Friday in the 30th Week of Ordinary Time, October 29, 2021

Luke 14:1-6

On a sabbath Jesus went to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees, and the people there were observing him carefully. In front of him there was a man suffering from dropsy. Jesus spoke to the scholars of the law and Pharisees in reply, asking, “Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath or not?” But they kept silent; so he took the man and, after he had healed him, dismissed him. Then he said to them “Who among you, if your son or ox falls into a cistern, would not immediately pull him out on the sabbath day?” But they were unable to answer his question.

From a remark by some Pharisees a few verses before those that are used for the Gospel reading for today’s Mass (“Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you”), it seems that Jesus has not yet left Galilee for Judea.  Thus, “the home of one of the leading Pharisees” where Jesus eats in this reading is in Galilee.  He is invited to eat dinner there after he has attended the synagogue in the town to which he has come and where he would have also taught.  The host and those who also had been invited to the dinner “were observing him closely”, noticing that he did not join in the ritual washings in preparation for eating, and expectant for any other behavior or words they deemed out of place.

Among the gathering sat a man “suffering from dropsy”.  This condition is marked by a swelling in the feet, ankles, or legs caused by fluid buildup due to heart, kidney or liver disease.  The afflicted man would have struggled to walk and suffered much pain.  He must have been one of the leading Pharisees as well since Luke characterized those present as “the scholars of the law and Pharisees”.  The Lord asks them, “Is it lawful to cure on the Sabbath or not?”  The Lord applies a different strategy than when he cured the woman in the synagogue on the Sabbath in Luke 13, 10-17.  That is, he asks before he acts.  In this way he also announces what he intends to do.  Now, this situation differs from that with the infirm woman in that this man was one of their own.  He was a friend, a colleague.  By posing his question first, he puts the present company over a barrel.  If they object in order to protect their doctrine, they show the man that they are not his friends.  They could not answer: “They kept silent.”  Their silence does not save them, though.  It reveals plainly that they cannot defend their own doctrine, but it also reveals that they do not regard the man with the dropsy as their friend, or they would have urged the Lord to heal him, Sabbath or not.  The Lord has already shown his inclination to do just that.

“He took the man and, after he had healed him, dismissed him.”  The Greek verb tells us that the Lord “took hold” of the man.  This could mean that he raised him up and lay his hands on him.  Luke does not describe the healing itself, only writing, “when he had healed him”, as though even Luke was so overwhelmed by the succession of miracles that they had become familiar.  Luke does tells us that after the Lord healed him, he dismissed him: he sent him home.  In this way the Lord saves him from ensuing awkwardness.  After the man is safely out of the house, with the gathering strangely silent, the Lord confronts them with a question similar to what he had said to the Pharisees after he healed the infirm woman: “Who among you, if your son or ox falls into a cistern, would not immediately pull him out on the sabbath day?”  In other words, is a human worth more than an animal or not?  But the group lacked the humility and the honesty to respond.  Failing to give any answer shows their bad faith and their disrespect.  We might wonder how they dared to face the healed man in public afterwards.

At the heart of this account is the healing by Jesus of this man.  He revealed the mercy of God to him through it.  Since he was included among the Pharisees at this dinner, we can wonder whether he had begun with a hostile opinion of the Lord, or whether he harbored curiosity instead.  It seems likely that the host considered him in accord with the views of the majority of their kind that Jesus was a false teacher.  Yet the Lord did not let whatever the afflicted man think of him prevent him from showing God’s loving kindness to him.  Almighty God does not love only those who love him, after all, but all whom he has created.  Nothing we can do can stop him from loving us.  We ought not to be prevented by anything from loving him.