Jesus heals a man with dropsy on the sabbath
Lk14:1-6 1 It happened that when He went into the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, they were watching Him closely. 2 And there in front of Him was a man suffering from dropsy. 3 And Jesus answered and spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?" 4 But they kept silent. And He took hold of him and healed him, and sent him away. 5 And He said to them, "Which one of you will have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?" 6 And they could make no reply to this.
Dropsy, also known as edema, is a condition characterized by an excess of watery fluid collecting in the cavities or tissues of the body. Simply speaking, it is typically caused when the capillaries leak fluid into the surrounding tissues.
You cannot but wonder if the leader of the Pharisees who invited Jesus over for dinner on the Sabbath planted this man suffering from dropsy just to see if Jesus would heal him on a Sabbath.
Jesus didn’t sidestep the issue but brought it up as a question. No one was willing to answer. He wasn’t out to please the Pharisees but to do good. So He healed the man.
Dropsy is not pretty to look at. It is a picture of a believer who is a bad representation of God. When unbelievers look at such a believer they say, "If that’s what it means to be a Christian, then I don’t want to be one!"
Don’t let your Christianity ooze out of you in a way that makes you obnoxious. Let God give you the wisdom you need to present your Christianity to a godless generation in a gracious way.
Pr 15:2 The tongue of the wise makes knowledge acceptable, but the mouth of fools spouts folly.
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