Sunday Delight
Proper 16, Year C
Luke 13:10-17
Luke’s gospel gives us four significant episodes where Jesus is found teaching in the synagogue on the Sabbath. In Luke 13, we arrive at the last of these episodes, and it is unique to Luke’s account. Earlier we saw Jesus read Isaiah 61 in Nazareth, proclaiming the favorable year of the Lord (Luke 4:16). We saw Him cast out an unclean spirit in Capernaum (Luke 4:31), and later heal a man with a withered hand (Luke 6:6). Now, in this final synagogue scene, He heals a woman bent over by a spirit of weakness for eighteen long years. Luke wants us to see something climactic here: Jesus is reclaiming the Sabbath as the time and place where the kingdom of God breaks in.
The woman, crippled and weighed down, is instantly made straight when Jesus speaks and touches her. She stands tall for the first time in years and glorifies God right in the synagogue. Her worship sparks controversy. The synagogue ruler, in a passive-aggressive tone, rebukes the crowd rather than Jesus, suggesting healings should wait for another day. But Jesus will not have it. He calls out the hypocrisy—how they would care for their animals on the Sabbath but begrudge a daughter of Abraham from being set free. In that moment, Jesus redefines true Sabbath keeping.
Here’s the irony: the Sabbath command is the only “Do” in the Ten Commandments. Every other command is framed in the negative: do not murder, do not steal, do not covet. But Sabbath is a command to do something—stop working, rest in God, and delight in Him. The Pharisees, however, had turned this “Do” into a “Don’t.” They policed the Sabbath with restrictions, turning God’s gift of rest into another burden. In doing so, they robbed others of the very thing God intended Sabbath to be: freedom to worship and enjoy His presence. Instead of offering rest, they withheld it. Instead of giving life, they made it harder to glorify God. That is why their tree—Israel’s religion—stood barren. It needed to be dug up, fertilized, and renewed by the word and Spirit of Christ.
This healing is sandwiched between two parables, and Luke wants us to see the connection. Before this event, Jesus told the parable of the barren fig tree (13:6–9). Israel’s synagogues had become fruitless places, weighed down like this crippled woman, unable to produce fruit. Yet Jesus comes, declaring the favorable year of the Lord, fertilizing barren trees, and bringing fruit where there had been none. True Sabbath is about ceasing from self-effort and delighting in God’s work upon us. After this event, Jesus gives two more parables—the mustard seed and the leaven (13:18–21). Here we see that the kingdom, once it begins to produce fruit, will grow like a great tree and spread like leaven through dough. What starts with one woman glorifying God will ripple outward, contagious and unstoppable, until the kingdom consumes the world.
The healing of this woman is a living parable. Bent down, she was fruitless and unable to worship. With one word and touch, Jesus made her straight, and she bore fruit immediately—her lips glorifying God. She became a mustard seed planted in the crowd, a bit of leaven worked into the whole loaf. Through her, others saw the joy of Sabbath and were drawn into the kingdom.
So we are pressed with questions. In what ways have you failed to delight in God on the Sabbath? Have you made it a “don’t” instead of a “do”? How might you give Sabbath to others—helping them experience rest, worship, and delight in the Lord? Are you bearing fruit from God’s Spirit, or are you standing barren? And are you spreading the kingdom—through worship, love, and witness—so that others may find their rest in Christ?
The lesson of this text is that Sabbath is not only God’s gift to us but also God’s call through us. We are to receive rest and delight in Christ, and then turn to give that same Sabbath to others. When we do, the kingdom grows, fruit is borne, and all creation is renewed under the reign of God.
Watch the full Sermon HERE. Listen to Sermon HERE.
Peace Be With You,
Pastor Bruce
