Full of Water

Every language has creative humor that can be easily omitted if someone doesn’t know the language or the culture. Groucho Marx, a famous comedian from the early television era, once said, “One morning, I shot an elephant in my pajamas.” After a pause, he continued, “How he got into my pajamas, I’ll never know.”

Luke makes a similar play-on-words in the following story. One day, Jesus went to the house of one of the leading Pharisees, someone like Gamaliel, to eat (Luke 14:1). As he went, the following event happened. (Luke will continue the events of 14:1 later, starting with 14:7.)

“Jesus saw a man before him who was hydro-pikos [water-full-of]. Jesus asked the law interpreters and the Pharisees, ‘Is it lawful to heal on a Sabbath?’ They were silent. So, he healed him and sent him away. Then he said to them: ‘Who among you, when your child or livestock falls into a watering well, immediately take him out on that Sabbath day? Again, they refused to answer him.” (14:2–6)

That man had a form of illness that made him retain plenty of water in his body. Whereas ESV and KJV specify it as a dropsy –a generalized swelling that’s the symptom of heart failure – the NIV says, “A man suffering from abnormal swelling of his body.” One Greek-English dictionary says, “swelling resulting from the accumulation of lymph in the body tissues” (Louw & Nida). Whatever the illness was, it gave Jesus a perfect analogy – he was like a child or livestock that accidentally fell into a well full of water.

The law interpreters and the Pharisees knew exactly what they would do if their child, goat, lamb, or cow had fallen into a well on a Sabbath – they would quickly rescue that child or livestock. Yet, they were speechless when that man had somehow succumbed to an illness that made his entire body retain water like a balloon. They didn’t want him rescued; after all, it was Sabbath, and no one was to work on a Sabbath. Their silence spoke volumes of their indifference to human suffering against their loyalty to religious piety or rituals.

We shouldn’t be overly critical of them because many of our religious actions are equally unthoughtful. When we, for example, say, “Please stand with us for worship” or “Please stand in honor of God and his word,” we insult those who can’t stand up because of their physical ailment or disability. We introduce this false dichotomy of honor – standing up is honor, and sitting down is dishonor. But that is only visible. God sees a person’s heart – s/he could be standing and yet be disobedient or sitting and yet be obedient. I am not saying we can’t have ritualistic expressions, but we shouldn’t impose them on others. When we do, we become like those law interpreters and Pharisees who put religious piety over true mercy.