“And He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath” – Luke 13:10
Teaching in the synagogues on the Sabbath was Christ’s habit. So was being God. I don’t mean that flippantly. Christ was (and is) Who He was all the time. Praise God He never waivers from what He is!
Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and [today], and [forever].”
If we’re following His example, it means that we as His disciples also need to be consistent, because as it did with Christ, the world is looking for faults in us.
Whether Christ was being challenged by one of His disciples (Matthew 16:20-23), or in this case, by one of His enemies, He always knew what He was and what His purpose was (John 4:34). He never deviated from it.
In programming we call an entity that remains the same no matter where it appears in the code a constant. It stays the same no matter what. Entities in programming code that can change based on things like user input are called variables. Christ is not variable. Christ is constant.
In this passage a woman was “betting everything” on the constancy of Christ:
Luke 13:11 “And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself.”
Wisely, she came to the one place she knew Christ would be: In the synagogue, teaching. A woman in her condition probably could not follow after Christ through the crowds that thronged Him during the week, but in the synagogue the crowd was seated and Christ was sure to be found.
In response to her faith and out of compassion for her condition, the Lord healed her: “…Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity” (Luke 13:12). And the ruler of the synagogue led the congregation in the singing of psalms of praise.
No. Instead of rejoicing, he became indignant and publicly rebuked the woman – and the Lord: “…There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day” (Luke 13:14). If there were record players back then, you’d hear the needle go scraping across the vinyl. What? Are you kidding me?
Typical of the Savior, He cut straight to the problem:
Luke 13:15-17
(15) The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering?
(16) And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?
(17) And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed: and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him.
And then He uses the mustard seed illustration. It seems strange to use it here. 
What does that have to do with anything that just happened? Well, you’ve heard the phrase: “Haters gonna hate.” Christ is pointing out that “mustard seeds gonna grow,” and nothing is going to stop them from doing what they do.
What Christ wants in his church is constancy of character and clarity of purpose. It’s the only way His people will survive in a world that is diametrically opposed to them. Our faith will be challenged. It will be watched. Do we have the clarity of purpose to be the constants in a changing world?
Grace in Waves 