1 When Jesus went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees on a Sabbath to eat bread, they were watching him. 2 Behold, a certain man who had dropsy was in front of him. 3 Jesus, answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”

4 But they were silent.

He took him, and healed him, and let him go. 5 He answered them, “Which of you, if your son or an ox fell into a well, wouldn’t immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?”

6 They couldn’t answer him regarding these things.

Luke 14:1-6 - World English Bible

In the beginning of Luke 14, a Pharisee invited Jesus to dine on the Sabbath in order to judge him. At the dinner, he healed a man with dropsy, a painful swelling of soft tissue due to the accumulation of excess water (usually in the legs). Then, he cut to the core of the controversy, “Is is lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” There was no point of the Law to discuss, per se, because the Torah had no such prohibition against healing of the Sabbath. When he asked the question, he posed a larger issue. Was it in the spirit of the Torah to reveal God's power on God's day? If the leaders answered “Yes,” they ceded their power over the Law, for they would recognize God's revelation outside of their area of expertise. They could not adjudicate such an event, so they would have to sideline themselves. They would have to recognize a greater authority in the Law than themselves; that authority was Jesus. For good measure, the Lord asked a rhetorical question that allowed for works of mercy on the Sabbath. At the end, he boxed his opponents in. Any judgment they made on him, then, came from a point of weakness.

Did you see a hint of God's power last Sunday? How did that vision inspire you?