Knowing The Word in Luke 14:1-6

Healing of a Man on the Sabbath

14:1 One Sabbath, when Jesus went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. 2 And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. 3 And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” 4 But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. 5 And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” 6 And they could not reply to these things.

Comments

The ruler of the Pharisees was likely a member of the Sanhedrin, who invited other members to dine with Jesus so they could set him up to break the law or catch him in some heresy. The man with “dropsy” had edema, a swelling of his legs. The irony in this pericope is that Jesus sets up these Pharisees with a question about healing before he healed the man. Their silence made it more difficult to complain after the act of healing. Hence, they remained silent.

There is nothing in Scripture to make healing unlawful at any time or on any day of the week. Of course, deeds of mercy are always appropriate on the Sabbath. Jesus wins the day again!

Application

Have you ever been set up by someone before or tried to set someone up to fail at something? I used to work for someone like that, who used failure at other’s expense as a teaching lesson. Jesus, however, teaches us not to do this. Instead, as we see in John 21, Jesus used the failure of Peter in denying him, as an opportunity to build up Peter for future ministry. Our culture, unfortunately, thrives on setting up others for failure. We followers of Jesus need to be countercultural and make a difference, building others up instead of tearing them down.

Prayer

Lord, you gave us this line in the prayer you taught your disciples: “lead us not into temptation.” Help me never to lead others into committing a sin or having them fail at their expense and for my gain. Through your Spirit, transform my character to be like yours, that I may love my neighbor as myself.