10-17<\/strong>. The Sabbatical Hypocrite and the Suffering Woman.<\/p>\n 10<\/strong>. in one of the synagogues<\/em> ] The mention of synagogue-teaching becomes much rarer at this later stage of Christ’s ministry. It is most probable that from some at least of the synagogues of Galilee he was excluded by the ‘lesser excommunication.’ See Joh 16:2<\/span> .<\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n Luk 13:10-17<\/span><\/p>\n A woman, which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen yearn–<\/em><\/p>\n Two pulpits<\/strong><\/p>\n Observe one thing at the outset: HOW MANY ANONYMOUS BELIEVERS THERE ARE IN THE BIBLE RECORD WHO GIVE HELP ALL ALONG THE AGES. Put alongside of this story the account previously given of the man healed of leprosy, and the other man at the same time cured of palsy. Of this last we have precisely the same record–And immediately he rose up before them, and took up that whereon he lay, and departed to his own house, glorifying God. In close connection with these cases there are mentioned multitudes, but no personal particulars are furnished. The pages of Gods Word are crowded with such incidents. The woman of Samaria, the man of God that came to Eli, the lad who gave his bread and fishes at Tiberias–all these have had a mention, but nothing more to identify them in the inspired annals. It is really of little consequence who we are; it matters more what we are. <\/p>\n The lifting up of the bowed down<\/strong><\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> Upon which we remark–first, that she had lost all her natural brightness. Alas, we know certain of the children of God who are at this moment in much the same condition. They are perpetually bowed down, and though they recollect happier days the memory only serves to deepen their present gloom. <\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> This poor woman was bowed towards herself and towards that which was depressing. She seemed to grow downwards; her life was stooping; she bent lower and lower, as the weight of years pressed upon her. Her looks were all earthward, nothing heavenly, nothing bright could come before her eyes; her views were narrowed to the dust, and to the grave. So are there some of Gods people whose thoughts sink evermore like lead, and their feelings run in a deep groove, cutting evermore a lower channel. You cannot give them delight, but you can readily cause them alarm. All these things are against me, say they, for they can see nothing but the earth, and can imagine nothing but fear and distress. We have known certain prudent, but somewhat unfeeling, persons blame these people, and chide them for being low-spirited; and that brings us to notice next-3. That she could not lift up herself. There was no use in blaming her. Of what use is it to advise a blind person to see, or to tell one who cannot lift up herself that she ought to be upright, and should not look so much upon the earth? This is a needless increase of misery. Some persons who pretend to be comforters might more fitly be classed with tormentors, h spiritual infirmity is as real as a physical one. <\/p>\n 4.<\/strong> Note further about this poor woman, that bowed down as she was both in mind and body, she yet frequented the house of prayer. Our Lord was in the synagogue, and there was she. <\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> He must have bound her very cunningly to make the knot hold all that time, for he does not appear to have possessed her. You notice in reading the evangelists that our Lord never laid his hand on a person possessed with a devil. Satan had not possessed her, but he had fallen upon her once upon a time eighteen years before, and bound her up as men tie a beast in its stable, and she had not been able to get free all that while. The devil can tie in a moment a knot which you and I cannot unloose in eighteen years. <\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> Satan had bound the woman to herself and to the earth. There is a cruel way of tying a beast which is somewhat after the same fashion. I have seen a poor animals head fastened to its knee or foot, and somewhat after that fashion Satan had bound the woman downward to herself. So there are some children of God whose thoughts are all about themselves; they have turned their eyes so that they look inside and see only the transactions of the little world within themselves. They are always lamenting their own infirmities, always mourning their own corruptions, always watching their own emotions. The one and only subject of their thoughts is their own condition. If they ever change the scene and turn to another subject it is only to gaze upon the earth beneath them, to groan over this poor world with its sorrows, its miseries, its sins, and its disappointments. Thus they are tied to themselves and to the earth, and cannot look up to Christ as they should, nor let the sunlight of His love shine full upon them. <\/p>\n 3.<\/strong> This poor woman was restrained from what her soul needed. She was like an ass or an ox which cannot get to the trough to drink. She knew the promises, she heard them read every Sabbath day; she went to the synagogue and heard of Him who comes to loose the captives; but she could not rejoice in the promise or enter into liberty. So are there multitudes of Gods people who are fastened to themselves and cannot get to watering, cannot drink from the river of life, nor find consolation in the Scriptures. They know how precious the gospel is, and how consolatory are the blessings of the covenant, but they cannot enjoy the consolations or the blessings. Oh that they could! They sigh and cry, but they feel themselves to be bound. <\/p>\n 4.