Luke 13:10-17 - Jesus Through the Lens of Legalism, Part 1

Dec 17

Luke 13:10-17 Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11 And there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, "Woman, you are freed from your disability." 13 And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God. 14 But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, "There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day." 15 Then the Lord answered him, "You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it? 16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?" 17 As he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame, and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him.

Jesus has been exposing the hypocrisy of the Pharisees (chapter 12) and their failure to discern the times of the Messiah, the coming Kingdom, and the impending judgment. In this account, both themes converge. Jesus performs an undeniable miracle—a miracle that testifies to the fact that he was, indeed, sent by God. Yet the only response from the Jewish leaders is hypocritical legalism. This serves as a striking confirmation of everything Jesus has been exposing about them.

The Lord

Luke 13:10 Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath.

Teaching on the Sabbath, as was his pattern:

Luke 4:16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read.

The Synagogue: This scene doesn’t take place in the temple—there were no sacrifices being offered here. It’s in a synagogue, a place of teaching and worship that became central to Jewish life during the Babylonian captivity. You’ll remember that the temple was destroyed in 586 BC, and during those years of exile, the people needed a place to gather and hear God’s word.

When the temple was rebuilt 70 years later, the synagogues didn’t disappear. Instead, they became a staple of Jewish worship and community life. Wherever there were 10 or more Jewish men, a synagogue could be established. By Jesus’ time, there were 480 synagogues in Judea alone. They were everywhere. This was where God’s word was taught, where the people gathered, and where Jesus often went to preach about the coming Kingdom of God.

It’s in one of these synagogues, on a Sabbath day, that this incredible moment takes place.

What did he teach?

Luke 4:43-44 but he said to them, "I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose." 44 And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.

So, Jesus was here teaching a familiar message: Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand. As we’ve seen in the previous passage, this preaching likely included a call to abandon hypocrisy, to repent, and to be made right with God in preparation for his Kingdom and the coming judgment.

While he was teaching, in comes a woman…

The Lady

She was late and was making her way to the area of the Synagogue where the women sat. We know she was late because the phrase “and there was a woman” literally means “behold, a woman.” She appeared.

Disabled.

Luke 13:11 And there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself.

This woman suffered from some sort of spinal condition that left her bent over and unable to stand straight. She had been this way for 18 years. Naturally, this would have made her somewhat of an outcast in that society. First, she was a woman; second, she was a crippled woman. As we learned last week, it was a common assumption among the Jews that those who suffered did so justly, as either they or their parents must have sinned.

The Sabbath

All of this was happening on the Sabbath. Of course we know that the Jews were forbidden by God to do any work on the Sabbath. We read in Exodus:

Exodus 20:8-11 "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Exodus 23:12 "Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant woman, and the alien, may be refreshed.

But as we have learned elsewhere in the book of Luke, the Jews at greatly distorted the Sabbath and turned the observance of it into a rigorous, oppressive ordeal. So, now we have the makings for an interesting encounter.

An Interesting Encounter

Here we are in a synagogue on the Sabbath. The Lord Jesus Christ is teaching, surrounded by legalistic Jewish leaders, when a crippled woman in need of healing walks in. By this point, Jesus has not only demonstrated his ability to heal all sickness and disease, but he has also shown a willingness to heal on the Sabbath—much to the displeasure of the Jews.

Have His Teachings and Warnings Been Heeded?

This moment presents an opportunity to see whether Christ’s previous teachings and warnings have been taken to heart. He has been preaching about the Kingdom of God, warning against hypocrisy, and calling for repentance. He made it clear that Israel was unrepentant and headed for judgment unless they responded to God by receiving the Messiah. This was a window of mercy and divine goodness, as Christ, the Messiah, walked among them. The question remains: Would they respond? Or would they remain hard-hearted toward God and blind to the truth?

The Healing

Luke 13:12-13 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, "Woman, you are freed from your disability." 13 And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God.

As soon as Jesus spotted the woman, he was moved with compassion. This was not unusual for Jesus. He repeatedly displayed a compassion on the suffering. He was truly sympathetic to the human condition, and motivated to deliver those suffering under it.

Woman with issue of blood 12 years: “Take heart, Daughter, your faith has made you well”.

Blind men: Matthew 20:34 And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight and followed him.
Leper: Mark 1:41 Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, "I will; be clean."
Widow of Nain: Luke 7:13 And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, "Do not weep."

