The healing of the woman with a crooked spine occurs only in Luke. Like earlier episodes in Luke (6:1–5, 6–11), the controversy centers around Jesus, who allegedly violates the law by healing someone on the Sabbath. The episode exposes yet another example of Pharisaic hypocrisy, while it also furthers the general theme of the growing hostility that eventually will result in Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion.

To this point in his Gospel account Luke has frequently presented Jesus as teaching in one of the synagogues (4:15, 16, 33, 44; 6:6). This story, however, represents Jesus’ last teaching experience in any synagogue. The synagogue has come to symbolize the source of opposition to Jesus (12:11; 21:12). The woman had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years, resulting in a condition prob…