A Dinner Party (part one): The Sabbath Healing

Today at Mass we heard a passage from Luke 14.Here are my thoughts:

I imagine that the leader of the pharisees whose house Jesus came to visit was Joseph of Arimathea. At any rate, it had to be someone Jesus knew well enough to be invited over for dinner. And if He was invited, I imagine His family and close friends were also invited. (see my other entries about Joseph of Arimathea.) The pharisees and lawyers are watching Him closely, hoping to trip Him up over some issue, while Joseph is watching Him carefully that no harm come to Him or His family.

While still outside Joseph's house, a man spies Jesus and makes his way quickly to Him, hoping for a healing before He disappears into the house. Seeing this, the pharisees and lawyers whisper among themselves questions over whether it is lawful to work a healing today as it is the Sabbath. "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?" Jesus asks them in all sincerity, looking straight into their eyes. But they cannot hold His piercing glance and their eyes fall toward the ground. So Jesus turns His attention to the needy man, placing His healing hands upon him.

The man immediately feels the surge of health fill his body and takes a deep breath letting out a sigh of relief after such a long episode of "dropsy." Jesus hugs him and sends him happily on his way, then turns to address those lawyers who had refused to respond to His question before entering Joseph's home. "What man among you would refuse to pull a child, or even an ox out of a cistern if it had fallen in on the Sabbath?"
Now the leaders are clearing their throats and shifting uncomfortably around because in saying this, Jesus has addressed an incident that happened only this morning, as one of the pharisees, himself had needed help over a mishap of his own. His oxen had fallen into a cistern and in trying to lend his aid, his own son slipped in as well. All who helped in this rescue know well what Jesus is getting at and they are intimidated by the keenness of His insight. Now they quickly drop the accusation against Jesus, seeing that He has every right to bring one up against them. Pushing their way into the house, they are very anxious to avoid Jesus now.