Free to Hope
Jesus said, “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:32
The woman needed a miracle, but she didn’t ask for one. She may have cowered in the back of the synagogue, hoping no one would notice she’d come that day. After all, who wanted to look at a disfigured woman, bent over and unable to straighten her back? (Luke 13:11).
But Jesus saw her, and he called her to come forward. “Dear woman,” he said, “you are set free from your infirmity” (v. 12). And immediately she lifted her shoulders and stood tall—something she hadn’t done for eighteen years.
She rejoiced. Most of the crowd was delighted. But the Pharisees were indignant. “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath,” they said (v. 14).
Once again the Pharisees missed the point. Jesus, the Messiah, was not bound by the Pharisees’ oppressive interpretations of and additions to the Mosaic Law. Compassion motivated Jesus to challenge the legalistic burden the Pharisees had heaped on every Jew.[1] And compassion compelled Jesus to remove the woman’s physical burden that Sabbath day (v. 16).
Jesus came to set people free. Physical healings were visual signs of his power to free people from all that held them in bondage—especially the sin that separated them from God: “Through [Jesus] everyone who believes is set free from every sin” (Acts 13:39).
Are you, like the woman, cowering in the shadows—reluctant to even ask Jesus to remove your burden? Have years of experience with people like the Pharisees left you hopeless—convinced you’re unworthy of Jesus’s attention, undeserving of his love?
Don’t focus on your burden or your critics. Look to Jesus. He is calling your name and beckoning you to come. Allow him to set you free and rekindle your hope. Then stand tall, rejoice, and share with others the life-transforming power and message of the Messiah: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).
Dig Deeper
What kind of rest is Jesus talking about in Matthew 11:28–30? Consider what the apostle John writes in 1 John 3:19–24 as well as the apostle Paul’s words in Romans 5:1–2 and Philippians 4:6–8.
Read Galatians 6:2, Acts 20:35, and 1 Thessalonians 5:14–15. How do the verses in Acts and 1 Thessalonians help explain how to “carry each other’s burdens”? In what ways are you helping others with their burdens?
Sometimes we carry a burden of guilt. Read Psalm 38. What does the psalmist say about his guilt? What does he promise God in verse 15? What do you do when you feel guilty?
Denise K. Loock
This devotion is part of our series Unwavering Hope.
[1] The Pharisees had added “literally thousands of new commandments that were created to clarify the original 613 commandments” of the Mosaic Law. For example, to the Sabbath law, “39 separate categories of what ‘work’ meant were added that led to thousands of sub-rules,” including how many steps a person could take and how many letters could be written. http://www.pursuegod.org/rules-pharisees/