Healing on Sabbath – Luke 14:1-6

Dropsy is an “old term for the swelling of soft tissues due to the accumulation of excess water.  In years gone by, a person might have been said to have dropsy. Today one would be more descriptive and specify the cause. Thus, the person might have edema due to congestive heart failure.  Edema is often more prominent in the lower legs and feet toward the end of the day as a result of pooling of fluid from the upright position usually maintained during the day. Upon awakening from sleeping, people can have swelling around the eyes referred to as periorbital edema.  The Middle English dropesie came through the Old French hydropsie from the Greek hydrops which in turn came from the Greek “hydro” meaning water.”  Jesus healed a man with this dreadful malady.

One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. 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?” And they could not reply to these things.  (Luke 14:1-6 ESV)

There were still Pharisees who would invite Jesus to dinner and that he went may suggest that the one who invited was sincerely wanting to know Jesus (like a Joseph of Arimathea).  But Jesus also had to know that others would be there only to try to trip him up and disparage him as a leader.

That was the case here when a man ill with dropsy was brought to him for healing.  The Pharisees will not answer Jesus’ question about whether it is lawful to heal on the Sabbath.  If they said yes then there was no reason to be opposed to Jesus.  If they said no they exposed their own lack of compassion and their misinterpretation of the command to observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy.

It is not that love trumps law.  The Law is given to teach us how to love.  It is summed up by two commands, love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself.  If I were attacked and beaten on the Sabbath I would want someone to heal me and that would not be considered a breach of Sabbath law.  But that is how foolish the Pharisees had become in their attempt to keep from breaking Sabbath.  They had made it a work of merit before God rather than a reflection of His heart.