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Home Luke 14:1-6 NRSVue

Luke 14:1-6 NRSVue

1On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the Sabbath, they were watching him closely. 2Just then, in front of him, there was a man who had edema. 3And Jesus asked the experts in the law and Pharisees, “Is it lawful to cure people on the Sabbath or not?” 4But they were silent. So Jesus took him and healed him and sent him away. 5Then he said to them, “If one of you has a child or an ox that has fallen into a well, will you not immediately pull it out on a Sabbath day?” 6And they could not reply to this.

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition (NRSVUE)

“Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.”

Some thoughts on this scripture

Reflection
Can I visualise the setting where Jesus meets the man suffering from dropsy and cures him with a hostile audience of lawyers and Pharisees looking on?

Reflection
What feelings and motivations are going on in the various characters? Why do the Pharisees react as they do? What does the man with dropsy make of it?

Reflection
Meals often feature in Jesus' parables and in the key moments of his public life - Cana, Martha and Mary, the meeting with Magdalene, the last supper. He remains present to us in the sacred meal of the Eucharist. It is at meals, sitting, relaxed, with time to listen, that we are most alive to one another.

Reflection
Yet meals are disappearing. Many families find that fast food, freezers and micro-waves, the presence of TV, the pull of other commitments, have almost put an end to family meals. In the USA 40% of meals are eaten in cars!

Reflection
Have I a place for meals in my life?

Reflection
The Sabbath was an occasion for a holy or religious meal. This Sabbath meal is invaded by a sick man who seems to be hoping for healing. No words are spoken between him and Jesus, but the movement in the incident is to put compassion before the law. This is a constant theme of Jesus throughout his life and the gospel. Maybe prayer can be a time to bring people in our mind and heart to God and see them with the compassionate eye of Jesus. Compassion reaches deeply into our hearts, both the giver and the one who receives it. All of us are the stronger for finding compassion between us and another, and the other is stronger too.