Jesus Heals a Bloated Man

Take Every Passage to Prayer - Volume 2, The Gospels
^{Monday August 26, 2024}

Luke 14:1-6

Father, please take away my fear of those who don’t like You. Give me confidence and courage to engage with them. There may be a dear soul among them who is open to spiritual healing. Their heart might be craving the salvation of their soul. Please help me not to cower among those who hate You but to boldly and courageously engage them so that You can use my words and actions to bring one of them to faith. Father, please also help me to not be a hypocrite. Help me to apply to myself the rules that I expect others to follow. Amen.

Father, Jesus was invited into the house of a prominent Pharisee on the Sabbath. On the surface, such an invite appears to be cordial.
“Hey, Jesus. I’d like to get to know You. Come on over for dinner.”
However, we learn from the text that Jesus was being carefully watched. The Pharisee was a leader and, as such, we can safely conclude that he orchestrated much of the resistance Jesus encountered in His ministry. He invited other Pharisees and experts in the law to come to the dinner, clearly to overpower and humiliate Jesus. His invitation to Jesus was malicious. If the Pharisee was telling the truth, he would have said:
“Jesus, come over for dinner. I want to make You feel relaxed and off guard. We will then catch You in some mistake that we will use to destroy Your ministry.”
Jesus knew the intentions of the Pharisees and He was not afraid. Walking with the Holy Spirit, Jesus knew that He would not be caught off guard and that He had full command of His words, actions, and emotions. He would not be entrapped, ashamed, or embarrassed. Jesus accepted the invitation with confidence.
Father, there was a man who was apparently seated directly across the table from Jesus. The text tells us that the man was bloated. Jesus went on the offense and asked the Pharisees and experts of the law if it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not. The text tells us that they had no response to Jesus’ question. Why not? I surmise that the men seated at the table wanted their bloated friend to be healed. They knew of his suffering, and they also knew Jesus really did have the ability to heal their friend. Their silence was an expression of their hypocrisy. I can imagine them thinking to themselves:
“Jesus, we don’t like You healing people we don’t know on the Sabbath. However, this is our friend. Go ahead and heal him. We make an exception in this matter.”
Jesus touched the man, and he was healed. Jesus sent the man home.
Jesus then confronted the religious leaders who remained at the table about their hypocrisy.
“Come on guys. Stop being hypocritical. We all know that if your child fell into a well on the Sabbath each one of you would work to rescue him or her. We also know that you would do the same if your ox fell into the well. Your issue with Me is not about the Sabbath and you know that. Your issue with Me is that I am a threat to your power over the people.”
The text tells us that the guests at the dinner were left speechless. Jesus had exposed their hypocrisy and they had no comeback. Amen.