Luke 14:1-6--Healing of a Man on the Sabbath

Luke 14:1-6
English Standard Version
​
Healing of a Man on the Sabbath
14 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.

---

As mentioned several times already, Jesus is not going to stop doing what He was doing for the Pharisees and that means continuing both healing and teaching, even on the Sabbath day.  This Sabbath day, He was actually invited over to the house of one of the Pharisees and He accepted the invitation.  The text seems to indicate that this could have been a set-up, but it's at least a time when people would have cautioned Jesus to be more careful as the Pharisees were watching Him closely.

Jesus sees a man before Him who had dropsy (today we would refer to this as edema and give a cause).  Now it is interesting that it says that Jesus responded to the layers and Pharisees, but I don't see them asking Him a question out loud.  That must mean that Jesus is responding to something they are saying quietly amongst themselves, or something each of them has said in their own mind and heart but not out loud.  Again, this is why I said the text indicates that this could possible have been a set-up, because He could be responding to the fact that they intentionally put this man in His path on the Sabbath to test Him in full view of them and everyone else at the event.

Jesus asks them for their interpretation of the Law, if it is lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not.  They remained silent, probably because it was obvious to them that He knew something was up and they were behind it.  They also probably didn't want the people to hear their answer (they believed it was a sin to heal someone on the Sabbath and any such healing must be the work of the devil and not the work of God, because even God rests on the Sabbath).  When they would not answer Jesus, Jesus healed the man and sent Him on His way.

Then Jesus turns back to the lawyers and Pharisees and asks them a question about which of them having a son or even an ox that fell into a well on the Sabbath day would not immediately pull their son or ox out?  Jesus knows they would, and they know they would, so they refused to answer Jesus' question because for them to admit they would do such a thing would be to admit that they would be willing to do the exact thing they were trying to accuse Him of--they were hypocrites, and had been exposed before the people.  This made them hate Jesus even more.