The Visit to Philadelphia

167:1.1There lived in Phil­a­del­phia a very wealthy and in­flu­en­tial Phar­isee who had ac­cepted the teach­ings of Ab­ner, and who in­vited Je­sus to his house Sab­bath morn­ing for break­fast. It was known that Je­sus was ex­pected in Phil­a­del­phia at this time; so a large num­ber of vis­i­tors, among them many Phar­isees, had come over from Je­ru­sa­lem and from else­where. Ac­cord­ingly, about forty of these lead­ing men and a few lawyers were bid­den to this break­fast, which had been ar­ranged in honor of the Mas­ter.

167:1.2As Je­sus lin­gered by the door, speak­ing with Ab­ner, and af­ter the host had seated him­self, there came into the room one of the lead­ing Phar­isees of Je­ru­sa­lem, a mem­ber of the San­hedrin, and as was his habit, he made straight for the seat of honor at the left of the host. But since this place had been re­served for the Mas­ter and that on the right for Ab­ner, the host beck­oned the Je­ru­sa­lem Phar­isee to sit four seats to the left, and this dig­ni­tary was much of­fended be­cause he did not re­ceive the seat of honor.

167:1.3Soon they were all seated and en­joy­ing the vis­it­ing among them­selves since the ma­jor­ity of those pres­ent were dis­ci­ples of Je­sus or else were friendly to the gospel. Only his en­e­mies took no­tice of the fact that he did not ob­serve the cer­e­mo­nial wash­ing of his hands be­fore he sat down to eat. Ab­ner washed his hands at the be­gin­ning of the meal but not dur­ing the serv­ing.

167:1.4Near the end of the meal there came in from the street a man long af­flicted with a chronic dis­ease and now in a drop­si­cal con­di­tion. This man was a be­liever, hav­ing re­cently been bap­tized by Ab­ner’s as­so­ciates. He made no re­quest of Je­sus for heal­ing, but the Mas­ter knew full well that this af­flicted man came to this break­fast hop­ing thereby to es­cape the crowds which thronged him and thus be more likely to en­gage his at­ten­tion. This man knew that few mir­a­cles were then be­ing per­formed; how­ever, he had rea­soned in his heart that his sorry plight might pos­si­bly ap­peal to the Mas­ter’s com­pas­sion. And he was not mis­taken, for, when he en­tered the room, both Je­sus and the self-righ­teous Phar­isee from Je­ru­sa­lem took no­tice of him. The Phar­isee was not slow to voice his re­sent­ment that such a one should be per­mit­ted to en­ter the room. But Je­sus looked upon the sick man and smiled so be­nignly that he drew near and sat down upon the floor. As the meal was end­ing, the Mas­ter looked over his fel­low guests and then, af­ter glanc­ing sig­nif­i­cantly at the man with dropsy, said: “My friends, teach­ers in Is­rael and learned lawyers, I would like to ask you a ques­tion: Is it law­ful to heal the sick and af­flicted on the Sab­bath day, or not?” But those who were there pres­ent knew Je­sus too well; they held their peace; they an­swered not his ques­tion.

167:1.5Then went Je­sus over to where the sick man sat and, tak­ing him by the hand, said: “Arise and go your way. You have not asked to be healed, but I know the de­sire of your heart and the faith of your soul.” Be­fore the man left the room, Je­sus re­turned to his seat and, ad­dress­ing those at the ta­ble, said: “Such works my Fa­ther does, not to tempt you into the king­dom, but to re­veal him­self to those who are al­ready in the king­dom. You can per­ceive that it would be like the Fa­ther to do just such things be­cause which one of you, hav­ing a fa­vorite an­i­mal that fell in the well on the Sab­bath day, would not go right out and draw him up?” And since no one would an­swer him, and inas­much as his host ev­i­dently ap­proved of what was go­ing on, Je­sus stood up and spoke to all pres­ent: “My breth­ren, when you are bid­den to a mar­riage feast, sit not down in the chief seat, lest, per­chance, a more hon­ored man than you has been in­vited, and the host will have to come to you and re­quest that you give your place to this other and hon­ored guest. In this event, with shame you will be re­quired to take a lower place at the ta­ble. When you are bid­den to a feast, it would be the part of wis­dom, on ar­riv­ing at the fes­tive ta­ble, to seek for the low­est place and take your seat therein, so that, when the host looks over the guests, he may say to you: ‘My friend, why sit in the seat of the least? come up higher’; and thus will such a one have glory in the pres­ence of his fel­low guests. For­get not, ev­ery one who ex­alts him­self shall be hum­bled, while he who truly hum­bles him­self shall be ex­alted. There­fore, when you en­ter­tain at din­ner or give a sup­per, in­vite not al­ways your friends, your breth­ren, your kins­men, or your rich neigh­bors that they in re­turn may bid you to their feasts, and thus will you be rec­om­pensed. When you give a ban­quet, some­times bid the poor, the maimed, and the blind. In this way you shall be blessed in your heart, for you well know that the lame and the halt can­not re­pay you for your lov­ing min­istry.”