Our Lord’s Lessons at the Dinner Table: Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, by Gayle Somers

At a dinner party, Jesus turns the rules for banqueting and table etiquette on their heads.  Why?

Gospel (Read Lk. 14:1, 7-14)

On a Sabbath Jesus went to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees, and the people there were observing Him carefully.

In just one sentence, St. Luke communicates so much of the tone of this dinner party, doesn’t he?  Immediately, we sense that it was not an invitation inspired by cordial friendship.  The “leading Pharisee” and his friends seem to be hoping for Jesus to make a misstep.  In verses not included in our reading (see vss. 2-6), a man with dropsy appears before Him.  Normally, a person with this condition would not be on the guest list of a party like this.  Why had he been invited?  Was he part of a trap for Jesus?

Stepping right into the situation, Jesus challenges the “lawyers and Pharisees” with a direct question:  “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?”  We know that His critics regularly charged Him with breaking the Sabbath prohibition of work, because they harshly interpreted miraculous healing as “work.”  Jesus beats them to the punch, however, by asking the question first.  No one wanted to answer Him; “they were silent.” ….