Jesus’ entire earthly ministry was marked by expressions of God’s divine mercy toward the suffering. Matthew records this description of the effects of Christ’s work:

Matthew 11:5 the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.

So, in response to the woman’s suffering, Jesus interrupted his own teaching and immediately healed her. Her response? She glorified God.

Reactions

In response, the woman glorifies God, and the people rejoice with her. But it wasn’t just Christ, the woman and the crowd there. There were also the ruler of the Synagogue and other Jewish leaders present. Look at their reaction:

The Legalist

Luke 13:14 But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, "There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day."

Here we meet “the ruler of the synagogue.” Among the elders of the synagogue, he was the one tasked with overseeing the order of worship. It was his responsibility to ensure that everything was conducted in an orderly and proper manner, consistent with Jewish tradition and religious practices.

He determined who would offer the prayers, who would read from the Scriptures, and who would preach or teach. In essence, he was the spiritual steward of the synagogue, guarding its practices and maintaining its customs.

Before we continue with the account, let’s take a moment to define “legalism.”

In the New Testament when Paul used the term he was referring to any form of works-righteousness. That is, any system which taught that one could earn righteousness and favour with God through his or her own fleshly performance. This describes the Pharisees. They did not start their own self-righteous, hypocritical religion but instead, oversaw the corruption and distortion of Judaism into a legalistic religion.

God’s command for the Sabbath was clear: it was a day to rest and be refreshed, a gift given to his people for their good. The Sabbath was established as a time to cease from work and remember the Lord who created all things. It was meant to be a day of blessing, a pause from the burdens of labour to worship God, find physical rest, and enjoy his provision.

The Jewish leaders, however, had so distorted God’s intention for the Sabbath that they turned it into a day of oppressive regulation rather than restful freedom. Their interpretation added layer upon layer of man-made rules to define exactly what qualified as “work,” rules that often bordered on the absurd. To avoid any possible violation of the Sabbath, they created an exhaustive list of forbidden activities, including things like carrying, extinguishing a fire, sewing, tearing, and even writing or erasing.

These prohibitions amounted to micromanaged minutiae. For instance, “erasing” became so narrowly defined that tearing open a package with printed words on it was considered desecrating the Sabbath, because it destroyed part of the text. Even something as mundane as reading a library book could be scrutinized—if the words stamped on the edges of the pages were partially erased as the book was opened, that too could be considered “work.”

Legalism seeks to impose rules or laws upon people and compel them to obey under the threat of punishment, often claiming that failure to comply brings God’s displeasure. In an attempt to earn God’s favour and avoid his wrath, men and women strive to conform to an outward standard of behaviour. Inevitably, they fall short of these self-imposed standards of righteousness. As a result, they feel as though they have displeased God, their consciences are burdened, and they are left in a cycle of guilt and frustration. They live through periods of extreme dedication, followed by deep discouragement as they repeatedly fail to live up to the expectations set before them.

As an aside, the same frustration is experienced by those who refuse to use the means God has provided for spiritual growth and instead attempt to live out Christian morality in their own willpower. They too will find themselves caught in the same cycle—times of intense dedication followed by times of despair when they inevitably fail to meet the standards they strive for.

The legalist suffers from two major misconceptions. First, while the Bible teaches that man is fundamentally depraved and incapable of pleasing God on his own, the legalist believes that he is basically good and able to achieve some standard of righteousness. He assumes that if he lives the right way, speaks the right way, avoids the right things, or even dresses the right way, God will accept him. This is precisely the mindset of the Pharisees in the New Testament. They sought to please God through outward performance while neglecting inward graces like faith, mercy, and love. They perfected the appearance of righteousness while their hearts remained far from God.

Second, the legalist holds a flawed understanding of who God is. While the Bible teaches that God is love and desires all people to be saved, the legalist believes that God is primarily angry, eagerly seeking to exact vengeance on those who fail to meet external standards. They assume that even Christians must continually appease God by satisfying a rigid set of rules to remain in his favour.

It must be said that while God is indeed holy and will judge all sin, he has, in his love, provided a way for all people to escape wrath—through faith in Jesus Christ. God will never violate his perfect love, nor will he fail to satisfy his perfect justice. However, his justice stands as an argument against legalism, not for it, because God judges the heart, not outward appearances or human performance (1 Cor 4:5; 1 Thess 2:4; Matt 15:18-19; Luke 2:35; Luke 16:14-15; Acts 1:24; Acts 15:8; Rom 8:27; Heb 4:12).

