Jesus raises the question, “Is it lawful to cure people on the Sabbath?”  He is asking the lawyers.  But they don’t answer.  Curing people from a chronic or terminal illness is not in the rules.  So, Jesus cured anyway.  Jesus asked a further question.  “What if your child, or an animal had fallen into a well- would you not work to rescue them—even if it was on the Sabbath?” 

The Bible says, “And they could not reply to this.” Of course, they could reply.  They could have said, “Yes or No.” But they didn’t have the guts.  The lawyers and Pharisees were weak!  They were worried about what everyone would think!  If they said, ‘Yes—you can heal on the Sabbath,’ they might lose their conservative base! After all, they have always taught, ‘The Law says, “No work on the Sabbath.”’  If they said, ‘No—you can’t heal on the Sabbath’ they will appear callous, but they will retain their base.  Instead, they didn’t say anything.  But they sent along their thoughts and prayers.

But Jesus said, “I’ve got a new interpretation of an old law, and I am going to cure the man—today.”  So, even though the Law says one thing, and the law is a bit ambiguous, Jesus does it anyway—and a man is cured.  Then Jesus moves on to the hypothetical.  What if it was your child?   If your child falls into a well, will you be sending them your thoughts and prayers?  Jesus is bold and brazen.

It says in the Hebrew Scriptures, the Torah, the Law: in the book of Numbers 12:3:

“Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.”

Moses was a prince of humility.  Though he was gifted with immense power from God, the leader of the Israelite people, a person who could go toe to toe with Pharaoh (a super power world leader), and Moses was the only person who actually spoke with God face to face—he retained his undeniable humility.   It’s there in the Holy Word, the Bible, so it must be the God’s honest truth- Moses was humble.  Moses was really really humble.

But here’s the thing:  Moses wrote that line.  It was believed for hundreds and hundreds of years that Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible.  So, Moses was saying,

“I am a very humble man.  I am more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.”

In my experience I have found that if you have to tell people you’re humble—you’re not.  If you have to tell people you work hard—you probably don’t.  If you have to tell people you’re great—you’re not.  If you have to tell people you’re a genius—you’re not.

In the time of Jesus, when you went to a wedding banquet, the guests were placed by their position in society.  You knew where you stood with the host, by where you were seated.  It was about honor.

Jesus was a guest at the house of the leader of the Pharisees.  Who do you suppose were the other guests at the house of the leader of the Pharisees? They were Pharisees, lawyers, wealthy people, nobles, the aristocracy, and anyone else that the leader of the Pharisees wanted to impress with a banquet feast.  And the newest celebrity, Jesus the upstart itinerant hillbilly preacher, was there.  The scripture said he was being carefully watched.

Jesus addressed the concept of humility and social stratification with the guests, but then he turns his attention to the host—the leader of the Pharisees…and he says something bold.

“When you give a banquet- invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.  You will be blessed.  They can’t repay you.  But you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

What if—how we treated the poor, crippled, lame and blind actually had something to do with the resurrection of the righteous?  What if our eternal salvation depended on social justice?

What if there was a direct relationship to heaven and how we treat those on the margins?

What if those who were charitable were actually rewarded at the resurrection of the righteous? Thoughts and prayers are great- but Jesus also showed us that action matters to those who are truly hurting.  Love, by our actions, matters.  Love matters so much, that it is the key to eternal salvation.

If we want to be invited to the heavenly banquet, we’d better pay more attention to the social justice issues of the day: the poor, the under-insured, students mired in college debt, kids in cages, food insecurity, and the ever increasing list of those on the margins, who aren’t being served by the common good.

Jesus really did say, “Invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind.  They can’t repay you- but you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”  Jesus didn’t say, “Send them your thoughts and prayers.”  Jesus said “Do something,” and Jesus actually did something.