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1 One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched. 2 There in front of him was a man suffering from abnormal swelling of his body. 3 Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” 4 But they remained silent. So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him on his way. 5 Then he asked them, “If one of you has a child or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull it out?” 6 And they had nothing to say. ~ Luke 14:1-6
Sabbath day hospitality was an important part of Jewish life, so it was not unusual for the Lord Jesus to be invited to a home for a meal after Sabbath services.
In v.1 we read, "One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched." The previous chapter ended with a judgment. The people, by and large, chose their religion, which made their bondage to their sinfulness strong. They were choosing their religion over the Lord Jesus. It was the religious leaders who had duped the people. The Bible warns us about false teachers and the deadly, eternally destructive impact they have on people.
They were extremely religious and moral, and righteous on the outside. The Jews were sure they were the favorites of God and knew the way to heaven. They believed the good people are going to go to heaven and the bad people are going to hell.
They saw the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ as an attack on them and their system.
The Lord Jesus was not reluctant to confront religion. One day in an unnamed town, He goes to a luncheon with a Pharisee, according to v.1. Since the Sabbath was the high point of their week in terms of law keeping, it was also the potential high point of their week for law breaking. Law breaking or law keeping reached its apex on the Sabbath when an endless array of regulations made the effort to comply exhausting so that it became anything but a day of rest. They wanted Jesus to violate the Sabbath to give proof that He was not from God.
In v.2 we read, "There in front of him was a man suffering from abnormal swelling of his body." This man had a problem with water retention, a symptom of some kind of a disease. It could have been a serious compromise in his liver or his kidneys or his heart. It indicated perhaps congestive heart failure. It could have been liver disease.
How heartless of the Pharisees to use this man as a tool to accomplish their wicked plan, but if we do not love the Lord, neither will we love our neighbor.
Keep in mind the Lord Jesus had supposedly already “violated” their Sabbath traditions on at least seven different occasions. On the Sabbath day, He had cast out a demon (Luke 4:31–37), healed a fever (Luke 4:38–39), allowed His disciples to pluck grain (Luke 6:1–5), healed a lame man (John 5:1–9), healed a man with a paralyzed hand (Luke 6:6–10), delivered a crippled woman who was afflicted by a demon (Luke 13:10–17), and healed a man born blind (John 9).
This was a set up by the Pharisees, otherwise this man in his condition would not have been there. They were hoping the Lord Jesus would perform a miracle and heal the man on the Sabbath so that they could catch Him breaking the Law on the Sabbath and use it against Him.
In v.4 we read, "But they remained silent. So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him on his way." That verb translated, "taking hold of him" means to literally wrapped this man up in His arms and squeezing him tightly, as if to force the fluid out him and giving him a new body and a new beginning.
In v.5 we read, "Then he asked them, “If one of you has a child or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull it out?" Wells were everywhere in Israel and people fell into them often. So did animals. The Lord knew this legalistic crowd was dangerous for the man who was healed so He let him go.
In addition, He knew that on the Sabbath day, it was common for the Jews to deliver their farm animals from wells, so what was wrong with delivering this man who was made in the likeness of God?
While healing this man, the Lord Jesus exposed the false piety of the religious leaders. They claimed to be defending God’s word, when in reality they were rejecting God by the way they abused people and accused the Savior.
It was obvious these religious leaders had no signs of the life of God in them. They lacked compassion, mercy and kindness. They were self-righteous. They loved money. They were spiritually proud. They were hypocrites. And then, they sought ever so much more to kill the very Son of the living God.
