Jesus Heals a Crippled Woman

Once again, we see the hypocrisy of the leaders who lacked compassion and complete knowledge of who God Almighty was.  In the name of God, they had made 365 rules and most of them were on Sabbath day which also included things like, when to cook, how to eat, what to do and what not to do.  The intention was good, to keep the Sabbath holy as God rested on the seventh day, all should rest once a week and on this day go to temple or synagogue, spend time praying and reading the scriptures.  Even the food was to be cooked a day prior and one of the rules was that no one should visit the doctor unless it was a very critical case.

Jesus knew that the leaders would always harass the ordinary Jews based on these laws and he wanted to make them realise that humanity came first, and that the ten commandments given by Moses were to help the people to follow the right way.  

In this passage, Jesus was filled with compassion seeing the woman who was bent for 18 years.  She had not even asked him to be healed. By calling her, he proves that the Kingdom of God is not just for the males.  Imagine how elated she must have been to stand upright after 18 years, she responds to God’s Kingdom by praising God and so do all the people around praise God seeing her healed unlike the religious leader was blind to the presence of the Kingdom and the need to repentance.  Jesus also could not control his anger, he calls them hypocrites and argues that if they could loose their ox and ass to drink water on the Sabbath day, why could not Jesus loose the daughter of Abraham on the Sabbath day.  This act was the fulfilment of his commission of releasing captives from the bonds of evil and by doing this Jesus want to encourage us to do works commission irrespective of which day of the week it is.  

Let us now reflect into our own selves and find out whether we are like the leader and have made strict rules for ourselves and look down on others who do not follow the rules and traditions made by human to satisfy our needs.  Let us be open to use the guidelines given to us to improve our relations with each other and with God and do what God would want us to do and at the same time do not judge others.