Who Makes The Rules

Who Makes the Rules

Luke 14:1-6

Rabbi Rev. Dr. Michael H. Koplitz

Luke 14:1 It happened that when He went into the house of one of the leaders of the

Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, they were watching Him closely. 2 And there in

front of Him was a man suffering from edema. 3 And Jesus responded and said to the

lawyers and Pharisees, “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 offer no reply to this.

Imagine with me that you are driving down the interstate. You pass a sign that says,

“Speed Limit 65 miles per hour.” You decide that’s too slow, so you punch your car up

to 85 miles per hour. A few miles later, you see flashing lights in your rearview mirror—

a police officer is pulling you over and giving you a ticket. You wonder, why does this

officer think he has the authority to stop me because I was speeding? Or better yet,

who decided the speed limit should be 65? Who makes these rules in our society, and

why?

These are great questions—and they echo questions Jesus raised in the healing

narratives. In Luke 14:1–6, Jesus is having a meal with a leader of the Pharisees. A man

with edema appears, and Jesus decides to heal him. This narrative excludes plenty of

details. Did the man come into the house, or did Jesus go outside to meet him? The

man doesn’t ask Jesus for healing, and Jesus doesn’t ask him anything. Jesus simply

heals him and then speaks to the Pharisees about healing on the Sabbath—even though

they hadn’t asked any questions.

The author of Luke’s Gospel leaves space for us to speculate. One thing we need to

know about Semitic writers in Jesus’ time is that they didn’t include physical

descriptions. We have no description of Jesus in the Gospels—no height, no eye

color—because that wasn’t necessary to the writers. Their focus was on His words and

actions, not His appearance. So, while we can guess what people in the Near East

looked like, we’ll never know for sure.

Now, back to the question: Who made the rule that the speed limit is 65? That’s what

Jesus was getting at. He was asking the Pharisees—through this healing and others—

by what authority they made these laws and rules.

Here’s an important cultural detail: There were 39 defined activities that were prohibited

on the Sabbath. If you’re wondering who came up with these 39, that’s a great question!

The Bible simply says, “Do no work on the Sabbath.” God didn’t define what “work”

meant. Logically, some tasks had to be done even on the Sabbath—like feeding animals.

If your son fell into a pit, you wouldn’t leave him there until sundown! Yet pulling him

out would technically be “work.”

Why was healing considered work by the Pharisees? Healers would take various plants

and roots, grind them into a powder, and then mix the powder with water to create an

ointment or a drinkable remedy. Guess what? Grinding into a powder was one of the

39 activities prohibited on the Sabbath. Therefore, the Pharisees assumed that for Jesus

to heal the man with edema, He would need to prepare medicine by grinding herbs—

an act that would violate their Sabbath restrictions. They never considered that Jesus

might have had an ointment ready beforehand. That wasn’t how they thought in those

days. Since ground herbs and powders had a limited shelf life, healers typically prepared

ointments and drinks on the spot when needed. For this reason, healers generally did

not perform healings on the Sabbath.

The Pharisees never considered that Jesus could heal without any physical or medicine

remedy.

This raises the bigger question: Who makes the rules? Look at our laws today. Who

decides what we can and can’t do? In the U.S., we elect leaders to create laws, but

bureaucrats, who we never voted on, often make regulations. Think back to 2020 during

COVID-19: Who decided we had to stay six feet apart, wear masks, or get vaccines?

Bureaucrats did, and elected leaders let them. The same happens with zoning laws and

countless regulations at every level of government.

Even worse, elected officials frequently campaign on promises they can’t or won’t keep.

For example, the New York City mayor elected in 2024 promised free bus and train

service. People voted for him because of that promise. But in 2025, one of his first

actions was to raise fares. He said what people wanted to hear to get elected, then did