<\/strong> There is a saving clause here. Satan had done a good deal to the poor woman, but he had done all he could do. He can smite, but he cannot slay. The devil may bind you fast, but Christ has bound you faster still with cords of everlasting love, which must and shall hold you to the end. That poor woman was being prepared, even by the agency of the devil, to glorify God. <\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> He saw her. His eyes looked round, reading every heart as He glanced from one to another. At last He saw the woman. Yes, that was the very one He was seeking. We are not to think that He saw her in the same common way as I see one of you, but He read every line of her character and history, every thought of her heart, every desire of her soul. <\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> When He had gazed upon her, He called her to Him. Did He know her name? Oh, yes, He knows all our names, and His calling is therefore personal and unmistakable. <\/p>\n 3.<\/strong> When the woman came, the great Liberator said to her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. How could that be true? She was still as bent as she was before. He meant that the spell of Satan was taken off from her, that the power which had made her thus to bow herself was broken. <\/p>\n 4.<\/strong> Our Lord proceeded to give her full enlargement in His own way: He laid His hands on her. She suffered from want of strength, and by putting His hands upon her, I conceive that the Lord poured His life into her. The warm stream of His own infinite power and vitality came into contact with the lethargic stream of her painful existence, and so quickened it that she lifted up herself. The deed of love was done: Jesus Himself had done it. <\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> She was made straight we are told, and that at once. Now, what I want you to notice is this, that she must have lifted herself up–that was her own act and deed. No pressure or force was put upon her, she lifted up herself; and yet she was made straight. She was passive in so much as a miracle was wrought upon her, but she was active too, and, being enabled, she lifted up herself. What a wonderful meeting there is here of the active and the passive in the salvation of men. <\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> The most remarkable fact is that she was made straight immediately; for there was something beyond her infirmity to be overcome. Suppose that any person had been diseased of the spine, or of the nerves and muscles for eighteen years, even if the disease which occasioned his being deformed could be entirely removed, what would be the effect? Why, that the result of the disease would still remain, for the body would have become set through long continuance in one posture. But this woman was cured entirely, instantaneously, by the power of the Lord. <\/p>\n 3.<\/strong> The cure being thus perfect, up rose the woman to glorify God. What did she say? It is not recorded, but we can well imagine. It was something like this: I have been eighteen years in and out among you; you have seen me, and know what a poor, miserable, wretched object I was; but God has lifted me up all in a moment. Blessed be His name, I have been made straight. What she spoke with her mouth was not half of what she expressed. No reporter could have taken it down; she spoke with her eyes, she spoke with her hands, she spoke with every limb of her body. <\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> According to His own statement it was, first of all, human kindness. Tried soul, wouldst thou not loose an ox or an ass if thou sawest it suffering? Ay, sayest thou. And dost thou think the Lord will not loose thee? Hast thou more bowels of mercy than the Christ of God? <\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> More than that, there was special relationship. He tells this master of the synagogue that a man would loose his ox or his ass. Perhaps he might not think it his business to go and loose that which belonged to another man, but it is his own ass, his own ox, and he will loose him, And dost thou think, dear heart, that the Lord Jesus will not loose thee He bought thee with His blood, His Father gave thee to Him, He has loved thee with an everlasting love: will He not loose thee? <\/p>\n 3.<\/strong> Next, there was a point of antagonism which moved the Saviour to act promptly. He says, This woman being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound. Now, if I knew the devil had tied anything up I am sure I would try to unloose it, would not you? We may be sure some mischief is brewing when the devil is working, and, therefore, it must be a good deed to undo his work. But Jesus Christ came into the world on purpose to destroy the works of the devil; and so, when He saw the woman like a tied-up ox, He said, I will unloose her if for nothing else that I may undo what the devil has done. <\/p>\n 4.<\/strong> Then think of her sorrowful condition. An ox or an ass tied up to the manger without water would soon be in a very sad plight. Pity it, poor thing. Hear the lowing of the ox, as hour after hour its thirst tells upon it. Would you not pity it? And do you think the Lord does not pity his poor, tried, tempted, afflicted children? Those tears, shall they fall for nothing? Those sleepless nights, shall they be disregarded? That broken heart which fain would but cannot believe the promise, shall that for ever be denied a hearing? Hath she Lord forgotten to be gracious? Hath He in anger shut up the bowels of His mercy? Ah, no, He will remember thy sorrowful estate and hear thy groanings, for He puts thy tears into His bottle. (C. H.Spurgeon.