Pastor Nelson Bonilla: 8-24-25 “Jesus Vs. Tradition  

Luke 13:10-17

	Once again, Jesus is teaching in a synagogue, and while He is teaching, He sees a woman crippled —her back was bent. Luke seems to imply that Jesus stopped His teaching, called this unnamed woman over, and said something she had been longing to hear for years: “Dear woman, you are healed of your sickness!” Then He touched her. Immediately she was healed. Immediately she could stand straight, and she began praising God.

	However, Luke also says that not everyone rejoiced at this miracle. The synagogue leader was indignant. He said, “There are six days for work. Come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.” Isn’t that shocking? Instead of celebrating this woman’s freedom, he criticized the timing. But here’s the truth that still exist in Jesus’ church: legalism always resists grace. Legalism values rules and laws more than people. It seeks to keep us bound rather than rejoicing in freedom.
 
	Yes, the law given to Moses commanded rest on the Sabbath. No one was to work, because Sabbath was the day when the Lord rested. That’s why, in the synagogue leader’s view, healing was not allowed. Healing, he thought, was “work” — a doctor’s job — and Jesus had broken the Law by doing a doctor’s job on the Sabbath. The law this man loved so much had become more important to him than the woman herself.

	But Jesus shows us that love does not wait. Mercy does not schedule itself around human rules. Grace always arrives right on time. This woman had been bent over for eighteen years—Jesus said that was long enough! And when He set her free, He revealed the heart of God: nothing can separate us from His love, not even human traditions or laws, not even sickness, or spiritual opposition.

	That’s exactly what Paul reminds us of in Romans 8: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? … No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers…and I will add, nor laws, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Even when the synagogue leaders are indignant. 

	This woman bent under the weight of her affliction might have felt ignored. But Jesus saw her, called her, touched her, and lifted her up. Just as Paul declares, there is no affliction, no opposition, no power in heaven or earth that can keep God’s love from reaching us. That day, in that synagogue, God’s unstoppable love broke through the weight of eighteen years of suffering and lifted her up into freedom.

	This was not the first time Jesus healed on the Sabbath. And every time He did, He met the same reaction, the same confrontation. Why did He keep doing it? Not because He loved trouble, but because He had a message they still weren’t hearing. Jesus wanted them to understand that human dignity and human need are more important than any tradition or law. Law — it seems to me Jesus is saying — is only ink on paper, written by people in power.

Laws can change from time to time depending on who is ruling. But men and women, created in God’s image, never lose their worth. That never changes. Jesus made this clear when He called the woman “a daughter of Abraham.” Nowhere else in the Bible do we find that expression. By calling her that, Jesus raised her to the same level of dignity as any man present in the synagogue — including the religious leader.

	Luke tells us Jesus was teaching that day, but he doesn’t say what His subject was. I like to think He may have been teaching about freedom — how the children of Abraham had been set free from slavery. And then He saw this woman, bound by a spirit of infirmity, and decided to practice what He was preaching. He showed them that God’s freedom is not just an idea, not just a privilege reserved for some, but a reality that belongs to all — even to a crippled woman whom many in that synagogue looked down on.

	When the leaders of Israel spoke of freedom, they thought of freedom from Egypt or Rome. But Jesus went further. He said to the woman, “You are set free from your infirmity.” Freedom in the Bible is not just the ability to go where we want or say what we want. Freedom in the Bible is the God-given opportunity to be who He created us to be, to live as He calls us to live. Jesus wanted this woman and us today to live free from infirmities and free from fear.

	For eighteen years this woman lived a life God did not want her to live. For eighteen years she carried a burden that did not belong to her. Luke tells us this was the work of a spirit — the work of Satan. Jesus said: “This dear woman, a daughter of Abraham, has been held in bondage by Satan for eighteen years.” Satan, and the evil he represents bent her down, robbed her of the ability to look up to heaven, and stole her capacity to look her neighbors in the eye.

	But that Sabbath day in the synagogue, she heard the voice of Jesus — and everything changed. Jesus restored not only her body but also her identity. She was no longer just the “crippled woman.” She was a daughter of Abraham, part of God’s people.

	What Jesus did that Sabbath was the very reason He came. He came to proclaim good news to the poor, freedom for the prisoners, sight for the blind, and release for the oppressed — to declare the year of the Lord’s favor (Luke 4:18–19).

	This passage reminds us of that sin, cripples people. Our own sin can bind us, but so can the sins of others — abuse, betrayal, injustice. Like that woman, we too need an encounter with Jesus. We need His touch. We need to know that He still sees our brokenness, still calls us out of hiding, still offers His grace. No matter what sin has done — whether ours or someone else’s — Jesus declares freedom and healing.

	That woman’s bent back is a picture of what happens in our spirit when sin reigns. We lose hope. We lose joy. We lose the ability to stand tall in God’s image. Maybe you know what that feels like. Maybe today you are bent over with burdens no one else sees. But Scripture promises, “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13).

And here is the good news: one word from Jesus, one touch, can set us free. Free from pain. Free from shame. Free from years of suffering. Jesus still heals. He still forgives sin. He still takes away shame and gives peace, joy, and hope.

	The story of this bent-over woman is the story of victory — victory in Jesus. Yes, sin can bend us down, but Jesus can lift us up. Legalism tries to keep us bound, but God’s kingdom rejoices in freedom.

	So, let me ask you: is something bending you down today? Is it guilt from your past? Shame over your failures? Wounds from someone else’s sin? Whatever the burden, Jesus declares freedom. And that is our hope too. No matter what has bent us down, no matter how long we’ve been carrying our burden, the love of Christ is stronger. Nothing—not sickness, not sin, not shame, not even death—can separate us from the love that heals, saves, and sets free.

	Hear His voice today saying: “You are set free.”
Stand tall in His grace. Stand tall in His forgiveness. Stand tall in your identity as a child of God.