Stand Up Straight
Sunday, September 7, 2025
Luke 13:10-17 NLT
10 One Sabbath day as Jesus was teaching in a synagogue, 11 he saw a woman who had been crippled by an evil spirit. She had been bent double for eighteen years and was unable to stand up straight. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Dear woman, you are healed of your sickness!” 13 Then he touched her, and instantly she could stand straight. How she praised God!
14 But the leader in charge of the synagogue was indignant that Jesus had healed her on the Sabbath day. “There are six days of the week for working,” he said to the crowd. “Come on those days to be healed, not on the Sabbath.”
15 But the Lord replied, “You hypocrites! Each of you works on the Sabbath day! Don’t you untie your ox or your donkey from its stall on the Sabbath and lead it out for water? 16 This dear woman, a daughter of Abraham, has been held in bondage by Satan for eighteen years. Isn’t it right that she be released, even on the Sabbath?” 17 This shamed his enemies, but all the people rejoiced at the wonderful things he did.
Introduction
- Woman bent over for 18 long years
A saying about being bent over:
“When a person is bent over, anything can be put on their back.”
It’s a metaphor for how people who are already burdened (by poverty, sickness, or oppression) are often the ones who get exploited or weighed down even further.
- – Despite her illness, the woman came to church to worship God.
Psalm 34:1 – I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
- – The woman was a woman
Status of women in Jesus’s day:
The status of women:
In Jesus’s day, women were invisible. They had no authority or power. Marriage was essential to the status of a woman. There worth and identity were defined by the men in their lives. First, the father, then the husband, and if their husband died, they were under the authority of the son.
Women had very little legal rights, if any at all. They had no economic power. They could not own a business unless they partnered with a man in their life and they could not own property independently. They were not allowed to hold leadership positions, especially in the life of the church.
Marriage was essential to the status of a woman.
A single woman was a “less than” and if widowed or divorced their lives were subject to poverty, if not taken care of by a father, husband, or kinsman.
Women could attend synagogue but were relegated to a separate area. They did not sit with men.
Women did not receive formal religious education and were usually taught domestic skills.
A woman’s job was cooking, sewing, weaving, helping on the farm, serving as midwives and having children.
HOW JESUS FELT ABOUT WOMEN
Jesus respected and honored women.
Jesus treated women with dignity and ascribed worth to them.
Jesus healed women.
Jesus welcomed women as disciples, and they traveled with Him and supported His ministry financially.
Jesus placed women as equal participants In God’s Kingdom, not just passive followers.
But Jesus consistently affirmed their worth, included them in His mission, and lifted them beyond cultural limitations.
Jesus called the woman a daughter of Abraham, tying her to the covenant, promises, and blessings made long ago to the Israelites.
- Jesus saw the woman, called her out, touched her (a man was not to touch a woman he was not married to in public), healed her on the Sabbath.
Jesus sees a bent over woman among men who are standing.
When Jesus saw the bent over woman, what did he see? He saw that her condition was temporary, and He was about to bless her with a permanent solution.
The significance of the Sabbath
Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made for man, man was not made for the Sabbath” – Mark 2:27
The Sabbath was created by God for rest, renewal, healing, restoration, and mercy. It is a day for thanksgiving, prayer, study, and family and community celebration. A weekly time to share meals with our families and friends and putting aside work. It is a supernatural time given by God where we enter joy, peace, and spiritual refreshment and connect with Him.
The Sabbath is a commandment from God – God rested on the seventh day after creating the world in six days and blessed the seventh day and declared it holy (separate from every other day) because it was the day that He rested from all his work of creation.
He even included the Sabbath (Shabat) in the ten commandments and said, “remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. You have six days each week for ordinary work, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath day, it is to be dedicated to the Lord your God.” [Don’t work on this day but take a break and rest]. – Exodus 20:8-10a
The Sabbath reminds us that our lives are not just defined by labor or productivity, but by our relationship with God.
