Pastor Barry's  "Chapter & Verse"  Day 211

July 30;       Luke 13:14;       57/260(III);       ‘The Hypocrisy of Religion’

Luke 13:14 But the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath; and he said to the crowd, “There are six days on which men ought to work; therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day."

The Lord Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath.  There was a woman there who had been bent over, without any ability to straighten up, for 18 years.  As soon as the Lord Jesus saw her, He called her over to Him and healed her.  The contrast is amazing.  She had probably been in this same synagogue for 18 years and was never healed.  The Lord Jesus, seeing her in this condition healed her immediately.  Religion is powerless to help.  The ruler of the synagogue was indignant because Jesus healed on the Sabbath and he spoke to the crowd (he did not have the courage to speak to Jesus), telling them there are six days in the week when work is to be done, come and be healed on one of them.  Think of this, she had been in that condition 18 years and was never told to come and be healed on one of the other six days in the week.  I wonder how the woman felt knowing the ruler of the synagogue was mad because she was healed.  She glorified the Lord when she was healed and so did the multitude (v17).  The truth was that the religious leader could not heal the woman, this embarrassed his pride and so he made up the lie about the Sabbath.  Jesus, seeing through the ruler’s hypocrisy, called him a hypocrite and told him that they all water their animals on the Sabbath.  If you take care of an animal on the Sabbath, how much more should you help a woman on the Sabbath.  The truth spoken by the Lord Jesus shamed the religious adversaries of Jesus.  The danger of religion is that it has no answers and so it makes its own rules to protect itself from its inadequacy.