New Life through Sabbath Rest :: Luke 14:1-6

And it came to pass that when [Jesus] went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, they were watching him carefully. And behold, a certain man came before him suffering from edema. ... [In response], Jesus spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying: ‘Is it lawful [to heal] on the Sabbath, or not?’ (vv 1-3).

This is our question of the day: Is it lawful [to heal or to administer care] on the Sabbath, or not? Jesus isn’t asking if it is good or right ... but is it lawful? Do you know how to answer from scripture? To be honest, it’s a great question from our Lord ... a question we should all be able to answer boldly ... unlike all the lawyers and Pharisees in the room who are always too busy trying to trap Jesus with man-made rules about Word and Sacrament ministry. So today, he asks us, Is it lawful [to heal or administer care] on the Sabbath, or not? 

5.

Before we get started on answering this question, let’s be sure to get one thing straight: Today is not the Sabbath; nor is it the Christian Sabbath. The Sabbath is Saturday. Today is the Lord’s day. The Sabbath is a day of the Lord. But today is the day we continue celebrating the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus, who fulfilled the Sabbath with his perfect rest in the tomb. Today is the day we get to rejoice that his work is complete. Today is the day that we are reminded that all Law has been fulfilled in Christ ... that He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Hallelujah!

As Jesus said moments before beginning his Sabbath rest began: It is finished (Jn 19:31). In other words, there is no work left for you to do. There is no punishment left for you to suffer. Jesus suffered the full wrath of God for you. And then he rested ... on the Sabbath, no less. Jesus did this for you ... to heal you ... to make you whole. We don’t need to work toward our salvation. God has done that for us so that we can rest knowing we are his heirs to eternal life. 

As I was reminding our catechumens this week: Jesus has blessed us ... chosen us ... predestined us for adoption ... lavished us with wisdom and insight ... and delivered to you the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation (Eph 1:3-14). And it is all on account of his death on the cross, his rest in the tomb, and his resurrection (1 Cor 15:1-5).

Now, having heard all this Gospel of what God has done for you, can you answer the question ... Is it lawful [to heal] on the Sabbath, or not?

4.

Maybe we should start by answering the question, what is the Sabbath? This noun, the Sabbath, is rooted in the Hebrew word שָׁבַת (Shabbat) ... a verb that means to rest, to cease, to desist. In other words, the basic thrust of the verb is to bring something to an end ... you know, like your work week. 

More important than the origin of the word is the theology behind the Sabbath. The Lutherans in the room should know this part by memory: What is the third commandment? Remember the day of the Sabbath to keep it holy. Six days you will serve and do all your work. Then the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God: You will not do any work, you or your son, or your daughter, your servant or your maidservant, or your behemoths, or the sojourner who is in your gates because in six days Yahweh made the heavens and earth, the sea and all that is in them, and he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, Yahweh blessed the day of the Sabbath and made it holy (Ex 20:8-11).

God’s creation forms the basis for the Sabbath. It is therefore a blessed day ... blessed because God made it that way. God gave us the Sabbath as a unique gift. He knows you have to work hard and rest well. So he gave us a day of blessing ... a day when he takes a knee for us ... to serve us ... to be therapeutic, administering his care for us. That is what the Sabbath is.

So you see, the Sabbath played an important role in the life and history of the Jewish people. The Israelites revered this day and respected it highly. The Sabbath, however, was soon abused by Jewish legalism. The lawyers and Pharisees began fencing-in this day with rules and regulations. While the Law is good and true, and it is good to rest, man was not made for the Sabbath (Mk 2:27). Sadly, by the time of Jesus, that’s what it had become ... a man-made day. The lawyers had made it an offense to heal the sick on the Sabbath, to rescue the lost, to walk more than 3,000 feet, to start a fire, to prepare meals, to perform even the most mundane tasks. 

Which brings us to today’s reading on this Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity. 

3.

