Luke 13:14

Luke 13:14, in plain English

The synagogue leader is furious -- not at the healing but at the timing. He tells the crowd: 'There are six days for work. Come get healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.' He's missed the miracle entirely.

Why it's here

A woman just stood up straight for the first time in eighteen years, and this man is upset about scheduling. It's a perfect example of religion getting in the way of God.

Who's speaking

The synagogue leader responds to a glorious miracle with bureaucratic indignation about rule-breaking.

Where it sits in the story

This is one of the saddest moments in Luke's Gospel. A miracle is happening, a woman is praising God, and the religious leader can only see a rule violation.

The scholarly reading

The archisynagōgos (synagogue ruler) responds with aganaktōn (indignation), directing his complaint at the crowd rather than Jesus: there are six days for work (hex hēmerai eisin en hais dei ergazesthai) -- come for healing then, not on the Sabbath.

Language and setting

The ruler's anger is directed at the crowd rather than Jesus, revealing cowardice alongside rigidity. His classification of healing as 'work' reflects a narrow halakhic interpretation that prioritized institutional rules over human liberation.

Voice

The synagogue leader responds to the miraculous healing with indignation about Sabbath observance.

Significance

The contrast is staggering: a woman praising God after eighteen years of bondage, and a religious leader angry that it happened on the wrong day. Religion without compassion misses everything.

12When Jesus saw her, He called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your disability.”

13Then He placed His hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and began to glorify God.

14But the synagogue leader was indignant that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath. “There are six days for work,” he told the crowd. “So come and be healed on those days and not on the Sabbath.”

15“You hypocrites!” the Lord replied. “Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it to water?

16Then should not this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be released from her bondage on the Sabbath day?”

Read all of Luke 13 — A bent-over woman is healed on the Sabbath, a mustard seed grows into a tree, and Jesus weeps over Jerusalem's refusal to come home.