In this and the healing of the woman bent over are healed without them approaching or asking for help. Jesus took the initiative. Luke seems to be focusing on the uninvitedness of this man. Nothing about this seems to be a trap for Jesus by the Pharisees. We import Pharisee = bad, but there isn’t any indication of that here.

Jesus accepts an invitation to lunch even though they have a record of being antagonistic. He poses the question about spiritual ethics. Jesus sees them compete over the best seats and Jesus comments on this. Why does Luke include this Sabbath event that doesn’t seem to add new information?

This man would have been ritually unclean because of the fluid build up in him. The Pharisee would never have invited this man into their home. Although social media didn’t exist the need for people to recognize you was still there. Doors were left wide open for bragging purposes and it was not uncommon for people to come in to look and see who the important visitor was. This guy with edema was uninvited. It is a beautiful thing to be able to recognize and point out that God does good things in and for people without them even believing or asking.

Jesus argues from a principle that the Pharisees already agree with therefore not only is helping a human in need is not only permissible, but obligatory. If you would help an ox and you would help your son, what about everything in between?

We long for signs and wonders, but there have always been and still are people that could see obvious miracles with their own eyes and would still cross their arms and keep a closed heart.

Why do all of the Gospel writers keep coming back to Sabbath events?

We read the conflicts in scripture that happen on the Sabbath and we assume Sabbath is bad. Is Sabbath still good and do we still need it? Anxiety is an epidemic. God’s answer to the noisy heart and the chaos isn’t adding something in. It is something He set in place before the creation of humanity; Sabbath. Jesus was fighting the fact that the Sabbath had become exhausting because of the religious leaders instead of it being the answer for our exhaustion.