It is no wonder, then, that legalists become like the god they have imagined: superficial, heartless, and authoritarian.

SUPERFICIAL

Matthew 23:27-28 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. 28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

These men were obsessed with ensuring that the “form” of their religion be kept, while neglecting the “heart” of it. This is a hallmark of all legalists. Even those within Christianity. They have, ready at hand, a list of extra-biblical rules you must follow in order to earn God’s favour. If there is not a list, there is an unspoken expectation. Without fail, the things on that list are superficial. They have to do with what you do, what you wear, where you go, and how you look. They are either entirely invented by men or man’s distortions on what God has commanded.

The woman here was glorifying God. Her heart was overflowing with praise. The crowd was rejoicing with her. They saw this healing as a glorious things. Yet, what was the ruler’s response?

You would think the ruler of the synagogue would be encouraged by this woman’s worship of the Lord. Sickeningly, however, he didn’t rejoice. Instead, he became indignant. He rejected her genuine worship because it did not conform to his legalistic rules or align with his superficial standards.

Many people today adopt the same kind of superficial legalism. Why? Because it requires no genuine inward change. Attending church, participating in Christian activities, or even making moral reforms is far easier than submitting to the inward transformation that the Holy Spirit seeks to accomplish in the lives of believers.

Being active at church is much easier than rooting out the sin of jealousy. Keeping up a routine of Bible reading takes far less effort than overcoming bitterness. Completing a Bible study may look good on the surface, but it’s nothing compared to the hard work of reconciling broken relationships through forgiveness.

Many who claim to follow Jesus are acting just like this legalistic ruler—focused on maintaining an outward appearance of righteousness while completely bypassing the inward work of heart transformation that God desires.

HEARTLESS

Another hallmark of legalism is that it is devoid of compassion. It is heartless and sometimes even hateful. It doesn’t extend mercy and grace to people but rather judgment and condemnation. Jesus illustrates this man’s contempt for those who require compassion by exposing his hypocritical heartlessness.

14 But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, "There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day." 15 Then the Lord answered him, "You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it? 16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?"

It’s as if he’s saying, “YOU HYPOCRITE! You will show compassionate care for your donkey but not for this woman - a daughter of Abraham, and a woman of the covenant? You will provide water for your animal the moment it is thirsty but not permit the healing of this woman, crippled for 18 years? “

HEARTLESS HYPOCRITE!

Legalism doesn’t love. It hates. It is not compassionate, it is condemning.

Matthew 23:4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.

Matthew 23:13 "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.

If our religious rigidity keeps us from showing God’s mercy and compassion, we have erred in our understanding of “true religion.”

Micah 6:8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

James 1:27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Christ is loving and compassionate, merciful and gracious. He came to lift the burdens of legalism from the backs of those weighed down by it. Yet, as we see in this passage, the power-brokers of legalistic religion hated him for it. His authority, his grace, and his liberating message exposed their hypocrisy and threatened their control.

The Father is Working Until Now

Remember an important fact in all of this - Christ only healed as God would have him heal. That is, Jesus was doing only what God the Father desired him to do…

John 5:16-17 And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, "My Father is working until now, and I am working."

The purpose of the Sabbath was to provide rest for man.

Mark 2:27 And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:

The Jews had destroyed the purpose of the Sabbath and instead of allowing it to remain as a time of rest, they turned it into an oppressive burden. Christ did not come to destroy the Sabbath. Instead, he was restoring the principle of rest which God intended for it.

Matthew 11:28-30 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

He’s saying, “All of you who are burdened under the heavy weight of legalistic oppression, I’ve come to lift the burden and give you… rest.“ This is the rest which the writer of Hebrews wrote about:

Hebrews 4:9-10 So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10 for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.

The Sabbath was a compassionate institution by God to provide needed rest for his people, knowing that they are beset with weakness. When Jesus ended 18 years of misery and hardship for the woman in our passage, his actions were perfectly consistent with God’s intention for the Sabbath. Ironically, this healing on the Sabbath was a better observance of the Sabbath than anything the hypocritical ruler of the synagogue sought to enforce.

