Overturned




Luke 14:1-14
1One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. 2And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. 3And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” 4But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. 5And 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?” 6And they could not reply to these things.

All of the Gospel writers set us up to dislike the Pharisees' way of doing religion. While we don’t get to dislike them as people, for there were many who became ardent followers of Christ and who will inhabit heaven right alone with all believers, they were clearly Jesus’ greatest opponents during His ministry years. Today we read of Jesus’ final Sabbath Day miracle and His final run in with the Pharisees about what is appropriate and what is against the ways of God on the Sabbath. It is another pivotal moment in the narrative.

Shockingly, Jesus is still willing to attend a meal at the house of a Pharisee. That is remarkable all by itself. Jesus is fully aware that the Pharisees regard Him as an enemy. And yet they invite Him to a meal and He attends! I would have said, “Thanks, but no” by this point in this difficult the relationship. At this dinner is a man with dropsy. Today, we call this edema. Heart failure, cirrhosis of the liver, and a kidney failure are the most common diseases that cause edema. A person with dropsy was considered “unclean” and their lives were sorely disrupted, not to mention seriously unhealthy. Jesus makes a point to question the Pharisees prior to healing the man, to see if they have learned anything along the way, only find that they are now silent. How do you make a convincing argument against flawless logic? You can’t.

The previous controversies concerning Jesus’ Sabbath teaching are pertinent to this Sabbath healing. At the three Sabbath miracles, there has been a progression [in the Pharisees] from anger (6:11) to humiliation (13:17) and now to silence (14:4). The lawyers and Pharisees’ complete inability to answer Jesus’ questions (14:6) indicate that Jesus’ overturning of their Sabbath requirements is irrefutable.
Just, A. A., Jr. (1997). Luke 9:51–24:53 (p. 571). St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House.

Verse 6 is very telling. They “could not reply”. Their stance is so shaky that there simply isn’t even anything they can say in their own defense anymore. This, of course, probably didn’t win Jesus any points. It served instead to inflame their hatred for Him and His message.

Lest we become too smug about the Pharisees, I think that we do well to examine our own witness about our faith. Do we set up hoops for people to jump through in order to learn of Jesus? Are we so deeply entrenched in our own traditions and pet preferences to make room for those who don’t practice the faith the way we do? Have our “rules” become a stumbling block? These are questions I think we need to review on a regular basis. Jesus came to bring freedom, not more rules. His grace frees us from the bondage that our sin demands and the imposition of arbitrary rules negates that freedom. God’s grace is greater than any requirement I could contrive and it’s always about grace.

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