On one occasion when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched — the Sabbath dinner setting frames the healing of the man with dropsy and the teaching on humility and generosity. The watching (parateren) is the hostile surveillance that recurs throughout the Jerusalem journey, and Jesus' question — Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not? — meets silence before the healing and silence after the livestock analogy.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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