In the gospel stories there are seven incidents where Jesus healed on a Sabbath. Together with today's gospel reading, Jessus healed the mother - in - law of Peter (Lk. 4: 38), the healing of the man with a withered hands (Lk. 6:6), the healing of the woman who was suffering from hemmohrage for eighteen years (Lk. 13: 13), the healing of the paralytic at the pool of Bethesda (Jn. 5:9), the healing of the man bor blind (Jn. 9:14), healing of the man possessed by the demon in the synagogue at Capernaum (Mk. 1:12).
Jesus was often criticized for eating with tax collectors and sinners, these are the peoples whom the Pharisees avoided because they did not practice the law. In the gospel reading today, Jesus dined in the home of one of the leading Pharisees. This means that Jesus is accepted as a social equal by the Pharisee. But Jesus was being watched closely if he observes social and ritual codes of the meal on a Sabbath.
The test came with the presence of a man sufferring from dropsy, an abnormal swelling of the body cause by the accumulation of fluid. Jesus heals the man and thus violates the law of sabbath. But for Jesus, to end the suffering of the man is more important than observing the law of sabbath, no matter how holy the law may be. Doing good on sabbath is far more holier than not attending the need of a person on sabbath.
