Luke 13 - In Depth Bible Commentaries

2711(...continued)will you not immediately pull it out on a Day-of-Rest?" That's "work," but the Jews knew that insuch cases, love for their child, or concern for the welfare of their animal, "over-rode the law."Also see Matthew 12:11-12, where Jesus asks, "...Suppose one of you has only one sheep and itfalls into a pit on the Day-of-Rest; will you not lay hold of it and lift it out? How much morevaluable is a human being than a sheep..."When Jesus began his ministry in the Jewish gathering-place in Nazareth, he had quotedthe words of Isaiah 61:1-2a, "(The) Lord's Spirit (is) upon me, on account of which he anointedme to proclaim good news to poor people; he sent me forth, to herald release to captives, andrecovery of sight to blind people; to send forth downtrodden people in freedom, to proclaim (the)Lord's acceptable year." (Luke 4:18-19)Jesus obviously took that commissioning very seriously. His ministry was aimed at bringingrelease to captive people, by breaking every bond that held them down, that kept them fromfulfilling their potential. In him, a grand new "Exodus" was occurring, as the oppressed peoples ofthe earth were hearing Good News, and being sent forth into freedom. If you re-read Luke fromthe standpoint of that commissioning, you will see how dedicated to that mission Jesus truly was,and how he did everything in his power to break the bonds that tied people down. Here, in thisJewish gathering-place, when Jesus broke the bond that had bent this woman down for eighteenyears, enabling her to stand upright, and walk proud and tall, he was doing nothing other thanwhat he was constantly doing throughout his ministry.And when Jesus made his stinging criticisms of the Jewish leaders, this was at the heart ofhis criticisms. The Jewish leaders were failing to loosen the burdens, to enable the people to befreed from their bonds. Remember Luke 11:46, "And how sad for you people, the lawyers,because you load the people (with) burdens that are hard to bear, and you yourselves do nottouch the burdens with one of your fingers." In our study of that passage, we quoted the greattext Isaiah 58:1-14, in which YHWH asks concerning the kind of worship he wants (includingobservance of the Day-of-Rest): YHWH's own answer to his question includes the words, "Is notthis [the kind of worship]...I will choose: to loosen the bonds of wickedness; to unfasten chains ofyokes; and to send forth oppressed people [as] free people; and that you tear apart every yoke?"That's the kind of worship and ministry and observance of the Day-of-Rest that Jesus wasdedicated to, and which filled up his hours and his days on this earth--it was a matter of"loosening the bonds of wickedness; of unfastening the yokes that weighed people down; itwas a matter of sending forth oppressed people into freedom; of tearing apart every yoke.” That'swhy it was so natural for Jesus to act as he did in that Jewish gathering-place on that Day-of-Rest, breaking the bond that had held that poor woman bent double for eighteen years.2712We suspect that Jesus saw in the eyes of the ruler of the gathering-place that all toocommon male chauvinism and sneering put-down of women, as if they were less than men andespecially this bent-over, sick woman, who could so easily be stereotyped as a sinner, and beexcluded from the fellowship of healthy and wealthy religious people. But Jesus emphasizes thatshe is just as much a member of the family of Abraham as any other Jew (compare Luke 19:9,(continued...)1287