NOTES for Luk 13:10-17
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. |
12 And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. |
13 And he laid his 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 hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him 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. |
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Reading some Gospel stories, one might think that Jesus intentionally violates the Sabbath rest, doing it to spite the traditionalists of religion. But the Savior never wanted scandals and did not like them. He did not need scandalous fame, the fame of a destroyer of foundations. Besides, according to His own words, He came not to destroy the Torah, but to bring it to fullness. Why then does He act as He acts?
In fact, could the healing of the woman mentioned by the evangelist in his story not have been postponed until the next day? After all, she was not threatened with death; she had already lived with her illness, as we can see, for more than one year, and one additional day of waiting would no longer have changed anything for her. And if this had been simply a matter of healing, even a miraculous, supernatural healing performed not by human power but by God's power, the synagogue ruler who condemned Jesus' action would have been right.
But that is precisely the point: this was not simply a matter of healing, even miraculous healing, but of the manifestation of the Kingdom, whose consequence was this healing, just as it was many other healings of the same kind mentioned by the evangelists. And the Sabbath, in view of its original spiritual meaning, was ultimately needed precisely in order to open the Kingdom to a person, to give him the opportunity to establish deep, sincere, full relations with God, without which there is and can be no normal spiritual life. The multitude of ritual prohibitions and restrictions with which the Sabbath later became surrounded is connected with the obvious predominance of religiosity over spirit. Jesus is precisely striving to return the Sabbath to its original meaning as time spent with God.
And where, if not in the Kingdom that He brought into the world, was one to seek the fullness of communion with God? Where could one spend the Sabbath day better than there? But for those who do not notice the Kingdom, religion with its prohibitions and restrictions proves more important. It is hard to condemn them for this: in the absence of spiritual life, religion may really be the best thing a person can find for himself. Yet in the absence of spiritual life, it is precisely religion that separates a person from the Kingdom, from communion with God, and in the end from life. From that fullness of life for which no religion can offer anyone a substitute.
Readings for 27 October 2025
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