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The infirm woman in the synagogue<\/strong><\/p>\n An infirm woman cured on the Sabbath<\/strong><\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> The effect on the woman was highly pleasing. She was delighted with the change which she instantly experienced; and her heart rose in gratitude to God, who alone, she was convinced, could have effected so wonderful a cure. <\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> How different was the effect of this miracle on the mind of the ruler of the synagogue! Instead of directing his attention to the display of power, such as he had never witnessed before; instead of thinking of the goodness which had voluntarily removed so distressing a disease from a person so helpless; instead of sympathizing with the unexpected and rapturous happiness of the woman, he thought only of the captious objections which an enemy might raise. <\/p>\n The crooked woman made straight<\/strong><\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> The nature of her complaint. Probably her spine was affected, so that she could not stand erect. Such a deformity, while humiliating to all, would be particularly trying to a female. <\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> Its duration. A sharp affliction, if short, is much easier borne than a lighter one that is long continued, as in this instance. <\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> Where she was cured. In the synagogue. In spite of her deformity, she did not absent herself from the sanctuary. Well for her that she did not! <\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> The manner in which she was cured. Two things are mentioned. <\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> The gracious words which our Saviour uttered. As in the case of the ten lepers, she is declared to be cured before the act was performed. But with Christ, purpose anal accomplishment, willing and doing, are identical. When He speaks, the thing is as good as done; when He commands it is sure to stand fast. <\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> The condescending act He performed. <\/p>\n 3.<\/strong> How she felt when cured. It is said that she glorified God, by which is meant that she adored and magnified His holy name for the wonderful deliverance she had experienced. There are many ways in which we are to glorify Him, and this is one of the most important. It might have been supposed that all present would have joined with her in praising God; such, however, was not the case. Other feelings than those of grateful homage and adoration were called forth, which leads us to the next particular, namely–<\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> The charge. <\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> The defence. <\/p>\n 3.<\/strong> The result. It is shown in regard to two classes. <\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> The ruler and his party. And when He had said these things all His adversaries were ashamed. They felt that no answer could be given to what Jesus had been saying; they were therefore speechless and confounded. <\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> The multitude. All the people rejoiced. The miracle had been so signal, and the subsequent vindication had been so complete, that they gave unequivocal demonstrations of their gladness and delight. In applying this subject there are three classes to which it more especially speaks. <\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> The wretched vassals of sin and Satan. The condition of this poor sufferer may be regarded as emblematic of every individual who is tied and bound with the chains of his iniquities. Let the sinners cry therefore be, Lord, loose this miserable soul of mine, which Satan hath so long bound in his slavish fetters. <\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> Those whose minds are too much enthralled by earthly affections. It was the misfortune of this woman that her eyes were bent downward, but what was her unavoidable calamity is our wilful sin. Our souls cleave to the dust, and we seek, not the things above, but the vain and perishable objects of time and sense. O how important is it that we Should be lifted up from such a grovelling condition, and be liberated, in order thereto, from the thraldom of this present evil world! <\/p>\n 3.<\/strong> The downcast and sorrowful. (Expository Outlines.