The Sabbath sanctifies or sets apart time itself. Each week God has reserved “time” for us to rest, slow down, and be thankful to Him for slicing a day out of week to get away and rest in God’s Kingdom.
The Sabbath brings a sacredness into the rhythm of our lives.
The religious leaders turned a day of rest and renewal into a day of burden and rules. There were 39 categories of prohibited work.
By Jesus’s time, Jewish tradition had identified 39 categories of prohibited work:
There could be no sowing seed or reaping the harvest
No food preparation: Meals were prepared the day before
No cooking and cleaning
No traveling beyond ¾ of a mile
No sewing, weaving, spinning of yarn
No construction or demolition
No writing or erasing
No lighting of fire or extinguishing fire
No carrying items from one place to another
Any work that was done during six days of the week could not be done on the Sabbath
No healing or medical work on the Sabbath unless someone’s life was in immediate danger: For example, one could not treat a broken limb or apply medicine to a wound unless it was life threatening.
Jesus and the Sabbath
Jesus prioritized compassion, mercy and wholeness over the strict rules that were made up by the religious leaders.
What the Jewish people didn’t realize was that were as bent over spiritually as the woman was bent over physically.
THREE TAKEAWAY POINTS
Point #1 – Stand up straight for your miracle and deliverance
When God told Abraham and Sarah they were going to have a baby in their old age, Sarah laughed and God asked in Genesis 18:14 NLT, “Is there anything too hard for the Lord?”
God and Jeremiah were having a conversation about the future of the Israelites and God reminded Jeremiah that He and only He was the Lord, the God of all peoples of the world and His question to Jeremiah was, “Is there anything too hard the Lord? (Jeremiah 32:27)
Point #2 – Stand up straight in your faith
Your body may be bent over, your mind may be bent over, your emotions may be bent over, but you must stand up straight in your faith. Your life may seem to be doubled over, but your faith must stand up straight.
Psalm 23:4 ESV– Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; WHY – for you are with me; your rod and staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
Hebrews 6:6 NLT– And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to Him must believe that God exists and that He rewards those who sincerely seek Him.
Matthew 21:21 -22 NLT– Then Jesus told them, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and don’t doubt, you can do things like this and much more. You can even say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea, and it will happen. You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it.
Point #3 – Stand up straight for what you believe
As followers of Christ, we live in a world filled with many voices – voices from culture, media, and even our own hearts. Some of these voices sound wise or comforting, but not all of them line up with the truth of God’s Word. That’s why Scripture reminds us in Proverbs 14:12, “there is a way that appears to be right, but in the end, it leads to death.”
As believers, we must measure everything against the unchanging Word of God.
Paul warned in Colossians 2:8 NLT – Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers[a] of this world, rather than from Christ.
There are many beliefs that sound good on the surface but are contrary to Scripture.
For example:
- All religions lead to God – culture says sincerity is enough; all spiritual paths end in the same place.
Scripture says, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to humankind by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
Jesus declared in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
- Truth is whatever you make it. – Culture says truth is relative, and what’s true for you may not be true for me. While praying, Jesus said to God, “Your Word is truth.” (John 17:17). God’s Word is the unchanging standard of truth.
- Success is measured by wealth and achievement. – Culture says the more you own, the more important you are. Scripture says “What do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose you own soul. Is anything worth more than your soul.” (Matthew 16:26-27 NLT)
- If I work hard enough, I can save myself – Culture says self-reliance is the key to life. Scripture says; You cannot save yourself. God saved you by His grace when you believed. You can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. It is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. (Ephesians 2:8-9 NLT)
- I’m a good person, so I’ll go to heaven. Culture says good deeds or being nice earns eternal life. Scripture says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) Salvation is by grace through faith in Christ, not by works. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
Salvation and transformation come from God, not human effort.
STAND UP STRAIGHT!!
© Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved. ©2025 Windsor Village Church Family. All rights reserved — No reproduction of the material is permitted without the expressed permission of WVCF.
