Mirror Miracle
The Gospel of Luke 2 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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PRAY
Intro: I bet most of us used a mirror this morning (to comb our hair, put on our makeup, make sure there was no breakfast left in our teeth). Some used mirrors in driving to get here (those mirrors are used for our safety, to help us see something we would not otherwise see from a current vantage point. - The purpose of a mirror is to reflect reality.
I call this healing episode in our text today a mirror miracle. Not only is this a ‘mirror miracle’ in that there are four such sabbath healings in Luke, but also particularly in that the miracle (and the reaction to it) pictures some of the very things (the reality) that Jesus has been teaching and reflects characteristics of God’s kingdom program through Jesus.
See it for yourself in…
Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And behold, there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your disability.” And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God. 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.” 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? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” 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.
Luke’s placement of this miracle is critical to his argument concerning Jesus.
This Sabbath healing (and reaction to it) mirrors the very things about which Jesus has been teaching and warning, and it illustrates some key characteristics of God’s program in sending Jesus. (This morning we’ll look at three ways it is a living example of what Jesus teaches, and at three characteristics of God’s kingdom program through Jesus mirrored in the miracle as well.)
The Miracle Mirrors Jesus’ Teaching
The Miracle Mirrors Jesus’ Teaching
The healing in fact takes place in a setting where Jesus is teaching. He’s teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. Luke isn’t specific about which town, a frequent omission in his Gospel, probably because his readership is primarily Greek, so the specific geography of Palestine is not the critical issue.
What does matter for the account though is that it occurs in synagogue, a local Jewish gathering place for worshipping God. It was the community branch of ongoing teaching and local assembly for Jewish faith and practice. The purpose of it was the promote right relationship to God according to what he had revealed to Israel as his chosen people. And as becomes quite evident, it matters that the healing takes place on the Sabbath (Saturday, the 7th day of each week), which God himself had set aside for them to rest from work and reflect on God—who he is and their relationship to him.
So why does Luke include this miracle here, as opposed to others that Jesus undoubtedly performed? Because this one in particular mirrors some of the things Jesus has been teaching. Here are three that I consider to be readily apparent:
The first is…
Understanding the Time
Understanding the Time
In recent context Jesus has explained to the crowds their need to recognize the time and respond appropriately.
He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, ‘A shower is coming.’ And so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat,’ and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?
This miracle is just such an example of the current “weather.” Here a woman comes to meeting at synagogue, and we learn that she has some kind of issue with her spine that has had her doubled over for 18 years. By merely speaking of her freedom from the disabling spirit and laying hands on her, Jesus immediately makes her well. (There is a spiritual dynamic to her ailment, which we will discuss in the next section about God’s kingdom program.)
But for now, the point is that no one else had ever healed like Jesus. There were no other healers around who could simply speak or touch and people were instantly healed. No one else who could cast out demons with a word. And this is no isolated event. There are verses in the Gospels that describe Jesus healing people in droves.
And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures, and paralytics, and he healed them.
It sounds like there were days that people lined up and Jesus compassionately healed one after another.
(In our passage in Luke 13) Luke’s argument plainly is that, from examples like the healing of this bent-over woman on the Sabbath, people ought to see the signs and respond by following God’s Messiah. Do not reject this clear evidence of God’s authority & power displayed through Jesus. Repent while there is opportunity. (see 13:1-5)
But the warning that Jesus has given concerning the danger of hypocrisy is equally evidenced by the demonstrated reaction to the miracle.
Blind & Stubborn Religious Hypocrisy
Blind & Stubborn Religious Hypocrisy
(and the progress toward overall Jewish rejection of Jesus)
… embodied especially by the professional religious establishment (and all who listen to them), and about which Jesus has issued severe warning. - In fact, there is greater attention on the reaction of the synagogue ruler and Jesus’ rebuke of such hypocrisy than on the healing itself.
The synagogue ruler is the one who does all the organizing and leading of meetings at synagogue, and who would have granted permission for Jesus to be speaking there as a visiting teacher. He doesn’t address the Teacher (and now Healer) directly (though clearly implicates him since he initiated it), but instead castigates the whole crowd, telling them there there are six other days that they could be healed rather than on the day of rest. His reaction to Jesus’ performing this exorcism and healing miracle is surprising to us for two reasons:
1. We, from our perspective, do not have observance of Shabbat (the Sabbath) so deeply ingrained in our lives. For many of us, the comparison would be for someone to break our expectations of what is normal and “right” for our Sunday worship gathering. - (***illustrations)
2. We have the benefit of a wholistic NT perspective. We look back, because of the help of Luke and other writers, even the many NT letters in our Bible, and see more clearly a reflection of who Jesus is and what he is doing that they didn’t have. - They, including the disciples, were still trying to put it all together to understand who and how Jesus would be the Messiah, like pieces of a bigger puzzle. But we have the whole picture already put together for us in the NT.
What shouldn’t surprise us, though, is the ongoing religious hypocrisy and blind stubbornness. Jesus has been taking great pains, even as Luke himself has shown, to expose said hypocrisy (cf. 11:37-54) and to warn his followers that they must “be on guard against the leaven of the Pharisees” (12:1).
The third parallel to see between the miracle and what he has been teaching is…
Division Over Jesus
Division Over Jesus
(the division caused by Jesus’ ministry)
Jesus has recently described (in Luke’s narrative) the way that responses to Jesus divides households, even the closest familial relationships. Some respond in repentance and belief to follow him, while others persist in rejection and remain in peril of God’s judgment. Now here we have evidence, more broadly, of the deep divide over who Jesus is and how to respond to him.
