Silent Pharisees

“One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully.”
Luke 14:1 

The trite saying “keep your friends close, and your enemies closer” is a bit older than we possibly think. In today’s New Testament reading, we read of Jesus’ interaction with the Pharisees at a dinner party he was invited to. While there, we read of how “they were watching [Jesus] carefully.” Now, we do not know exactly, what this means. It is possible that they were curious about him and his teachings. It is likewise probable that they wanted to believe in him. But more likely than those two scenarios, they were watching him to find something that they could use to get rid of him (6:7; 11:53-54). While there Jesus provides three teaching moments that all emphasis how the Kingdom of God does not belong to the religious elite or to those in power, but how the kingdom belongs to those who are humbly dedicated to him. Here we will consider just the first teaching moment though.

We read in verse four that Jesus heals a man suffering from dropsy. But before Jesus heals the man, he asks the pharisees if it is lawful to heal on the Sabbath to which they reply with “ “. Yep, they do not respond at all. And this is not the first time that Jesus questions them about healing on the Sabbath. The first time we read this in Luke’s Gospel, the pharisees respond by being “filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus” (6:11). In the second instance for a sabbath healing they are “put to shame” (13:17). In this case, they just had no response to give. We see the hardness they have towards anyone who is suffering. But we also see that they had not yet learned the lesson that he had provided for them earlier. The lesson being that the work restriction on the Sabbath was not a restriction from doing good. Additionally, they were guilty for having elevated traditions and teachings from man to the level of God’s Word.

Jesus reminds them of this principle of doing good by pointing so a specific case found in Deuteronomy 22:4, where God instructs them to help someone, when able, if that person were in need. And our hope is that they will then finally understand what Jesus is teaching them, but instead we read that they again reply with “ “, or as Luke put it, “And they could not reply to these things” (14:6).

Such a hardness of the heart reveals how they had hearts resistant to the Spirit and held a low view of God’s Word which should bring us to question any legitimate claims of faith. They are witnessing yet another sign and work from Jesus demonstrating his divinity, but they were more eager to
“watch” him as opposed to believe in him. Instead of understanding that God seeks hearts who are humble and seeking love and mercy, they soured their faces and taught mere external conformity and obedience to God. As you meditate on God’s Word today, pray to God that you will grow in love and mercy and not simply have an outward appearance of religiosity. May we have hearts that have been renewed by the Gospel to love Him with all our heart, soul, and mind and to love our neighbors as ourselves for His glory.

Grace and Peace,
Alex Galvez

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