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The debate continues between Jesus and the Pharisees about what is allowed on the Sabbath. Again Jesus heals someone on the Sabbath and Jesus uses the opportunity to give a teaching on humility versus pride.

Jesus Heals on the Sabbath (NASB 1995)

14 It happened that when He went into the house of one of the ^[a]leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, they were watching Him closely. ² And ^[b]there in front of Him was a man suffering from dropsy. ³ And Jesus answered and spoke to the ^[c]lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” ⁴ But they kept silent. And He took hold of him and healed him, and sent him away. ⁵ And He said to them, “^[d]Which one of you will have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?” ⁶ And they could make no reply to this.

Parable of the Guests

⁷ And He began speaking a parable to the invited guests when He noticed how they had been picking out the places of honor at the table, saying to them, ⁸ “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not ^[e]take the place of honor, for someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him, ⁹ and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this man,’ and then in disgrace you ^[f]proceed to occupy the last place. ¹⁰ But when you are invited, go and recline at the last place, so that when the one who has invited you comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will have honor in the sight of all who ^[g]are at the table with you. ¹¹ For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

¹² And He also went on to say to the one who had invited Him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you in return and that will be your repayment. ¹³ But when you give a ^[h]reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, ¹⁴ and you will be blessed, since they ^[i]do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

What does this have to do with us? Our economy is falling apart…no he is talking to us about our eternal existence.  Funny that he accepts the invitation of this chief pharisee. He just got done telling them that the first will be last and the last first…he tells them the children of the kingdom will be cast out. He says that the pharisees are planning to kill him and then he goes to dinner at their house. Why? He loves him. He loves the Pharisees. He hates their religious system. He wants to tear their blinders off.  He is the same now and often says hard things to us.  It is the Sabbath and a man with dropsy is there. They are watching him critically to find fault.   Did this guy just wander in or did they bring him there to “trip” him up? Knowing that he will heal this man.  

They want to find fault and before they ask, he answers their question. And Jesus answered and spoke to the ^[c]lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” According to the Torah…in the law there was no law that stopped healing.  They had laid so many layers on top of the Torah that it was impossible to follow it.  Dropsy was a symptom of renal failure, cirrhosis or hepatitis or congestive heart failure.  It was the accumulation of fluid. This man was dying.   He touches the guy, heals him and sends him home. He answers their question without them even asking it.

And He said to them, “^[d]Which one of you will have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?” ⁶ And they could make no reply to this.

Jesus sends the man away. He doesn’t let him remain in the center of controversy. He sent him away to worship and with gratitude spend time with the Lord. The religious system of the day believed the afflicted were under condemnation for secret sins.  He is not free of all those thoughts and that unnecessary guilt.

Now he gives them a parable after watching them chose the best seats in the house.  They feed more on pride than food. He gives them a parable: para alongside bala a truth…parable a truth alongside a spiritual truth.

⁷ And He began speaking a parable to the invited guests when He noticed how they had been picking out the places of honor at the table, saying to them, ⁸ “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not ^[e]take the place of honor, for someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him, ⁹ and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this man,’ and then in disgrace you ^[f]proceed to occupy the last place. ¹⁰ But when you are invited, go and recline at the last place, so that when the one who has invited you comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will have honor in the sight of all who ^[g]are at the table with you. ¹¹ For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted

He sees self-ambition, self-aggrandizement…we aren’t like that, right? We don’t care of someone cuts in front of us in line or cuts in front of us on the highway, right? This host that invited him didn’t care about him.  Jesus didn’t care where he sat. He cared about the people.   He looks at this system that is supposed to represent him and sees how far from that it is.  The principle: he who exalts himself SHALL be humbled and he who humbles himself SHALL be exalted. This is a law. There is no breaking this.  It is a spiritual law.

We need to let the mind of christ be in us.  Phil 2 ^“Have this attitude ^[e]in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be ^[f]grasped, ⁷ but ^[g]emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.”  He didn’t take the shape of a heavenly servant, but a man, among men.   He lowered himself unto death…and even further lowered himself to death on the cross as the worst kind of criminal. He left his rights and did that because he loved us. He went to the cross and bled his life into the ground so that we can live and invite us as our host to the wedding feast.  If we are an invitee, we don’t need to worry about humbling ourselves to the place of insult.  We don’t need to self-protect. If we are in the position of the host then we are told to stop calling those who love us and are able to repay us.  Not against family…just don’t scheme to be rewarded by your ability to invite.  We are the halt, the lame, the blind, deaf…we got invited. Be like Jesus. Don’t just be in a world where one hand washes another. 

QUESTION: Read the following quotes from Got Questions (leaven of the pharisees) and from Charles Clough (on legalism) and reflect on how these two things are reflected in this incidence and in what Jesus says in response. Share your thoughts or share from other commentators.

Beware of the leaven of the pharisees: from GotQuestions: “The man-made teachings of the Pharisees were as pervasive as yeast in a loaf of bread. Their corruption advanced in hardly perceptible ways, but it was extensive. Jesus denounced the Pharisees on several occasions (e.g., Matthew 23:1–39), and their hypocrisy was a common theme. The Pharisees displayed an outward conformity to the law, but their hearts were full of unbelief and sinfulness (Mark 7:6–13).

By warning the disciples against the hypocrisy, or “leaven,” of the Pharisees, Jesus sought to keep His followers from an insidious influence that would undermine faith and corrupt their walk with God. Believers today should heed the same warning from the Lord and guard against pharisaic attitudes and the temptation to take pride in man-made teachings and traditions. Once a bit of pharisaism is introduced into the church, it can quickly spread.“

From Charles Clough lesson 107

So number one, political security, Jesus is a threat to political security and He still is.

Number two, it’s the old boogey from the Old Testament, legalism. “In the same vein, the Jews had experienced over and over their own inability to keep the Law in a way that pleased Yahweh; but instead of driving them to God’s grace, their inability had led them to mitigate the lofty demands of the Law.” They should have been driven to Yahweh and His grace for the power to keep the Law, but “To replace the Torah and its vital gracious spirit, many of them substituted an intricate network of legalistic, human regulation. … In a Talmudic passage for example….” Look at this quote, isn’t this a ripper. “…one reads the rabbinical instruction to pay more attention to these rules than the original Scripture or Torah:” Look what it says, “My son, be more careful in [the observance of] the words of the Scribes than in the words of the Torah, for in the laws of the Torah there are positive and negative precepts…; but as to the laws of the Scribes, who ever transgresses any of the enactments of the Scribes incurs the penalty of death.”

What’s the motive for obedience under legalism? It’s fear. Of whom? Men. Legalism is ultimately peer pressure. It’s group pressure. It’s my fear of what other people think about me. It has nothing to do with God. It’s what God thinks about me. This is why in the last paragraph on page 12; this is the second reason why Jesus was rejected. The first one is political security, the second one is legalism.