The crowds, for now, are largely in awe and rejoicing at the powerful working of Jesus. But his adversaries, to this point particularly the religious professionals and those beginning to listen to them, are stalwartly against this teacher who clearly deserves their attention but who doesn’t fit into their box of religious expectation.
Luke continues demonstrating what Jesus has been saying, and both Jesus and Luke are pressing hearers and readers that it’s impossible to sit on the fence about Jesus. You must pick a side:
Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
Now we’ve seen how this miracle episode mirrors several of the things that Jesus has been teaching (and will continue to teach), but I also briefly want to note the ways in which…
The Miracle Mirrors God’s Kingdom Program
The Miracle Mirrors God’s Kingdom Program
(...in at least a few ways: the influence of Satan, but God still sovereignly rules; and we also note God’s compassion toward our need.)
Satanic Struggle
Satanic Struggle
The miracle again gives evidence of a very real struggle against Satan and his spiritual hold on humanity. (and even Satanic struggle against the mission of the Messiah)
What is visible is not all that there is. There has been, even before the dawn of earthly creation, a battle against God being waged by Lucifer and those he took down with him in his rebellion against God (from an angelic order of other beings God created) when Satan desired to usurp God’s authority and glory.
But as Jesus comes in the full power and authority of God, as the unique God-Man in all of history, himself being the perfect manifestation and representation of God on earth, his presence and work spells the beginning of the end for Satan.
So in spite of Satan’s very real hold on humanity, enslaving us in sin, Jesus comes as the inbreaking of…
God’s Rule
God’s Rule
The entrance of Jesus the Messiah is evidence (as this miracle testifies) that God rules over his creation, and His rule encompasses both the physical and spiritual realms. Jesus can not only heal, but he also has authority over evil spirits, over Satan himself. All this, as we now know (and the ones who stayed with him, who truly believed in Him, would soon find out), was to draw attention to the spiritual forgiveness and restoration to God that he could offer through the work he was about to accomplish.
And now that Christ’s work on the cross through his substitutionary death and bodily resurrection have been completed, the inbreaking of God’s kingdom into our physical realm through Jesus has initiated an era in which God’s Kingdom is manifest by the spiritual transformation in those who belong to him by faith.
And this entire act of God is another aspect of his program, even his own character, we see mirrored in this miracle:
God’s Compassion
God’s Compassion
Jesus’ compassionate healing of this woman illustrates the charity of God toward a people not seeking him. The woman was in great need, but she wasn’t seeking and didn’t even ask. Jesus simply takes the initiative to call her over and heal her.
Jesus therefore returns the rebuke (of the synagogue ruler) with a rebuke of his own, addressing not only this one religious professional but the whole religious establishment and all who would persist in thinking like them. Jesus skillfully uses an argument by analogy (an accepted practice in Jewish legal debate) to outmaneuver and silence his opponents. - Even with all the laws your Rabbi’s have added to try detail lists of what constitutes “work” on the Sabbath, you will still untie and lead your animals to water. And yet somehow you’ll begrudge this woman being loosed (passive tense - activity by God… God is free to work on the Sabbath :-)) from the crippling oppression of Satan on her body? And she’s a daughter of Abraham! - She’s not an animal but a human, made in God’s image, and what’s more (from a Jewish perspective), she is also an Israelite (fellow member of God’s chosen people).
By deliberate contrast to this uncompassionate response from the synagogue ruler, God’s compassion through Jesus shines brightly—an example of his compassion to all mankind. - Jesus came to set us free, that his chosen ones may be loosed from Satan’s hold on our lives (caused by our rebellion against God—called sin), (now set free by faith) in order that we may serve the Lord as our new Master. Through Jesus, we are free to worship and serve God in right relationship to him—in spirit and in truth (cf. Jn 4:24). …all due to the mercy and compassion of God.
I want to close this morning by making sure we think carefully about how we ought to apply this truth, and all of God’s truth, to our hearts and lives.
As in water face reflects face, so the heart of man reflects the man.
Mirror, Mirror
Mirror, Mirror
Tell me what I want to hear! - The evil queen, Snow White’s step mother, looks into a magic mirror to ask, “Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest one of all?”
Do you look toward God as toward a mirror, or to religion as a mirror, wanting God or religion to tell you what you want to hear? Do you read the Bible in order to hear God say what you want to hear?
That’s not how it works! God’s word reveals truth as it really is. (This makes the mirror given to us in the Bible better than any other mirror. It doesn’t simply reflect reality about us, but even more importantly, it reveals God himself… which shapes the truth about us.)
… Or maybe you look at regular mirrors, and you tend to view yourself with pain, frustration, regret, maybe even dislike or disdain. If any of these things be true, you’re looking at the mirror with self-absorbed eyes, not with the eyes of faith in God.
Look into the mirror of God’s word to see truth… about God, and about yourself. This same mirror that reflects our spiritual blindness, stubbornness, deadness… also reveals the holiness of God and the compassion, the love of God toward the humanity he created in his image, and particularly toward those he has chosen to be his children: “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” (1 Jn 3:1a)
And keep looking into that same mirror as the means to come... to Jesus... to be changed by him.
Be a careful student of what you find in God’s word (this mirror of truth)… to believe God, to understand Him, to love Him, and to obey Him. Apply what you find there to the way you ought to walk in relationship to God today, and tomorrow… knowing that by that application of his truth he is remaking you into the image of none other than Christ himself!
PRAY
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