'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.
7. And He put forth a parable to those which were
bidden, when He marked how they chose out the chief
rooms; saying unto them, 8. When thou art bidden of any
man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room,
lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him;
9. And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee,
Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take
the lowest room. 10. But when thou art bidden, go and
sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade
thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up
higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence
of them that sit at meat with thee. 11. For whosoever
exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth
himself shall be exalted. 12. Then said He also to him
that bade Him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper,
call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy
kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid
thee again, and a recompense be made thee. 13. But when
thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the
lame, the blind: 14. And thou shalt be blessed; for
they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be
recompensed at the resurrection of the just.'
--LUKE xiv. 1-14.
Jesus never refused an invitation, whether the inviter were a
Pharisee or a publican, a friend or a foe. He never mistook the
disposition of His host. He accepted 'greetings where no kindness
is,' and on this occasion there was none. The entertainer was a spy,
and the feast was a trap. What a contrast between the malicious
watchers at the table, ready to note and to interpret in the worst
sense every action of His, and Him loving and wishing to bless even
them! The chill atmosphere of suspicion did not freeze the flow of
His gentle beneficence and wise teaching. His meek goodness remained
itself in the face of hostile observers. The miracle and the two
parables are aimed straight at their errors.
I. How came the dropsical man there? Possibly he had simply strayed
in to look on at the feast, as the freedom of manners then would
permit him to do. The absence of any hint that he came hoping for a
cure, and of any trace of faith on his part, or of speech to him on
Christ's, joined with his immediate dismissal after his cure, rather
favours the supposition that he had been put as the bait of the
trap, on the calculation that the sight of him would move Jesus to
heal him. The setters of the snare were 'watching' whether it would
work, and Jesus 'answered' their thoughts, which were, doubtless,
visible in their eyes. His answer has three stages--a question which
is an assertion, the cure, and another affirming question. All three
are met with sulky silence, which speaks more than words would have
done. The first question takes the 'lawyers' on their own ground,
and in effect asserts that to heal did not break the Sabbath. Jesus
challenges denial of the lawfulness of it, and the silence of the
Pharisees confesses that they dare not deny. 'The bare fact of
healing is not prohibited,' they might have said, 'but the acts
necessary for healing are.' But no acts were necessary for this
Healer's power to operate. The outgoing of His will had power. Their
finespun distinctions of deeds lawful and unlawful were spiders'
webs, and His act of mercy flew high above the webs, like some fair
winged creature glancing in the sunshine, while the spider sits in
his crevice balked. The broad principle involved in Jesus' first
question is that no Sabbath law, no so-called religious restriction,
can ever forbid helping the miserable. The repose of the Sabbath is
deepened, not disturbed, by activity for man's good.
The cure is told without detail, probably because there were no
details to tell. There is no sign of request or of faith on the
sufferer's part; there seems to have been no outward act on Christ's
beyond 'taking' him, which appears simply to mean that He called him
nearer, and then, by a simple exercise of His will, healed him.
There is no trace of thanks or of wonder in the heart of the
sufferer, who probably never had anything more to do with his
benefactor. Silently he comes on the stage, silently he gets his
blessing, silently he disappears. A strange, sad instance of how
possible it is to have a momentary connection with Jesus, and even
to receive gifts from His hand, and yet to have no real, permanent
relation to Him!
The second question turns from the legal to a broader consideration.
The spontaneous workings of the heart are not to be dammed back by
ceremonial laws. Need calls for immediate succour. You do not wait
for the Sabbath's sun to set when your ox or your ass is in a pit.
(The reading 'son' instead of 'ox,' as in the Revised Version
margin, is incongruous.) Jesus is appealing to the instinctive wish
to give immediate help even to a beast in trouble, and implies that
much more should the same instinct be allowed immediate play when
its object is a man. The listeners were self-condemned, and their
obstinate silence proves that the arrow had struck deep.
II. The cure seems to have taken place before the guests seated
themselves. Then came a scramble for the most honourable places, on
which He looked with perhaps a sad smile. Again the silence of the
guests is noticeable, as well as the calm assumption of authority
by Jesus, even among such hostile company. Where He comes a guest,
He becomes teacher, and by divine right He rebukes. The lesson is
given, says Luke, as 'a parable,' by which we are to understand that
our Lord is not here giving, as might appear if His words are
superficially interpreted, a mere lesson of proper behaviour at a
feast, but is taking that behaviour as an illustration of a far
deeper thing. Possibly some too ambitious guest had contrived to
seat himself in the place of honour, and had had to turn out, and,
with an embarrassed mien, had to go down to the very lowest place,
as all the intermediate ones were full. His eagerness to be at the
top had ended in his being at the bottom. That is a 'parable,' says
Jesus, an illustration in the region of daily life, of large truths
in morals and religion. It is a poor motive for outward humility and
self-abasement that it may end in higher honour. And if Jesus was
here only giving directions for conduct in regard to men, He was
inculcating a doubtful kind of morality. The devil's
darling sin
Is the pride that apes humility.'
Jesus was not recommending that, but what is crafty ambition,
veiling itself in lowliness for its own purposes, when exercised in
outward life, becomes a noble, pure, and altogether worthy, thing in
the spiritual sphere. For to desire to be exalted in the kingdom is
wholly right, and to humble one's self with a direct view to that
exaltation is to tread the path which He has hallowed by His own
footsteps. The true aim for ambition is the honour that cometh from
God only, and the true path to it is through the valley; for 'God
resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.'
III. Unbroken silence still prevailed among the guests, but again
Jesus speaks as teacher, and now to the host. A guest does not
usually make remarks on the composition of the company, Jesus could
make no 'recompense' to His entertainer, but to give him this
counsel. Again, He inculcated a wide general lesson under the guise
of a particular exhortation appropriate to the occasion. Probably
the bulk of the guests were well-to-do people of the host's own
social rank, and, as probably, there were onlookers of a lower
degree, like the dropsical man. The prohibition is not directed
against the natural custom of inviting one's associates and equals,
but against inviting them only, and against doing so with a sharp
eye to the advantages to be derived from it. That weary round of
giving a self-regarding hospitality, and then getting a return
dinner or evening entertainment from each guest, which makes up so
much of the social life among us, is a pitiful affair, hollow and
selfish. What would Jesus say--what does Jesus say--about it all?
The sacred name of hospitality is profaned, and the very springs of
it dried up by much of our social customs, and the most literal
application of our Lord's teaching here is sorely needed.
But the words are meant as a 'parable,' and are to be widened out to
include all sorts of kindnesses and helps given in the sacred name
of charity to those whose only claim is their need. 'They cannot
recompense thee'--so much the better, for, if an eye to their doing
so could have influenced thee, thy beneficence would have lost its
grace and savour, and would have been simple selfishness, and, as
such, incapable of future reward. It is only love that is lavished
on those who can make no return which is so free from the taint of
secret regard to self that it is fit to be recognised as love in the
revealing light of that great day, and therefore is fit to be
'recompensed in the resurrection of the just.'