House of the Pharisee

One Sabbath, Jesus went to eat in the home of a leading Pharisee, and those in attendance were watching Him closely. Right there before Him was a man with dropsy, what we today call edema, an excess of fluid in the connective tissue of the body. Before doing anything, Jesus turned and addressed some of the guests who were experts in the law and Pharisees, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?”

But all Pharisees and experts in the law remained silent.

Then Jesus took hold of the man, healed him, and sent him on his way. And Jesus asked the Pharisees and the experts in the law, “Which of you whose child or ox falls into a pit on the Sabbath day will not immediately pull them out?”

They all were unable to answer His questions.

When Jesus noticed how the guests chose for themselves the places of honor at the table, He told them a parable: “When you are invited to a wedding banquet, do not sit in the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited. Then the host who invited both of you will come and tell you, ‘Give this man your seat.’ And in humiliation, you will have to take the last place.

“But when you are invited, go and sit in the last place, so that your host will come and tell you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in front of everyone at the table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Then Jesus said to the man who had invited Him, “When you host a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or brothers or relatives or rich neighbors. Otherwise, they may invite you in return, and you will be repaid. But when you host a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind, and you will be blessed. Since they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

See Luke 14:1-14; Proverbs 25:6-7