Not long before this story, Jesus healed a man on the sabbath. He took a lot of flack for it. The Pharisees questioned his motives and his loyalty to God. Here, Jesus is the one posing the questions. He doesn't simply react - Jesus is proactive, and is concerned with making the Pharisees wrestle with the tough questions themselves. 

I know that I learn best when I am actively involved in the process of learning. When someone tells me a thing is so, it doesn't stick. When someone challenges me to wrestle with the tough questions, and especially when I am allowed to engage in conversation with others wrestling with the same thing - that is when I learn the best.

This question of healing on the sabbath is not of immediate concern to me. But there are some tough questions I wrestle with. Why do nearly all the people I love suffer from conditions and diseases that affect their daily lives or nearly kill them? Does hell exist, and if so, who goes there, and who does not, and for what? Does my existence have a greater purpose? Whatever your questions, seek out people you can engage in wrestling with the tough questions. Be open to the possibility you might not have all the answers. Listen. Question. Learn.

Text:

On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely. Just then, in front of him, there was a man who had dropsy. And Jesus asked the lawyers and Pharisees, “Is it lawful to cure people on the sabbath, or not?” But they were silent. So Jesus took him and healed him, and sent him away. Then he said to them, “If one of you has a child or an ox that has fallen into a well, will you not immediately pull it out on a sabbath day?” And they could not reply to this.