One Sabbath, when he 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. 7 Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them,8 “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, 9 and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. 10 But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. 11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Some commentators have suggested that the man with dropsy in this text was a plant, purposely set there to try and trap Jesus. Dropsy is a disease in which the cavities of the body as well as the tissue in the body fills with fluid. It often would affect the kidneys, liver, blood and even the heart. The rabbis were of the opinion that if one had this disease they had obviously sinned against God in some heinous fashion.
Verse 3 is quite interesting: “And Jesus, answering….” Answering what? What was the question? We go scurrying back to find the question that Jesus is answering and we find none. He is not answering a verbally asked question, he is answering the skeptical, doubting questions of their hearts.
It is the same as when in Luke 7, Simon the Pharisee thought to himself, “If Jesus knew what kind of woman was touching him he would never allow it.” And the text says that Jesus answered him. He answered a thought! He answered an unasked question!
This begs the question: What does the Lord find in YOUR heart? Reverence, love, purity, devotion, faithfulness, goodness and mercy? Or, envy, jealousy, bitterness, anger, malice, selfishness, and pride? What are your unasked questions that Jesus is answering?
So, Jesus asks the professionals, the ones who know so much, whether or not it is lawful to heal on the Sabbath Day. They kept silent. Jesus then heals the man and asks them what they would do if they had a donkey or an ox fall into a ditch on the Sabbath day…would they try to get him out? And here we are told that they COULD not answer him. At first they chose not to, now, they have no answer.
FYI, the Rabbis allowed healing on the Sabbath day if life were in danger, but if life were NOT in danger then the healing was not allowed. The man in our text has obviously had this condition for a while and could have waited until the next day. We get no sense that if he were not healed immediately that he would have died. Jesus could have easily waited until the next day.
Jesus quickly takes them to the parable. Now we ask, what is He doing and what does the parable have to do with the healing on the Sabbath? And again, we find that this is vintage Jesus. We have here, a showdown, but one that is much bigger than an understanding of the Sabbath. This is a showdown with regard to the entire nature of salvation, and the true nature of what the Kingdom of God is really about. This is humility versus arrogance, it is sight versus faith.
These were the people who watched intently for any irregularity, anything that did not measure up to their man-made regulations and standards, while thinking to put on a show of godliness. They had their litmus tests, just as so many today have, by which we determine if someone is really holy…and by that of course I mean, holy, like me. But they had missed the point, they had missed holiness because they were concerned with looking holy not with being holy.
This is the darkness and blindness that Jesus is always uncovering. This is what Jesus is condemning, pretense, being a poser, having an appearance of godliness but denying the true reality of godliness. This too is vintage Jesus…Always pulling the mask off the religious hypocrite. He exposes man for who and what he really is and that of course includes us.
All of the people at dinner that day were scurrying about to find the best places at the table, the places of honor, the places of prominence. They had all kinds of scruples about what could and could not be done on the Sabbath, man-made laws that took the divine gift of the Sabbath, a gift meant for life, and turned it into an institution of death.
They were the opposite of what the Sabbath was about, what it meant, and although they made much of keeping the Sabbath they had in fact, lost it long ago. I hope this is not lost on you, I hope you did not miss this, for this is what hypocrisy always does.
We too can be tempted to leave behind the essence of the gospel if we are found pontificating about Christian doctrine and nit picking over every little thing. Oh, how many are there who think of themselves as great defenders of justification by faith alone, but who love no one. Or who speak about the importance of the church and community, but who do not avail themselves much of either; Or who will say that prayer is powerful but will seldom gather to actually pray.
We talk about humility while at the same time we push ourselves forward at every turn…so how are we at times all that much different?
Prayer: Father, I confess that I easily forget that You know all my ways, desires and thoughts. I talk about humility but most often live arrogantly and willfully doing my own will. Forgive me. Help me to grasp just the edges of your glory that I might marvel at Your kindness to meet with such as I am. You dwell in a high and lofty place but also with him who is humble and contrite in heart. Father, may I know and experience this truth through the work of the Holy Spirit, in Jesus name, Amen.
Hymn: Holy, Holy, Holy