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n A daughter of Abraham<\/strong><\/p>\n Set me to look at a downright extraordinary creature, not merely plain but positively ugly–like the woman whom Christ healed, who had been plagued with a devil of infirmity eighteen years, and was now doubled up, hideous–and tell me whether if you look at that woman long enough you will see her beauty. No! The more I look at her, the less I like her–the longer I behold her, the faster I run away from her. But I am called back to her by one little touch. Christ claims for her no beauty, invests her with no fancied fairness. She, too, is a daughter of Abraham. This is all. But this was enough; for Christ knew that by this appeal He lifted the poor, stricken, bowed creature of infirmity, and gave her a place with the rest of Abrahams children. He called upon the patriotism of the Jews–and they had a patriotism, though but a narrow one. Their cavilling was put an end to at once. This is the secret. The only way to conquer natural disgust at ugliness and sickness and disease, is to set these unsightly objects in the light of Divine Love. One is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren. Bring these poor degraded wretches, and ask us to love them individually, and we fail to do it. To lift them out of the misery in which they rest, and to make them lovable, you must set them in the light of the great Fatherhood of God and His passionate love of humanity. A man goes into a sickroom, and there poor humanity is at its worst; there you may find the bottom of all mans meanness, his cowardice, his want, and his weakness; there you may see nature in decay, as ugly as the working of a continual want and weakness can make it, But as you cross the threshold of the sickroom, the great need of the patient is more than all; and if you come as the angel of healing, as the angel of true service, the heart is too full and the hand too busy for you to stop to look either for beauty or for ugliness, and that love which prompts to the duty makes labour light. The poor sick person is not less tiresome, or less offensive, or less tedious, but the feeling which prompted disgust has gone. When men declared the possibility of walking on hot iron if the heart were pure and the conscience unstained, they did but figure the great power of Innocence. Una with her lion is but weak, but Una in her innocence is strong. And that which Innocence is thus so truly fabled to do, Divine Love surely does, overleaping difficulty and overcoming disgust. Christianity does not ask us to believe that ugly things are lovely; but, filling man with true love and holy enthusiasm, makes him able to endure the sight of foulness and meanness, that he may cleanse and raise the foul and mean. Thus one touch of nature makes the whole world kin. Is not this poor woman a daughter of Abraham? Is not this poor degraded wretch a brother? I remember that before England got rid of her great disgrace of slavery, the abolition people used to distribute handbills, headed with a picture of a chained negro; the poor thick-lipped black asking, Am I not a man and a brother? We all acknowledged the claim. But if he had said, Am I not a beauty? I should have answered, No, my brother; you are certainly not a beauty. I decline to admire you. Should he reply, This is all a matter of taste, I should answer in turn, I dont believe a word of it. To my eyes you are very particularly ugly. But when he kneels there before me, and lifts up his poor chained wrists, and puts up that plea for his own humanity–Am I not a man and a brother? then, poor, scourged, broken, jaded as he is, I own him. He has a spark of true manhood in him, and shall be scourged, reviled, and sold in bondage no longer. Thus the scheme of the Christian religion completes itself. It has the manliest scorn for meanness, and the manliest pity for weakness. (G. Dawson, M. A.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Freedom realized through believing<\/strong><\/p>\n Once the Emperor of Russia had a plan by which he was to liberate the serfs of that country. There were forty millions of them. Of some of them, their whole time was sold; of others, only a part. The emperor called around him his council, and wanted to have them devise some way to set the slaves at liberty. After they had conferred about it for six months, one night the council sent in their decision, sealed, that they thought it was not expedient. The emperor went down to the Greek Church that night and partook of the Lords Supper, and he set his house in order, and the next morning you could hear the tramp of soldiers in the streets of St. Petersburg. The emperor summoned his guard, and before noon sixty-five thousand men were surrounding that palace. Just at midnight there came out a proclamation that every slave in Russia was for ever set free. The proclamation had gone forth, and all the slaves of the realm-believed it. They have been free ever since. Suppose they had not believed it? They never then would have got the benefit of it. <\/p>\n The highest emancipation<\/strong><\/p>\n A very old Greek myth represents Prometheus chained to a rock by command of Jupiter, who then sent an eagle to feed upon his liver in the daytime, which the god caused to grow again at night. Hercules, however, it was said, killed the eagle, and set suffering Prometheus at liberty. Let this fable, or the narrative in your lesson, remind you that naturally you and all are bound by Satan to his slavery and drudgery, by evil tempers and passions, by bad habits, and in other ways. How the drunkard is enthralled by his craving for drink; the miser by his thirst for gold; and others by their minding of earthly things! And how disappointments and anguish, like evil birds, prey upon their spirits. But Christ looses from every infirmity of the soul caused by sin or Satan. And just as a freed bird warbles its joy-throb in the note of thrilling gladness, so we should praise God with joyful lips, as well as glorify Him by our life and best service. Massa, me will be your slave for ever, said a negro to the kind Englishman who, at great cost, had emancipated him. What shall we do for Jesus, who delivers us from such greater evils? (Henry R. Burton.