NOTES for Luk 14:1-6

It is striking that the Pharisees remain silent in response to Christ's question about whether it is lawful to heal on the Sabbath. Deep down, they actually believed it was not. Whether healing counts as work, as “doing one's own affairs,” which is forbidden on the Sabbath, is a serious question. The Pharisees thought that it was work, but they were far from obviously right. More importantly, they thought that someone who had been ill for a long time could wait until the next day, to avoid a troubling situation. After all, perhaps the Almighty would regard healing as work and therefore as a violation of the commandment.

It is precisely this view that the Lord rejects. He compares the sick man, who has made an enormous effort to reach Him, to an ox that has fallen into a pit and must be pulled out immediately lest it die. Theological doubts and ritual take second place before the suffering of a person who has at last come into God's presence. This is what makes faith in Christ an answer for us to the question of life and death, rather than of more or less sinful behaviour.