Breaking the Word

On a sabbath he went to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees, and the people there were observing him carefully.

 He told a parable to those who had been invited, noticing how they were choosing the places of honor at the table. "When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not recline at table in the place of honor. A more distinguished guest than you may have been invited by him, and the host who invited both of you may approach you and say, 'Give your place to this man,' and then you would proceed with embarrassment to take the lowest place. Rather, when you are invited, go and take the lowest place so that when the host comes to you he may say, 'My friend, move up to a higher position.' Then you will enjoy the esteem of your companions at the table. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted." (Lk 14:1,7-11)

 

 

Jesus is there in the house of one of the leading Pharisees for a dinner. There would have been many who were invited for the dinner besides Jesus and Jesus would have watched those who were choosing places of honour at table. He also would have noticed the host going around allotting places for the guests as they arrived and giving them places of importance according to their roles in he community.

 

Jesus also would have seen the embarrassment caused because of movements of people from higher places to lower and esteem expressed by the movements from lower to the higher places. There were faces gleaming with joy and there were dull faces with sadness. Preferences and positions are part and parcel of everyday life in a society. A man in a society has to live with all these.

 

If one wants to live in a society with gleaming face then he should by himself choose to be humble. The places are given by someone else and it is his choice to give the place of honour to whomever he wants. It is not the right of the guest to choose the place of honour. So if the guest wants to gleam with joy then he should lower himself in front of the others. 

On a sabbath he went to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees, and the people there were observing him carefully. In front of him there was a man suffering from dropsy. Jesus spoke to the scholars of the law and Pharisees in reply, asking, "Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath or not?" But they kept silent; so he took the man and, after he had healed him, dismissed him. Then he said to them, "Who among you, if your son or ox falls into a cistern, would not immediately pull him out on the sabbath day?"  But they were unable to answer his question. (Lk 14:1-6)

 

 

Sabbath controversy seems to have been one of the main point on which Jesus had to deal with Pharisees and the scholars of the law. The scholars were giving the various explanations and telling the people how to observe the law. They were making the law more and more strict and difficult for the people and in turn making the people less human but more legalistic.

 

The Pharisees were the ones who practiced the law to the minute details and made it possible to be lived in every way. They became models of those who practiced and models for those who want to practice or those who have to practice. They were the visible signs of the ‘lived rules’.

 

In the story there was man suffering from dropsy. Nothing is said about his attitude to Sabbath laws. He was a suffering man. Immediately Jesus takes his side and argues for him. Jesus does not take the law for argument or the legal side to plead for the cause of the suffering man. He makes use of the human condition as an argument to prove his point. (if your son or ox falls into a cistern, would not immediately pull him out on the sabbath day?)