Joel M Bradshaw

10Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11And behold, there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. 12When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your disability.” 13And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God. 14But 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.” 

15Then 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? 16And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” 17As 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.–Luke 13

The hypocrisy argument of Jesus seems to be the main point here, but let’s not miss the two sides to the miracle.

1. PHYSICAL. Jesus healed the woman and made her straight where she was bent. She immediately and publicly glorified God. Jesus told her that she was now free from her disability. This is the obvious and verifiable portion of the miracle. Everyone could see what had happened and could see the results.
2. SPIRITUAL. Jesus linked his healing of the woman to the binding of her by Satan. Jesus saw what he did that day in spiritual terms. His healing of her untied what Satan had once tied. The miracle was therefore a spiritual warfare moment and it anticipated the victory of the cross and the empty tomb. Check out this end-times moment recorded by Paul. He referenced both Isaiah 25 and Hosea 13.

“For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:52-57)

Jesus may choose to unbound a physical binding in your life. If so, it should be obvious and verifiable. But the spiritual unbinding happens with everyone who trusts Jesus alone for their salvation. The law convicts us that we have sinned and stand guilty before God. The wages we have earned from our sin is death. But because of the grace of God in and through Jesus, he brings victory and deliverance from death’s sting.

The disabled woman that day experienced from Jesus a physical unbinding that illustrated the spiritual reality. We experience a spiritual unbinding that will one day fully and finally be expressed in the physical. Only Jesus provides this victory. Only Jesus unties the ones who are bound.–JMB