In Luke 14, Jesus visits a house of a chief Pharisee on the Sabbath. The text tells us that there is bread served. This could have meant there was actual bread there to be eaten but it probably was much more as this phrase often was used to describe a feast in Jewish culture. The Sabbath would have been a day designed to nourish both the body and the soul so the best would have been put back for this day. It was normal to have a feast on the Sabbath with all the food being cooked the day before.
The feast, however, was not the focal point for the Pharisees. They wanted to observe Jesus. In fact, Luke tells us that they “watched him closely.” Reading into this statement, it’s not far-fetched to think that this was a set-up from the beginning. The Pharisees despised being in the presence of Jesus and were watching Him closely hoping to catch Him in violation of their ridiculous laws. Consider that these were men who supposedly represented God and his kingdom and are inviting God’s Son to their table for the sole purpose of leading Him into a trap.
“The phrase used for carefully watched means to watch surreptitiously and ominously (ēsan paratēroumenoi; Riesenfeld [1972] p. 147), rather as an undercover agent would today. The suspicion is deep, the mood somber.”
IVP New Testament Commentary
“How base must that man be, who professes Christianity, and yet makes his own table a snare for his friend!”
Adam Clarke
There was a man suffering from dropsy which was a condition that caused fluid retention in the body and was often associated with kidney or liver problems as well as cancer. Was this man a guest of the Pharisees as well? Most likely not. It would have contradicted their very nature to entertain someone with dropsy (considered a marker of sin) at a table where adherence to cleanliness and ceremonials laws were of top priority.
Regardless of how the man got there, I love what Jesus does next. He asks them a question before He reacts to the situation. This, in turn, unravels the Pharisees’ trap.
And Jesus answered and spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” 4 But they kept silent. And He took hold of him and healed him, and sent him away.
Luke 14:3-4 NASB
If the Pharisees answered no, Jesus would prove them wrong, but if they answered yes, they would go against their own teaching! So, like they did many times when Jesus turned the tables on them, they remained silent. Spiritual pride had absolutely sealed their minds to any kind of logical reasoning, and this leads to the point and application of this story.
We see here how religious pride can deaden someone’s heart to be able to see clearly. First, they didn’t recognize Jesus at all. They had no desire to consider His teaching or see things from His perspective. They went into the event with their minds set on exposing Him, negligent to the reality that quite literally stood before them.
Second, they completely ignored the miraculous healing that took place before their very eyes! To witness the power of God heal someone before your eyes and feel no sense of gladness or rejoicing in your heart for that individual is heartbreaking. Their hearts were more concerned with whether or not it was lawful for that day!
How do you respond to people who think differently than you? Do you believe God is for them anyway? Is it hard for you to be friendly to people who seem to constantly break the rules and do the wrong things? Jesus was trying to show the Pharisees that they needed more compassion. Where do you need more compassion these days?