Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?

 Now it happened, as He went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath, that they watched Him closely.  And behold, there was a certain man before Him who had dropsy.  And Jesus, answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"  But they kept silent.  And He took him and healed him, and let him go.  Then He answered them, saying, "Which of you, having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?"  And they could not answer Him regarding these things.

So He told a parable to those who were invited, when He noted how they chose the best places, saying to them:  "When you are invited by anyone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place, lest one more honorable than you be invited by him; and he who invited you and him come and say to you, 'Give place to this man,' and then you begin with shame to take the lowest place.  But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes he may say to you, 'Friend, go up higher.'  Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you.  For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

- Luke 14:1-11

In yesterday's reading, we were told that some Pharisees came, saying to Jesus, "Get out and depart from here, for Herod wants to kill You."  And He said to them, "Go and tell that fox, 'Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.'  Nevertheless I must journey today, tomorrow, and the day following; for it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem.  O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her.  How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing!  See!  Your house is left to you desolate, and assuredly, I say to you, you shall not see Me until the time comes when you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'"


Now it happened, as He went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath, that they watched Him closely.  My study bible says, "The Pharisees again exemplify a paradoxical, cunning combination of interest and suspicion.  They receive Jesus for a meal and yet watch to catch Him as a lawbreaker."  In yesterday's, reading, some Pharisees warned Jesus that Herod wanted to kill Him, and telling Him to therefore leave Galilee.  It's not clear precisely what the intentions are; Jesus also responded by calling Herod, "that fox."

 And behold, there was a certain man before Him who had dropsy.  And Jesus, answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"  But they kept silent.  And He took him and healed him, and let him go.  Then He answered them, saying, "Which of you, having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?"  And they could not answer Him regarding these things.  This question repeats itself again and again and again in Luke's Gospel:  Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?  It takes us to the central question of the law, and our relationship to God:  to what purpose is the Law?  Earlier, in chapter 6, Jesus asked, "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy?"  In the previous chapter (chapter 13), we read of Jesus healing the woman bent over for eighteen years on the Sabbath in the synagogue.   In that reading,  He said, "Hypocrite!  Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and lead it away to water it?  So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound -- think of it -- for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?"  Here we again get the comparison to the working animals, valuable because of the commodity and wealth they generate.  We might also ask, "Is the Sabbath made for man or man for the Sabbath?"

So He told a parable to those who were invited, when He noted how they chose the best places, saying to them:  "When you are invited by anyone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place, lest one more honorable than you be invited by him; and he who invited you and him come and say to you, 'Give place to this man,' and then you begin with shame to take the lowest place.  But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes he may say to you, 'Friend, go up higher.'  Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you.  For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."  My study bible tells us:  "This parable of good manners, found only in Luke, contrasts the virtue of humility with the vice of self-exaltation.  Compare James 4:6:  'God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.'"   We can also read this as a veiled warning to the important people at the feast. He's at the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees.  Whose place is the lowest and Whose place is the highest?  How does one know who might be at that feast?  It's not just a plea for humility, but tying in to the healing -- in which the value of farm animals by practice is placed higher than that of a human being (and contrast this especially with the "daughter of Abraham" in the reading mentioned earlier from chapter 13) -- and we have both a veiled warning and a plea for the true measurement of the worth of human beings.  In this light, humility is a kind of state of grace, a place of safety, a way to walk in real righteousness.

Again in today's reading, Jesus goes to the comparison:  why is it lawful to save a farm animal, one that gives wealth and work, on the Sabbath, on not a human being?  We have contrasted a sense of value:  which one is worth more?  Are we looking with God's sight or with man's?  And how does the law of God come to be used and viewed this way?  In Christ's plea for mercy for fellow human beings is also the plea for true sight, a way to see things as they are, a coming down to earth of what is real and what is not.  In this light, His advice on humility or humbling oneself is also the light of wisdom.  How do we know another's true worth?  If we judge only by self-centered values, we're not seeing what's really there, who might be seated at the table with us.  Therefore there' s a warning here to these men who would be great, in positions of authority:  don't take for granted your own place.  A humble attitude is more sure to provoke true sight and vision, and great honor, true wisdom.  Those who are puffed up with authority come in for an awful beating in the Gospels.  Jesus' doesn't tear down the offices and the structures of the time:  rather it is the attitudes, the security in their places, this veil of smugness and certainty that He tears away.  In all things, He teaches us to truly see, to value as things really are valued, to give the perspective that God reveals about what is worthwhile, and what is not.  What is the value of a human being?  For God so loved the world that He gave us His Son - that human beings might have eternal life through faith.  This is how we must see real healing.  When we forget our Creator, we lose our own true worth, the worth of human beings, and the sight with which we are capable of seeing the world.