to the Saviour tonight, to look to Him, to trust in Him, and to know the salvation of your soul.
