Friday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time
I learned something new today. Actually, I learned several new things today, all related to today’s gospel passage from Luke (14:1-6) about the cure of the man with dropsy on the sabbath. First, I learned what dropsy is. (To be fair, I may have looked it up in the past and forgot.) Dropsy is an abnormal swelling of the body due to accumulation and retention of fluid. Luke tells us that Jesus saw in front of him a man suffering from this and he was moved to heal him, even on the sabbath.
Secondly, I learned that this gospel passage is a parallel to the healing of “the crippled woman” also on the sabbath (Luke 13:10-17), which we read on Monday of this week. Both readings involve Jesus coming up against those who were more concerned about following the law and watching Jesus “carefully” to see what he would do.
There is one more thing I learned about these parallel passages, which I found very interesting: that it is a characteristic of Luke’s style to have juxtaposed incidents that reveal his concern for a woman, as well as his concern for a man.
I have previously written about Luke’s gospel probably being my favorite of the four gospels in part because Luke shows Jesus’ concern for women more than any of the other gospel writers. And today’s learning about this characteristic of Luke’s writing is certainly consistent with that.
Lastly, in today’s passage we hear Jesus trying to reason with the Pharisees about his decision to heal on the sabbath, “Who among you, if your son or ox falls into a cistern, would not immediately pull him out on the sabbath day?” They don’t answer. But we can answer for ourselves in our own day and age. Do compassion and mercy trump following the letter of the law? For Luke’s Jesus they certainly do. What will our answer be?
—Eileen Miller