<\/em>)<\/p>\n Though the Greek be on the sabbaths, <\/I>which might signify any day of the week, yet it is manifest by what followeth that this miracle was wrought upon the seventh day, which was the Jewish sabbath, else the ruler of the synagogue would not have quarrelled with our Saviour about it. What is meant here, Luk 13:11<\/span>, by a spirit of infirmity, <\/I>would not easily be determined, whether only a very great infirmity, or an infirmity in the bringing and continuing of which upon her the devil had a great instrumentality, but for Luk 13:16<\/span>, where she is said to be one that Satan had bound; she was a cripple, and so bowed down that she could not lift up herself, and thus she had been for eighteen years, so as the distemper was inveterate, and out of the course of ordinary cure. Christ, who, as to peoples bodily infirmities, was sometimes found of those that sought him not, seeing her, calleth her to him, and saith, <\/P> Woman, thou art loosed from thy infirmity. And he laid his hands on her; and immediately she was made straight.<\/B> The inveterateness of the disease, and the instantaneousness of the cure, without the use of any means, made the miracle evident. The woman for it gave thanks to God, for that is meant by <\/P> glorified God, <\/B>she spake some things to the honour and glory of God, who had healed her. <\/P> <\/p>\n And he was teaching in one of the synagogues<\/strong>,…. That is Jesus, as the Syriac and Persic versions express it; which was his work, he being a teacher sent from God, and who took all opportunities of instructing men in the truths of the Gospel; this was done either in Galilee, or in Judea, in one of the synagogues of some city there, for in their larger cities there were more synagogues than one. In Jerusalem, we are told o, there were three hundred and ninety four synagogues; and other writers p increase their number, and say, there were four hundred and eighty: and it was<\/p>\n on the sabbath<\/strong>; which was now in force, and was religiously observed by Christ.<\/p>\n o T. Bab. Cetubot, fol. 105. 1. p Pesikta in Jarchi in Isa. i. 21. Shirhashirim Rabba, fol. 20. 3. Ecka Rabbati, fol. 37. 4.<\/p>\n The Infirm Woman Healed.<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/I><\/span><\/P> <\/TD> <\/TR> 10 And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. 11 And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself.<\/I> 12 And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him,<\/I> and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. 13 And he laid his<\/I> hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. 14 And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day. 15 The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou<\/I> hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his<\/I> ass from the stall, and lead him<\/I> away to watering? 16 And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day? 17 And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed: and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him.<\/P> Here is, I. The miraculous cure of a woman that had been long under a spirit of infirmity. Our Lord Jesus spent his Sabbaths<\/I> in the synagogues,<\/I> v.<\/span> 10<\/span><\/U><\/I><\/span>. We should make conscience of doing so, as we have opportunity, and not think we can spend the sabbath as well at home reading a good book; for religious assemblies are a divine institution, which we must bear our testimony to, though but of two or three. And, when he was in the synagogues on the sabbath day, he was teaching there<\/I>—en didaskon<\/B><\/I>. It denotes a continued act; he still taught the people knowledge.<\/I> He was in his element when he was teaching. Now to confirm the doctrine he preached, and recommend it as faithful, and well worthy of all acceptation, he wrought a miracle, a miracle of mercy.<\/P> 1. The object of charity that presented itself was a woman in the synagogue that had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years,<\/I> v.<\/span> 11<\/span><\/U><\/I><\/span>. She had an infirmity, which an evil spirit, by divine permission, had brought upon her, which was such that she was bowed together<\/I> by strong convulsions, and could in no wise lift up herself;<\/I> and, having been so long thus, the disease was incurable; she could not stand erect, which is reckoned man’s honour above the beasts. Observe, Though she was under this infirmity, by which she was much deformed,<\/I> and made to look mean, and not only so, but, as is supposed, motion was very painful to her, yet she went to the synagogue on the sabbath day.<\/I> Note, Even bodily infirmities, unless they be very grievous indeed, should not keep us from public worship on the sabbath days; for God can help us, beyond our expectation.<\/P> 2. The offer of this cure to one that sought it not bespeaks the preventing mercy and grace of Christ: When Jesus saw her, he called her to him,<\/I> v.<\/span> 12<\/span><\/U><\/I><\/span>. It does not appear that she made any application to him, or had any expectation from him; but before she called he answered.<\/I> She came to him to be taught,<\/I> and to get good to her soul, and then Christ gave this relief to her bodily infirmity. Note, Those whose first and chief care is for their souls do best befriend the true interests of their bodies likewise, for other things shall be added to them.<\/I> Christ in his gospel calls and invites those to come to him for healing that labour under spiritual infirmities,<\/I> and, if he calls us,<\/I> he will undoubtedly help us when we come to him.