Grace and Space

Lk 14:1-6
Who’s at table: The story is set within the home of one of the leading Pharisees where Jesus goes to dine. Therefore, the issue will be table fellowship; that is, who can gather around the table and who cannot. This is an issue throughout Luke’s Gospel, and this section of his Gospel forms the first of four instructions concerning table fellowship. As in similar situations (cf 7:36-50; 11:37-44), such meals develop into confrontational situations between Jesus and the Pharisees.
 As seen before, Jesus exposes the disparity between the inner attitude of the Pharisees and their outer appearance. The question of curing on the Sabbath is a debatable one. The man with dropsy, an abnormal swelling of the body because of the retention and accumulation of fluid, is compared to a son or ox falling into a cistern on the Sabbath. Jesus asks the Pharisees if they would not pull him out on the Sabbath day.
With such a comparison, the Pharisees are uncovered as people who appear to keep the law but underneath are unconcerned about people in need. They keep silent when Jesus asks about the lawfulness of curing on the Sabbath. They do not answer his question about rescuing a son or an ox from a pit on the Sabbath.
The Pharisees would break the law in the case of a son or an ox, presumes Jesus. Then how much more should the law be broken for the man suffering from dropsy. People come first. The outer appearance of always keeping the law must be harmonized with an inner attachment to the purpose of the law—people. Those who join Jesus at table are to possess an inner reality concerning the importance of people that corresponds to their outward actions.