And it came to pass that a ruler of the Pharisees invited a bunch of people, including Jesus and a man with edema, to eat bread with him on the Sabbath (vv 1, 7).

I bet most of you are familiar with edema, which is basically a buildup of fluid in the body. This condition is most noticeable on the arms and legs, hands and feet. It causes pain and terrible swelling, and it can be disfiguring. Although you may think it’s a pretty common affliction ... because anyone who suffers from congestive heart failure, diabetes, kidney disease, among so many other ailments ... will often suffer from edema too. According to the Law, that is bad news. According to the Law, those who have edema are unclean (Lev 13:2), and are to be isolated, cut off from society. Nonetheless, this ruler of the Pharisees invited this man ... along with Jesus to break bread together. 

Clearly, it was a setup. Will he eat with such a man, the lawyers and Pharisees must have been thinking, perhaps again trying to trap Jesus. 

But when Jesus saw the man, he turned to the lawyers and Pharisees in the room and asked our question of the day: Is it lawful to administer care on the Sabbath or not? 

And they stayed silent. 

2.

I don’t doubt for a second whether the lawyers and Pharisees knew the answer. You might think this is a yes or no question. But when Jesus asked the question ... he phrased it in a way that demands a yes answer ... I know you can’t see that because you are reading it in English. But in Greek, it is unmistakable. ... Yes, it is lawful. Because this is one thing the Sabbath is for. 

Jesus might as well have added a quote from the prophet Hosea by saying, God desires mercy not sacrifice (Hos 6:6). God designed the Sabbath for rest and restoration. God desires that you take care of each other. God desires that you pause from your busy lives to rest in his Word and sacraments. God desires to deliver to you his gifts. God desires to administer his care for your souls. God desires to serve you with the best gifts he can offer ... Words of absolution, the bread of life, the cup of salvation, his font of every blessing. God desires to heal you. God desires to restore you into his image. God desires that you forgive each other. 

This is why Luther reminds us not to despise preaching or God’s Word, but to hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it. Enjoy the Sabbath rest that you have entered (Hb 4:9-11).

Brothers and sisters in Christ, Return to the Lord. The Sabbath was created for you.

GOD GIVES US NEW LIFE THROUGH HIS REST ON THE SABBATH THROUGH HIS WORD AND SACRAMENTS.

1.

Then [Jesus] took hold of [the man with edema] and healed him and released him. And he said to them, Which one of you, having a son or bull that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out? (v 4-5). And of course, they couldn’t dispute that either (v 6). 

This is why you’ve come to _______ Lutheran Church today. We need God’s rest. We need his healing. We need his renewal. We need to hear and receive his Gospel of what he does for us. We need his Word and sacraments, which boldly and profoundly proclaim the Gospel. And we know this is where that happens. Won’t you now insist on receiving God’s rest?

Our Lord Jesus Christ longs to give it to you. 

Jesus recognized the plight we face every day ... of how we are drowning in unclean living ... so he became one with us to give us his rest. He obeyed the Law in all of its fullness. 

Born of the virgin, he who knew no sin suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He didn’t deserve that death. He didn’t deserve to be shunned like we lawyers and Pharisees do. But he did it for you, dying for you, so that he could fulfill his rest on the Sabbath for you, obeying every jot and tittle of the Law, even in death. He rested from all his labors, his bloody sweat, his agony on the cross. He rested from his atoning work. He rested from the burden of carrying your sin to the cross and finally to the grave where it will never be heard from again. He rested so well, he didn’t even take a breath in the tomb. He did that for you.

And through it he has now given you eternal life. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, What is the purpose of the Sabbath? It leads us to the resurrection and life everlasting. God uses the Sabbath to serve you. And you are served by hearing his Word and receiving his sacraments that deliver to you the forgiveness of sins. 

Now you can answer, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not? Man-made rules will never trump the Sabbath. So come every Lord’s day and delight in his gifts that provide his rest, then you will discover complete healing ... in Jesus’ name. Amen.