<\/P> 3. The cure effectually and immediately wrought bespeaks his almighty power. He laid his hands on her,<\/I> and said, “Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity;<\/I> though thou hast been long labouring under it, thou art at length released from it.” Let not those despair whose disease is inveterate,<\/I> who have been long in affliction. God can at length relieve them, therefore though he tarry wait for him. Though it was a spirit of infirmity,<\/I> an evil spirit, that she was under the power of, Christ has a power superior to that of Satan, is stronger than he.<\/I> Though she could in no wise lift up herself,<\/I> Christ could lift her up, and enable her to lift up herself. She that had been crooked<\/I> was immediately made straight,<\/I> and the scripture was fulfilled (Ps. cxlvi. 8<\/span>): The Lord raiseth them that are bowed down.<\/I> This cure represents the work of Christ’s grace upon the souls of the people. (1.) In the conversion<\/I> of sinners. Unsanctified hearts are under this spirit of infirmity;<\/I> they are distorted, the faculties of the soul are quite out of place and order; they are bowed down<\/I> towards things below. O curv in terram anim!<\/I> They can in no wise lift up themselves<\/I> to God and heaven; the bent of the soul, in its natural state, is the quite contrary way. Such crooked souls seek not to Christ; but he calls them to him, lays the hand of his power and grace upon them, speaks a healing word to them, by which he looses them from their infirmity,<\/I> makes the soul straight,<\/I> reduces it to order, raises it above worldly regards, and directs its affections and aims heavenward. Though man cannot make that straight which God has made crooked<\/I> (Eccl. vii. 13<\/span>), yet the grace of God can make that straight which the sin of man has made crooked. (2.) In the consolation<\/I> of good people. Many of the children of God are long under a spirit of infirmity,<\/I> a spirit of bondage; through prevailing grief and fear, their souls<\/I> are cast down<\/I> and disquieted<\/I> within them, they are troubled, they are bowed down greatly, they go mourning all the day long,<\/I> Ps. xxxviii. 6<\/I><\/span>. But Christ, by his Spirit of adoption, looses them from this infirmity in due time, and raises them up.<\/P> 4. The present effect of this cure upon the soul<\/I> of the patient as well as upon her body.<\/I> She glorified God,<\/I> gave him the praise of her cure to whom all praise is due. When crooked souls are made straight, they will show it by their glorifying God.<\/P> II. The offence that was taken at this by the ruler of the synagogue,<\/I> as if our Lord Jesus had committed some heinous crime, in healing this poor woman. He had indignation<\/I> at it, because it was on the sabbath day,<\/I> v.<\/span> 14<\/span><\/U><\/I><\/span>. One would think that the miracle should have convinced him, and that the circumstance of its being done on the sabbath day could not have served to counteract the conviction; but what light can shine so clear, so strong, that a spirit of bigotry and enmity to Christ and his gospel will not serve to shut men’s eyes against it? Never was such honour done to the synagogue he was ruler of as Christ had now done it, and yet he had indignation at it. He had not indeed the impudence to quarrel with Christ; but he said to the people,<\/I> reflecting upon Christ in what he said, There are six days in which men ought to work, in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day.<\/I> See here how light he made of the miracles Christ wrought, as if they were things of course,<\/I> and no more than what quacks and mountebanks did every day: “You may come<\/I> and be healed any day of the week.” Christ’s cures were become, in his eyes, cheap and common things. See also how he stretches the law beyond its intention, or any just construction that could be put upon it, in making either healing or being healed with a touch of the hand, or a word’s speaking, to be that work<\/I> which is forbidden<\/I> on the sabbath day. This was evidently the work of God;<\/I> and, when God tied us out from working that day, did he tie himself out? The same word in Hebrew signifies both godly<\/I> and merciful<\/I> (chesed<\/I>), to intimate that works of mercy<\/I> and charity<\/I> are in a manner works of piety<\/I> (1 Tim. v. 4<\/span>) and therefore very proper on sabbath days.<\/P> III. Christ’s justification of himself in what he had done (v.<\/I><\/span> 15<\/span>): The Lord then answered him,<\/I> as he had answered others who in like manner cavilled at him, Thou hypocrite.<\/I> Christ, who knows men’s hearts, may call those hypocrites<\/I> whom it would be presumption for us to call so. We must<\/I> judge charitably, and can<\/I> judge only according to the outward appearance. Christ knew that he had a real enmity to him and to his gospel, that he did but cloak this with a pretended zeal for the sabbath day, and that when he bade the people come on the six days,<\/I> and be healed, he really would not have them be healed any day. Christ could have told him this, but he vouchsafes to reason the case with him; and,<\/P> 1. He appeals<\/I> to the common practice among the Jews, which was never disallowed, that of watering<\/I> their cattle on the sabbath day. Those cattle that are kept up in the stable are constantly loosed from the stall on the sabbath day, and led away to watering.<\/I> It would be a barbarous thing not to do it; for a merciful man regards the life of his beast,<\/I> his own beast that serves him. Letting the cattle rest<\/I> on the sabbath day, as the law directed, would be worse than working them, if they must be made to fast on that day, as the Ninevites’ cattle on their fast-day, that were not permitted to feed nor drink water,<\/I> Jon. iii. 7<\/I><\/span>.<\/P> 2. He applies this to the present case (Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
