Tag Archive | Healing on the Sabbath

Reading the Gospels in 2026: (4/30) Luke 14:1-14

Apr30

A 5-day per week study.

April 30 – Reading Luke 14:1-14

Read and believe in Jesus.

“Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled … and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”  Luke 14:11

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The Gospel according to Luke 

Review – Jesus is ministering in Perea, answering questions with hard responses. His “face” is always set “towards Jerusalem and His death.”

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Vss. 14:1-6.

          “One Sabbath…”

Already, you know that Jesus is going to anger the religious leaders.  The Sabbath was (so to speak) “their” day.  They had so many minute rules about what you could and couldn’t do, or eat, or where to go, it was like being bound to a pole with ropes! And gagged.

          “Jesus went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees. They were watching Him carefully.”

We presume Jesus was invited – many of the rulers asked Him to dine with them – and Jesus accepted.

They did this in order to “catch Him” with some minor rule of theirs that He might not have observed.

He did it to “teach” them what they should have already known.

          “And behold!! There was a man before him who had dropsy.”

 (He had super-giant, swollen, water-filled ankles and feet from kidney or liver disease.)

Did the Pharisee, or one of his scribes, “just happen” to bring this poor man before Jesus?

(Seems suspicious to me.)

They must have spoken to Jesus (like, ‘Oh, poor man, what a sad condition he’s in.’), because Jesus “responded” by saying,

          “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?”

Notice that “They remained SILENT.” 

Why?  They certainly had an opinion about it.  You can almost feel them waiting with bated breath….

Done with their nonsense, Jesus took the man, healed him, and sent him on his way.

Then Jesus turned to the Pharisee and his friends, and asked,

          “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.”

(Yeah, right!)

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Vss. 14:7-11.

“Now Jesus told a parable to those who were invited, when He noticed how they chose the places of HONOR … saying to THEM…”

Was this at the same dinner He’d been invited to?  Had the man’s healing taken place before they all came to the table to eat?  If so, Jesus was carefully “watching them” this time.

He saw that some were choosing (maybe even elbowing others to get) the “places of honor” (near the inviting Pharisee? Or near Him?)  So, Jesus told them a parable.

(Perhaps before the appetizers arrived?)

“When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone MORE distinguished than you be invited, and the host say to you, ‘Give your place to THIS person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place.”

Perhaps Jesus, having their attention, paused to look at each around the table. Did they squirm?

          “But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so then when your host comes in, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ THEN you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you.”

Silence.

Then Jesus wraps it up with “the moral of the story.”

         “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

(Then, I imagine Jesus reaching for the bread and raising His eyes to Heaven before breaking off a piece, dipping it in the sauce, and beginning to eat.)

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Vss. 14:12-14.

Then, not to exclude His host from His wisdom, Jesus speaks another parable.

         “When you give a dinner or banquet, do not invite your friends, or your brothers, or your relatives, or rich neighbors, lest they also invite YOU in return and you be repaid.”

Did His host, the Pharisee, glare at Jesus?  Did the guests raise their eyebrows and secretly grin?

“But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind…

Was Jesus thinking of that man He’d just healed?  Where was he at the table?

          “Then you will be blessed, because they CANNOT repay you.  For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”

Again, awkward silence, as perhaps Jesus passed the next dish to His neighbor…

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(Jesus will continue in the next verses tomorrow with more “banquet parables.”)

 

 

Reading the Gospels in 2026: (1/9) Mark 3:1-12

Jan9

A 5-day per week study.

January 9 – Reading Mark 3:1-12.

Read and believe in Jesus.

“Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save a life or to KILL?”  Mark 3:3b 

 

The Gospel according to Mark 3:1-12

In today’s study, we saw the religious leaders again carefully watching Jesus. They had grumbled at and questioned His teaching, but it was the miracle healings He did on the Sabbath that really stirred up their ire.

Healing or helping someone in need (even an animal) on the Sabbath was not against the Mosaic Law. But it offended the rules (all 39 of them), the rabbis had invented to “protect” what God had said!  (As if!)

 

Vss 1-2.

We see Jesus back in the synagogue on the Sabbath, where any good Jewish man would be.  It was probably the same synagogue in Capernaum where Jesus had released the demon-possessed man in chapter one. That miracle had caught the religious leaders off guard, but now they were “watching Jesus” to see if they could “accuse Him.” 

(I wouldn’t put it past them to have arranged the crippled fellow to be there that day.)

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Vss 3-6.

Jesus saw the man as soon as He entered, and beckoned him to come near. I can see Jesus laying his arm across the man’s shoulders, assuring him. Then Jesus turned to the “super-sanctified” Pharisees and said, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save a life or … to KILL?” 

They were silent.

Jesus looked into the eyes of each man, angry and grieved at their hardness of heart. Angry at their lack of compassion, and grieved at how they treated the Word of God.  Then he turned to the man, his face now showing kindness.

“Stretch out your hand.”  

The man obeyed, and his hand was instantly restored.  Can you imagine his joy? What had for some time kept him from uselessness was now healed!  The pain was gone. He could support his family again.

What happened next?  It was really scary. 

The Pharisees went out immediately and held counsel with the Herodians (!!) against Jesus, on how to kill Him.  KILL Jesus!  The Man who brought hope and healing to many … but also correction and even embarrassment to these teachers of the Law. 

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NOTE: The Herodians were a Jewish political party named after Herod Antipas (who ruled Galilee). The Herodians strongly supported Rome (and Herod’s rule) and opposed the Pharisees on nearly every issue.  But they were willing to join forces with them now, because they also wanted to destroy Jesus. (For more insight on this sect, see Matthew 22:15-22 and Luke 13:31-32.)

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Vss 7-8.

Regardless of what the Pharisees thought of Jesus, ordinary people came to Him en masse for healing and to hear Him teach. The crowds from all the surrounding areas grew so large that Jesus could no longer stand along the beach or docks to teach.  He asked His fishermen-disciples to have a boat ready, so he could escape the “crush” if needed. 

Jesus healed all those with various diseases and those possessed by demons, and yet more and more needy folk came and tried to touch Him. The unclean spirits KNEW Jesus was the Son of God, and voiced this, but Jesus always told them to “SHUT UP!”  He did not want the testimony of an imp from Hell. 

 

These crowds, or mobs, seem wild to us, but imagine you had a horrible affliction or disfigurement, or that you were in pain or totally shunned, like the lepers.  Imagine being both mentally and physically tormented day and night by unclean spirits.  You would do anything to touch Jesus and be healed. 

I know I would!

But these diseases only “pictured” the sad spiritual state of mankind.  Jesus had come, ultimately, to heal them from their SIN.