Who among you, if your son or ox falls into a cistern, would not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day? Jesus once again finds himself ‘set-up.’ He is set up by circumstances (the presence of the man with dropsy) and by the Pharisees and scholars of the law who were keenly observing every step that he was making. Jesus read well the ‘set-up’ and was aware of the tension that was steadily building up inside the house. And being a good instigator that he was, he did not want to let such an opportunity to go to waste. But unsurprisingly on this particular occasion, he wanted to make those present participants in what he was about to do. He posed a question and proposed a scenario that caught the hawkeyed Pharisees and the other religious leaders off-guard. They knew that whichever answer they gave, they would not get away unscathed. And so they opted not to answer. But by choosing to remain silent at Jesus’ question, they unwittingly gave Jesus their approval. After healing the man, Jesus then proceeded to lecture those present on the meaning of the Sabbath.
Nothing trumps doing the good, not even the fear of incurring the wrath of legalistic Pharisees. Not even the fear of disrupting the Sabbath “rest” should stop one from performing a good deed. While the law stipulates rest from all forms of laborious engagement on the Sabbath, the law doesn’t say that no good should be done on the Sabbath, even if it leads to producing sweat in the process. Even though the law is not explicit on “doing” some good on this hallowed day, Jesus was aware that it would be against the spirit of the Sabbath to refuse to extend a helping hand to one in need. Moreover, when he posed the question to those who were keenly watching him, he was certain that it wasn’t something new that he was telling them. In the depths of their inner selves, they too understood that doing good can never be wrong, the circumstances or place notwithstanding. It is this conviction that makes it easy for them to pull a person out of a cistern on the Sabbath. If they could be so moved by the plight of one of their own (or even an ox!) on the Sabbath, why would God not be moved by the plight of one of God’s creatures and come to his/her aid on a Sabbath? The concern that they would have over one of their own is the very concern that God has over God’s sons and daughters. This was something that they knew. They had just grown stubborn by hardening their hearts.
May we, like Jesus, honor the Sabbath by making it a day when we celebrate the life that God has given us. May we, unlike the hawkeyed Pharisees and religious leaders who were watching every move of Jesus, understand that doing good is itself an act of celebrating the goodness of creation. May we, like Jesus, come to honor our call as co-creators with God by helping our brothers and sisters who are in need of our attention and services.