I.<\/strong><\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>Observe, in the second place, THAT EVEN IN EXTREME HOPELESSNESS OF DISEASE ONE MAY EXHIBIT A SUPREME AND ILLUSTRIOUS FAITH. This woman was evidently in a most deplorable condition; she was actually doubled up with deformity. When a believer is smitten terribly, he is not always just in the mood to be reasonable. Every nerve is quivering with agony; he cannot see the wisdom nor the fairness of its infliction. The more common danger for a Christian under trial is that he shall sink into a state of stupor, of listlessness, or despair. A great numbness settles upon the soul. There are pains which lie a great distance lower than the bottom of the grave. The poet Cowper, tearing out a leaf from his own awful experience, says, There are as truly things which it is not lawful for man to utter as those were which Paul heard and saw in the third heaven; if the ladder of Christian life reaches, as I suppose it does, to the very presence of God, it nevertheless has its foot in the very abyss. Now against both of these baleful postures of mind, the passionate and the listless, does this thought of preaching the gospel from a pulpit of patient suffering for the great glory of God array itself. It is wise to keep in mind the fact that souls may be won to the Cross by a life on a sick-bed just as well as by a life in a cathedral desk. Pure submission is as good as going on a foreign mission. <\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>Right here, therefore, observe, in the third place, AN EXPLANATION IS OFFERED OF THE MYSTERY AND THE PURPOSE OF SUFFERING. Pain is a sort of ordination to the Christian ministry. It furnishes a true believer with a new pulpit to preach from. A wise man will do better to learn this lesson early. I am anxious now to bring this thought close to our own minds and hearts at once. In the rooms of the American Tract Society, in New York, were until lately standing two objects which I studied for some meditative years, once a month, at a committee meeting. One is a slight framework of tough wood, a few feet high, so bound together with hasps and hinges as to be taken down and folded in the hand. This was Whitefields travelling-pulpit; the one he used when, denied access to the churches, he harangued the thousands in the open air, on the moors of England. You will think of this modern apostle, lifted up upon the small platform, with the throngs of eager people around him; or hurrying from one field to another, bearing his Bible in his arms; ever on the move, toiling with herculean energy, and a force like that of a giant. There, in that rude pulpit, is the symbol of all which is active and fiery in dauntless Christian zeal. But now look-again: in the centre of this framework, resting upon the slender platform where the living preacher used to stand, you will see a chair–a plain, straight-backed, armed, cottage-chair; rough, simple, meagrely cushioned, unvarnished, and stiff. It was the seat in which Elizabeth Wallbridge, the dairymans daughter, sat and coughed and whispered, and from which she went only at her last hour to the couch on which she died. Here again is a pulpit; and it is the symbol of a life quiet and unromantic and hard in all Christian endurance. Every word that invalid woman uttered–every patient night she suffered–was a gospel sermon. In a hundred languages the life of that servant of God has preached to millions of souls the riches of Christs glory and grace. And of these two pulpits, which is the most honourable is known only to God, who undoubtedly accepted and consecrated them both. The one is suggestive of the ministry of speech, the other of the ministry of submission. <\/p>\n
IV. <\/strong>Hence, WE MAY EASILY LEARN WHAT MIGHT BE ONE OF THE MOST PROFITABLE OCCUPATIONS OF A CHRONIC INVALID. NO one can preach from any pulpit without the proper measure of study. Sick people are always in danger of becoming egotistic and selfish, and the best relief from that is for each child of God to busy himself in labouring for others salvation. Said the intelligent Doddridge, even while he was lingering in the last hours of his life, My soul is vigorous and healthy, notwithstanding the hastening decay of- this frail and tottering body; it is not for the love of sunshine or the variety of meats that I desire life, but, if it please God, that I may render Him a little more service. Such a purpose as this will lead a Christian to thoughtful examination of what will make his efforts most pertinent. He will study doctrine. He will study experience too. <\/p>\n
V. <\/strong>SOME PEOPLE RECOVER FROM LONG ILLNESS; CHRIST HEALS THEM, AS HE DID THESE MEN IN THE STORY. SO there is one more lesson for convalescents–what are they going to do with their lives hereafter? (C. S.Robinson, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>Our first subject for consideration is, THE BOWING DOWN OF THE AFFLICTED. We read of this woman that she had a spirit of infirmity and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. <\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>I invite you, secondly, to notice THE HAND OF SATAN IS THIS BONDAGE. We should not have known it if our Lord had not told us, that it was Satan who had bound this poor woman for eighteen years. <\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>I want you to notice in the third place THE LIBERATOR AT HIS WORK. We have seen the woman bound by the devil, but here comes the Liberator, and the first thing we read of Him is that–<\/p>\n
