Jesus Speaks With Pharisees and Lawyers at a Feastby CBPepper
14:3Luke 14:3
And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day?
Jesus asked whether healing on the Sabbath is lawful at a Sabbath meal in the house of a chief Pharisee, which He attended by invitation, where a man with dropsy had been set directly before Him as a trap so the watchers could condemn Him to death for healing on the Sabbath day. Without being told, He read the hearts and jealous purposes of the lawyers and Pharisees and put the question to them before all the guests. He thereby gave them opportunity to disclose their sentiments and the ground of their objection to His works of mercy, and He forestalled their arguments and closed their mouths beforehand so they would not venture to call it unlawful nor at once charge Him with Sabbath-breaking after the healing.
Their honest answer would have been that the law does not forbid work that relieves the suffering of man or beast on the Sabbath, but they held their peace because they knew He understood the law perfectly and would make plain their misrepresentations and unveil their subterfuges. He healed the man and let him go, then answered their still-plotting thoughts with the question about pulling an ass or ox fallen into a pit on the Sabbath, which they could not answer. By His calm convincing manner and by restoring the sick man to health as evidence that life was in Him, He answered His own question that it is lawful to heal and relieve human suffering on the Sabbath. He thereby showed the fallacy of the arguments previously used to accuse Him of violating the Sabbath, turned their scheme to condemn Him into their own condemnation, and left them helpless and silent because all present recognized His words as truth and righteousness.
Together with its context in Luke 14:2-14, the question proves the truth on the Sabbath question, and when its message is spoken in the demonstration of the Spirit and power of God it holds hearers as if spellbound and leads outsiders to confess that the Sabbath teaching is certainly right. The chapter to which it belongs also teaches Christian conduct, especially in the instruction not to seek the highest place at a feast, as a lesson in humility before God. The dinner occasion gave opportunity to teach lessons suited to the hearers and shows how to behave among both religious and nonreligious people.
Jesus asked whether healing on the Sabbath is lawful at a Sabbath meal in the house of a chief Pharisee, which He attended by invitation, where a man with dropsy had been set directly before Him as a trap so the watchers could condemn Him to death for healing on the Sabbath day. Without being told, He read the hearts and jealous purposes of the lawyers and Pharisees and put the question to them before all the guests. He thereby gave them opportunity to disclose their sentiments and the ground of their objection to His works of mercy, and He forestalled their arguments and closed their mouths beforehand so they would not venture to call it unlawful nor at once charge Him with Sabbath-breaking after the healing.
Their honest answer would have been that the law does not forbid work that relieves the suffering of man or beast on the Sabbath, but they held their peace because they knew He understood the law perfectly and would make plain their misrepresentations and unveil their subterfuges. He healed the man and let him go, then answered their still-plotting thoughts with the question about pulling an ass or ox fallen into a pit on the Sabbath, which they could not answer. By His calm convincing manner and by restoring the sick man to health as evidence that life was in Him, He answered His own question that it is lawful to heal and relieve human suffering on the Sabbath. He thereby showed the fallacy of the arguments previously used to accuse Him of violating the Sabbath, turned their scheme to condemn Him into their own condemnation, and left them helpless and silent because all present recognized His words as truth and righteousness.
Together with its context in Luke 14:2-14, the question proves the truth on the Sabbath question, and when its message is spoken in the demonstration of the Spirit and power of God it holds hearers as if spellbound and leads outsiders to confess that the Sabbath teaching is certainly right. The chapter to which it belongs also teaches Christian conduct, especially in the instruction not to seek the highest place at a feast, as a lesson in humility before God. The dinner occasion gave opportunity to teach lessons suited to the hearers and shows how to behave among both religious and nonreligious people.