Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions

 ³  And Jesus answered and spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?”

 ⁴  But they kept silent.  And He took hold of him and healed him, and sent him away.

 ⁵  And He said to them, “Which one of you will have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?”

 ⁶  And they could make no reply to this.”  Luke 14:1-6.

It is first striking that verse 3 states that Jesus “answered”.  Where was the question?  But, on closer examination, we read in verse 1 that “they were watching Him closely”.  Jesus perceived that the Pharisees’ attitude was so thick with accusatory questions, He indeed “answered”.

So, how did Jesus answer them?  Jesus answered them with questions.  First, he questioned them:  “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?”.  Second, he questioned them:  “Which one of you will have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?”.

But, Jesus did more than answer them with questions.  Jesus confronted them and their legalistic attitude through the healing the man which served both as an answer and an inferred question. “And they could make no reply to this.”  They could make no reply to either the express questions or to the act of healing which also served as an answer and an inferred question.     

The importance of this analysis is that as Christians, we too will be watched closely.  We too will face attitudes thick with accusatory questions.  We too may not directly hear the questions, but we will need to answer those “questions” (that is, questioning attitudes) by both our words and actions.

But, there is hope.  “But when they hand you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say; for it will be given you in that hour what you are to say.”  Matthew 10:19

But, there is also more than words that we will say that will serve as answers to questions.  “Our actions may speak louder than our words.”  And our actions will also answer and confront and question.

“But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.  For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing;  to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life.  And who is adequate for these things?”  2 Corinthians 2:14-16.