The miracles of Jesus - Classical Christian Literature by Athleo.net

THE HEALING OF THE MAN WITH
THE DROPSY
Luke xiv. 1-6.
THIS incident occurs in the section of his Gospel
which St Luke devotes to describing the Lord's
journeyings towards Jerusalem ;
is
but beyond this there
nothing to determine the exact time or place of its
occurrence.
Jesus had been invited by one
of the rulers of the
Pharisees to a Sabbath meal in his house, and notwithstanding
the judgments He had already found it
necessary to pass upon the Pharisees (Luke xi. 37-
44) He had accepted the invitation, evidently in the
hope that He might be able to turn the opportunity
to good account.
at first sight
It may seem strange to us, perhaps,
that such an entertainment should have
taken place on the Sabbath at all. But so far from
the Jews regarding the Sabbath as a day only of
austerity and gloom, it was their favourite day for
festal gatherings, a practice which they justified by an
appeal to Nehemiah viii. 10 (" Go your way, eat the
fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto him
for whom nothing is prepared :
our Lord :
261
for this day is holy unto
neither be ye grieved ;
for the joy of the