AUTHORITARIAN

HE CONDEMNED HER!

Notice that this ruler does not come out and condemn Christ..

He may have been too spineless to condemn Christ directly, or perhaps he felt he was offering Christ a professional courtesy by refraining. But what he did instead was an inexcusable act of heartless legalism. The crowd was rejoicing, and the woman was praising God, yet his response was neither to rejoice with her nor to praise God alongside the others. Instead, he declared her guilty before God simply because she dared to come forward and be healed on the Sabbath.

Like all legalists, he sought to wield the fear of God’s displeasure as a stick to beat her back into submission under his religious system. He was indignant because what Christ had done violated the system that he ruled over. This was not about God’s honour; it was about his own authority. For the legalist, there is no greater threat than an attack on his authority, and that is exactly what genuine freedom and liberty represent.

Freedom is the enemy of the legalist. He will use fear, guilt, and condemnation to keep people in line, because if they find freedom elsewhere—true freedom that Christ brings—his control is shattered. And so, he is indignant.

In his world, this woman should stop rejoicing, stop glorifying God, repent for violating the man-made rules of the Sabbath, and submit once again to their oppressive system. He wanted to instil guilt in her, to convince her that she had violated God’s authority, when in reality, she had experienced God’s mercy and healing. It wasn’t God’s authority she had violated; it was the ruler’s system that had been challenged.

This ruler’s reaction exposes the heart of legalism. It is dead, superficial, heartless, and authoritarian. Legalists—whether religious or not—use fear, guilt, and condemnation as tools to keep people dependent upon them. These are the means by which they maintain their control.

But Jesus Christ came to free people from such legalism. This woman experienced a taste of that freedom, and in doing so, the ruler of the synagogue was exposed. Christ’s grace always threatens systems of man-made authority, because he brings true religious freedom—freedom that breaks chains, lifts burdens, and turns guilt into joy.

BLIND

We started by suggesting that this entire situation was a kind of test of whether or not the Jews has heeded Christ’s teachings regarding hypocrisy, the kingdom, the coming judgment and the need for repentance. The evidence is overwhelming - they had learned nothing.

They were absolutely blind to the truth. We know that Christ often called the Pharisees “blind”.

Matthew 13:14-15 Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says: "'You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive. 15 For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.'

The religious legalist is blind—blinded by their own self-righteousness, blinded by their man-made system, and blinded by their lust for power and authority over others. Their blindness is so severe that even when the Messiah himself stood in their midst and taught, they rejected him. Why? Because he condemned their self-righteousness and exposed their hypocrisy. His teaching was a direct challenge to their authority, and they could not tolerate it. In their indignation, they refused to see the truth.

The sad irony is this: the legalist is in a far worse condition than the crippled woman. While her physical condition left her bent and broken, his spiritual condition left him hopelessly lost. His self-righteous blindness prevented him from recognizing the very one who could save him. Instead of comparing Christ’s ministry to the Scriptures, he interpreted it through the lens of his religious system. Had he turned to the Word of God as his authority, he would have seen that Jesus fulfilled every Old Testament prophecy concerning the Messiah.

Jesus satisfied everything the Scriptures anticipated in the coming Redeemer, but he did not satisfy the expectations of Jewish tradition. And so, tragically, the Jews clung to their tradition and rejected their Messiah.

CONCLUSION

This is a beautiful account of a woman who was set free from her physical disability, miraculously healed by Jesus Christ. Yet the main purpose of this healing was to testify that Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah, and to affirm that his preaching about repentance and the Kingdom must be heeded.

Tragically, because of their hard-hearted blindness, the Jews completely missed their Messiah. Rather than receiving him, they chose to remain entrenched in their hypocritical, legalistic system. They clung to a superficial, heartless form of religion because it soothed their self-righteousness and fed their desire for authority and power over the people. Instead of embracing the freedom Jesus offered, they settled for a façade—rules instead of redemption, condemnation instead of compassion.

And the result?

They became the fruitless tree Jesus had described in the previous passage. They were the wild vine spoken of in Isaiah. There was no fruit of repentance to be found, and because of this, only judgment remained.

This moment also marks a significant turning point in Jesus' ministry. This is the last recorded instance of Jesus teaching in a synagogue. The door of opportunity was closing, and with it came the sobering reality of Israel's rejection of their Messiah.

Rick Cowan