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Bible Notes - Tabernacle Commentaries
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Luke 13:14
Comments
This healing has taken place in the synagogue, in front of all the officials who are there – called ‘adversaries’ in the plural in verse 17 – who think it is their business to regulate religious matters. The ruler of the synagogue speaks for them all. He is indignant, angry, high and mighty, feeling he has the right to rebuke the Lord and the people. He searches for some grounds on which to charge Christ with a fault, and all he can think of is a legalistic complaint that actually reveals how little he understood about the law of God, or the purpose of the Sabbath. The Pharisees focused on outwards compliance to the law, because it was something which they thought they could achieve, and which would earn them a reputation for holiness with the people. How far from the mark are the ideas of the formalist about what really pleases God. He tells the people not to bring their sick on the Sabbath, but he gives the strong impression that he did not really want them to bring their sick on any other day either. What a terrible impression he leaves in the minds of the people by saying this! By saying this he represents God as one who does not care about their sorrows and heartaches, but only about adherence to the outward form of religion which they are there to police.
Application
It is an extraordinary speech, which completely ignores the wonder of what has been done. This man will not give any credit to the Lord for his healing power or his compassion towards this woman. These weightier matter of the law, ‘judgment, mercy, and faith’, get squeezed out by formal dead religion, which has its focus entirely on religion that can be seen and praised by men. Foolish men are indignant with God, and work themselves up to accuse God’s true people of failing to comply with their strictures, which so often have little to do with God’s true requirements.
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