Luke 14:1 ¶
And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief
Pharisees to eat bread on the sabbath day, that they watched him. 2 And, behold, there was a certain man before
him which had the dropsy. 3 And Jesus
answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on
the sabbath day? 4 And they held their
peace. And he took him, and healed him, and let him go; 5 And answered them, saying, Which of you shall
have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out
on the sabbath day? 6 And they could not
answer him again to these things.
Dropsy is the old name for any excessive swelling caused by an
accumulation of water. We would be more specific today, for instance, saying
the person had edema due to congestive heart failure. Dropsy expresses itself mostly in swelling of the lower legs and
feet after having been on them all day. Here, Jesus taught the importance of
mercy and compassion over a rigid following of religious obligation. In a
similar vein, James wrote;
James 2:13 For he shall
have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.
Jesus used this analogy
before in 13:15 saying that if you would help your animal on the Sabbath why
would it be wrong to help a person. His reference to assisting a beast goes
back to Old Testament expressions of mercy and compassion toward animals belonging
to oneself or others.
Exodus 23:5 If thou see the
ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden, and wouldest forbear to
help him, thou shalt surely help with him.
Proverbs 12:10 A righteous man regardeth the
life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the
wicked are cruel.
The Pharisee would show
compassion for his beast, why not a fellow Jew? There really was nothing they
could say against that.
A certain man or a
certain woman are two phrases in the Bible that speak a profound truth. God
has used countless anonymous people throughout history to further His plan of
the redemption of mankind, the great reconciliation. Their names are not
recorded but they provided an important step in the journey. Most of us are
like that. I have accomplished nothing important in life. I will be quickly
forgotten. In a short time after I die, it will be as if I never existed. But I
want to imagine it being said at some point, “Once, there was a certain man who
wrote a blog about the Bible that encouraged others to read it even if they
disagreed with him and just wanted to prove he was wrong.”
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