IV. <\/strong>I will not linger there, but invite you now to notice THE LOOSING OF THE BOUND. <\/p>\n
V. <\/strong>Fifthly, let us reflect upon our REASON FOR EXPECTING THE LORD JESUS TO DO THE SAME THING TO-DAY as he did eighteen hundred years and more ago. What was His reason for setting this woman free? <\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>Our first reflection, as we look at this brief narrative, is that it furnishes us, on the part of the woman, with an illustration of ATTACHMENT TO THE PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. A characteristic of devout and earnest religion in all ages. Public worship bears on it the stamp of Divine approval. See you neglect it not. <\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>Our second reflection is, that the text supplies an illustration of THE COMPASSION AND POWER OF JESUS CHRIST. Not only was the woman in the synagogue with her ailments; the Lord was there also with His wondrous grace. He did not neglect external ordinances. Jesus, then, was in this synagogue, and as usual He was on the look-out for some good work to do. He had a quick eye for suffering and sorrow. No sooner did He see this woman, than He healed her. What power, and what compassion! He exercises the same today. Earth has no sorrow that He cannot heal. And besides curing diseases, He can heal sins. <\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>I observe, next, that the text supplies an illustration of THE BLESSED ADVANTAGES OF BEING FOUND IN THE WAY OF DUTY. TO the synagogue, at the time of worship, this woman went. Likely enough she was tempted to absent herself for one reason or another, just as we are tempted now; but she refused to listen to the temptation. She chose the better part of obeying Gods law, and in doing so she was blessed beyond all expectation or hope. Little did she think, when she left home, what mercy was in store for her. Had she stayed in the house, or gone to see her friends, or been anywhere but where she was, she would have missed it all. So may we always, when in the way of duty, expect a blessing. <\/p>\n
IV. <\/strong>I remark, once more, that the text supplies an illustration of THE GRATITUDE OF A HEART ALIVE TO THE BLESSING BESTOWED ON IT. As soon as the woman was made straight, she glorified God. Even if she had never spoken a word, she would have been a monument to the Divine praise. Sun and moon and stars, as they shine in the heavens, declare the glory of God. All great productions glorify their author. So this healed woman glorified her Healer. And not only so, but also audibly, there and then, before all. (W. Walters.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>THE STATE OF THE WOMAN. Diseased in an extraordinary degree, and for a very long period. <\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>THE CHANGE PRODUCED BY THE POWER OF JESUS. This case presented no difficulty to Him. Yet, to new-model the diseased frame, to make straight what was crooked, to relax what had been rigid for many years, required a power as great as that of creation. <\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>THE MEANS EMPLOYED. He used no resources of art, no remedies whatever; He even employed no means to astonish or surprise; He made no display of His power. He said nothing of the violence or inveteracy of the disorder; nothing to influence the imagination either of the woman herself or of the spectators. Conscious of possessing the power of curing all diseases, He exercised it by merely declaring the simple fact that her disorder was removed; while she exhibited the most undeniable proofs of complete restoration, by standing in a firm and erect position. <\/p>\n
IV. <\/strong>We have next to observe THE IMPRESSION PRODUCED BY THIS MIRACLE, first, on the woman, and then upon the ruler of the synagogue. <\/p>\n
V. <\/strong>We have, lastly, to inquire, WHY THIS MIRACLE WAS DOSE ON THE SABBATH? Our Saviour graciously condescended to reason, and He reasoned, as upon all other occasions, in the clearest and most conclusive manner. His mode of reasoning is always best adapted to the object which He had in view. Here it was sufficient to show, that the ruler of the synagogue, and all other Jews, did actions every Sabbath deliberately and intentionally, which, though humane and unavoidable, were not more so than the relief which He had just conferred upon the unfortunate woman. Hypocrites; said He, who is there among you, that doth not on the Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And must not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath kept bound these eighteen years, be released from this bond on the Sabbath-day? Thus our Saviour argues from the practice which they themselves sanctioned, which led to the conclusion that the action He had done was still more laudable, because an act of greater humanity. (J. Thomson, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>THE AFFLICTED WOMAN. <\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>THE UNEXPECTED CURE SHE RECEIVED. <\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>THE REFLECTIONS WHICH HER CURE OCCASIONED. In this, the concluding part of the narrative, we have–<\/p>\nFuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
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