Jesus Silences Critics

September 10, 2023 Background Scripture: Luke 14:1 - 6 Lesson Passage: Luke 14:1 - 6 How do we handle our haters? Or more specifically, how do we handle people who look for opportunities to criticize us? One of my most used tactics is to avoid them altogether. Jesus, on the other hand, seems to have made no attempt to avoid His haters. When they invited Jesus into a setting that seems to have been a trap for Him, Jesus responded by accepting the invitation and going. The Jewish religious leaders comprised one of the groups that seemed to look for occasions to criticize Jesus. Today's lesson focuses on one of the many interactions between Jesus and the religious leaders. It is worth noting that Jesus was often a guest in the home of a Pharisee. Luke wrote about several instances of it. It is difficult to imagine that their religious ideology was anything other than opposite that of Jesus'. Yet, they believed there was value in getting to know Jesus on a personal level—or perhaps they thought it was their opportunity to expose Jesus as something other than what the "common" people believed about Him. Whatever the reason might have been, they often invited Jesus to dine with them. Since I don't think the gospel narratives present the Pharisees and scribes as great humanitarians, I look with an air of suspicion at the fact that it seems there was always someone around at the time who just happened to need healing on a Sabbath! Put another way, some of these dinner invitations look suspiciously like setups to entrap Jesus to me. Nevertheless, Jesus did not change based on the situation. He was consistently Himself. Jesus went to the Pharisee's house to eat on the Sabbath and the scriptures note that they watched Jesus closely. Whether it was a setup or not, they expected Jesus to respond as He always did, and they were watching Him. Jesus used the situation as a teaching moment. Rather than act and then defend His actions, Jesus preemptively posed a question to them instead. He challenged those Jewish religious leaders to interpret the Law regarding healing on the Sabbath. It is noteworthy that none of them dared to respond to Jesus' challenge. Jesus did not wait for them to break their silence. He healed a man who was present with them. They were the religious leaders of the Jews. They were teachers of the Law for the Jews, Yet, they all kept silent. So, Jesus shared a very practical way of looking at how to interpret the Sabbath Laws concerning doing good for others. Jesus challenged them with the thought that they would have compassion on their livestock that would haply fall into a pit on the Sabbath. Given that perspective, how could they not understand the greater good of having compassion on a fellow human being on a Sabbath? Jesus told the Pharisees earlier in His ministry that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. The Jewish religious leaders had taken what God had given to be a blessing for mankind and caused it to become a burdens Jesus pointed out the obvious to those who seek first to do God's will. There are no provisions in the Sabbath Laws that would preclude a person doing good for a fellow human being. As Jesus entered the house to eat bread with them, they were watching Him and perhaps hoping to see Him do something that would give them a reason to criticize Him. Instead, they witnessed a miraculous healing and received a Bible Study on Sabbath Laws. That left them speechless. They couldn't deny the validity of His teaching because it revealed the truth about them. Therefore, they had no grounds to criticize His actions. Jesus accomplished three great works that day. He provided tremendous teaching concerning the Sabbath Laws for all of us to understand, He healed a man, and He silenced His critics. Robert C. Hudson August 26, 2023