NOTES for Luk 14:1-6

It is striking that the Pharisees remain silent in response to Christ’s question whether it is lawful to heal on the Sabbath. Deep down, they actually believed that it was not lawful. Whether healing is work, “doing one’s own business,” which is forbidden on the Sabbath, is a difficult question. The Pharisees thought it was work, but their view was far from self-evident. Most importantly, the Pharisees believed that someone who had been ill for a long time could wait until the next day so that no troubling situation would arise. Perhaps the Almighty might, after all, regard healing as work and therefore as a violation of the commandment. It is this point of view that the Lord rejects. He compares the sick man who has finally reached Him at the cost of enormous effort with an ox that has fallen into a pit and must be pulled out immediately lest it perish. Theological doubts and ritual recede into the background before the suffering of a person who has finally appeared before God. This is precisely what makes faith in Christ an answer for us to a question of life and death, rather than a question of more or less sinful behavior.