The Easter Season - 96 Days of Time with God - Day 6

 

Day 6     Monday, February 22, 2021        6th Day from Ash Wednesday

 

WHICH IS MORE IMPORTANT? 

MAN’S REGARD FOR ANIMALS or MAN’S REGARD FOR PEOPLE

A Man with Dropsy Healed on the Sabbath - (Luke 14:1-6)

Now it happened, as He went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath, that they watched Him closely.

And behold, there was a certain man before Him who had dropsy.

And Jesus, answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying,

“Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”

But they kept silent.

And He took him and healed him, and let him go.

Then He answered them, saying,

“Which of you,

having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit,

will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?”

And they could not answer Him regarding these things.

 

In the above passage, Luke 14:1-6, Jesus was in the house of a ruler of the Pharisees having a meal.  In their midst was a man with dropsy.

NOTE:  This is the only case of dropsy found in the Gospels.  The term the physician Luke uses to describe the man's condition is a strictly technical one.  Dropsy was considered to be a symptom of an organic disease, usually one of the heart or kidneys.  What we call “dropsy” manifests itself in edema or swelling of various parts of the body.  [swelling due to water build-up] https://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Topical.show/RTD/cgg/ID/19234/Healing-Man-with-Dropsy.htm


In this passage, the Pharisees were watching Jesus closely and they were looking for chances to trip Him up, catch Him doing something against the law so that they could disparage Him.  Rather than them bringing Him a question, Jesus seems to bring them a question - “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”  Though, they may have asked Jesus a question, because it says,

“there was a certain man before Him who had dropsy.  And Jesus, answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying,”

Regardless of where the question of healing on the Sabbath originated, Jesus addresses it with an answer.  Healing on the Sabbath was also a topic addressed previously on this last journey of His to Jerusalem.  See Luke 13:10-17.

Christ’s miracle of healing a man with dropsy (Luke 14:1-6) is the last healing He performed on the Sabbath. https://www.cgg.org/index.cfm/library/biblestudy/id/1625/miracles-jesus-christ-healing-man-with-dropsy.htm[JEB1] 

Though healing on the Sabbath is a prime issue in this passage, another issue is that Jesus made the comparison of their treatment of animals as compared to their treatment of people.

“Which of you,

having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit,

will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?”

And they could not answer Him regarding these things.

Jesus accused the Pharisees of their willingness to take care of their stricken animals on the Sabbath, but their unwillingness to take care of a stricken person on the Sabbath. 

Is it not the same today? 

Are not societies prone to make laws protecting animals, but often not making laws to protect humans? 

Is this not the case with “the unborn” human?

Societies make laws to permit abortions, and make laws to protect unborn animals, such as the eggs of an eagle.  In America, laws for hunting restrict the killing of deer to the killing of bucks, male deer, at certain times of the year, but unborn babies can be killed at any time, even after the point of birth.

Is it not the same today?  Even after 2,000 years since Jesus walked amongst us, the issue is still the same, and still needs to be called out as sin.

God’s creation, at all levels, needs to be respected and cared for.

If Jesus addressed this contradictory behavior on His last journey to Jerusalem, then we should pay particular attention to it, even though we need to pay particular attention to everything He said, whenever He said it.

We must conform to God's desires and not our own desires.  Is He not infinitely greater than us whom He created in His image?  So, how can we defy Him and expect to survive.

We need to look at God in a way that we recognize the immensity of Him and the minuteness of us.  We cannot stand against His immenseness and expect to dictate anything.  We need to appeal to Him for grace and mercy and forgiveness.


 

 [JEB1]

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