Jesus Uses the Sabbath to Set All Things Right :: Luke 14:1-11

And it came to pass, [Jesus] entered into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees during the Sabbath to eat bread, and they were watching him closely. And behold, one man with edema was before him. In response to this, Jesus said to the Torah experts and Pharisees, Is it lawful during the Sabbath to give therapy or not? But they were silent. And having received [the man], [Jesus] healed and dismissed him. And to [the Pharisees and Torah experts], he said, Which of you, [when your] son or ox falls into a well, will not immediately pull him up during the Sabbath day? And they did not have the strength to answer against these things (vv 1-6). 

Please now turn to page 321 in your (Lutheran) Service Book, and join me in confessing our faithful doctrine on the Third Commandment. 

As the head of the family should teach it in a simple way to his household: What is the Third Commandment? Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.

What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.

4.

They knew he was right. They knew he was orthodox. They knew they couldn’t find fault in his preaching and teaching. They knew that if he kept going, he would overturn their tradition and heritage. They knew that people would keep following him if he kept healing them. 

So they kept their eye on him. 

Do you see what he’s doing on the Sabbath, they said to each other. He forgives sinners (5:30). Do you see what he’s doing on the Sabbath? He receives them and eats with them (15:2). Do you see what he’s doing on the Sabbath? He goes and visits with them (19:7). 

So they grumbled over and over about him, saying, We have to do something about Jesus. We have to keep our eye on him. And so watched him, oh, so carefully, even though they knew he was right in everything he said and did. Surely, one day he will make a mistake, they thought. Then we will be able to destroy him. Then we will be able to get rid of this man. 

His Word can’t always be right ... can it?

3.

By the time we get to our reading today, the scribes, and the Pharisees, and the teachers of the Torah have been working on this plan for years ... ever since Jesus began doing right on the Sabbath, casting out demons and healing the people in Chapter 4[:31-39]. Over the course of the next three Sabbath miracles, the Pharisees and scribes and Torah experts progress from anger (6:11) to humiliation (13:17) and now silence (v 4). 

Why? 

Because they know he’s right, and they don’t have the strength to argue against him. So with each passing day, they become more convinced Jesus has to go. His teaching is not like any we have ever heard before. 

Then it came to pass, he entered into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees during the Sabbath to eat bread, and they were watching him carefully (v 1). Let me rephrase that ... they were watching him like an eagle ... keeping him close by ... lying in wait with evil intent ... taking heed of his every move ... waiting with bated breath for his every Word.  

And behold, there was a man before [Jesus] who had dropsy ... you know, edema ... the painful buildup of fluid, particularly in the feet and ankles and hands. To the Jews it was grotesque.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, where do you think he came from? Luke certainly doesn’t tell us why this man is here ... why a ruler of the Pharisees ... you know, a synagogue leader ... would allow him into the house for this fellowship feast after worship. But it should be fair to surmise that the Pharisees invited him because they were desperate to get rid of Jesus ... to trap him. As Leviticus 13:2 reminds us, anyone with a condition like edema is unclean. And anyone who touches an unclean man becomes unclean too ... until the priest pronounces him clean anyway. If he does that then Jesus is breaking the Law, and therefore a sinner. They thought they were right.

So ... seeing what was going down ... Jesus said to the Torah experts and Pharisees, Is it lawful on the Sabbath to give therapy or not? (vv 3). 

There are a couple things to take note of here. First, Jesus isn’t speaking to just anyone. Jesus is speaking directly to the Torah experts and Pharisees, the ones who think they are right. They’re the ones watching him. The Greek makes that plainly clear. 

Second, we should note that not all Torah experts are Pharisees, and the Pharisees aren’t all Torah experts. But both groups are determined to dot their Is and cross their Ts when it comes to the Law and the tradition passed down by their fathers. They are determined to do things the way they think is right, never mind that it is the Word of God that is right.

So when Jesus asked, is it lawful on the Sabbath to give therapy ... they were silent (v 4). What could they say? They knew the answer to Jesus’ question was ... of course, it is good, right, and salutary to give therapy on the Sabbath. Of course it’s good, right, and salutary to render aid to brothers in need. God didn’t give you the Sabbath to leave you in suffering. 

As Jesus told the Pharisees early in his ministry, the Sabbath came into being for the sake of man, not man for the sake of the Sabbath (Mk 2:27). In other words, God uses the Sabbath to make us whole. God uses the Sabbath to give us rest. God uses the Sabbath to strengthen our faith in him. God uses the Sabbath to point us to his redemption, the day he will rest. God uses the Sabbath therefore to draw all men to himself ... to make all things right after we made them go wrong. He does that by sending Jesus to us so that we don’t despise preaching and his word. 

So when Jesus received the man with dropsy, he healed him and dismissed him (v 4b). 

2.

That was the only right thing to do. While we can give therapy to each other by remembering the Lord and enjoying a day of rest, Jesus is able to heal. 

There are at least seven times in the Gospels that Jesus healed someone on the Sabbath (Lk 4:35, 4:39, 6:10, 13:13, 14:4; and Jn 5:9, 9:14). Like all of the healings on the Sabbath in scripture, this one also is a Christological act that reveals to us who the Lord of the Sabbath and our Great High Priest really is ... our Lord Jesus. Healing is very specifically his divine action ... his way to make things right. And he does it on the eternal day in which we continue to live.

Then Jesus said to them, Which of you, when your son or ox falls into a well, will not immediately pull him up on the Sabbath day? And they did not have the strength to answer against these things (vv 5-6). That’s because they knew he was right.

Jesus might as well framed that question this way ... If you will rescue a cow that has escaped the pasture on the Sabbath, why would you not help your brother receive healing on Sunday? We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and God’s Word but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it. We should fear and love God so that we will stop bowing at the altars of me, myself, and I. We should fear and love God, asking ourselves, as Christ once asked the Pharisees on another Sabbath much like this one: Why transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition. ... In this way we make void the word of God for the sake of tradition (Mt 15:3, 6).  

So what are we to do brothers and sisters in Christ? 

1. 

You know the right answer: Repent in the name of Jesus. And believe the Gospel. 

JESUS USES THE SABBATH TO SET ALL THINGS ARIGHT

Our Lord was born for this very reason. He does all things right to set all things right. 

Jesus silently and selflessly took all of our sin from us to set us right with God. He carried the burden of all our anxiety and worry, of all of our sickness and disease, of all our judgments and criticisms to the cross silently. There, God poured out all of his wrath for sin upon the body of Jesus, making right all that was wrong. Jesus shed his blood for you. Jesus died for you. Jesus went silently to the grave for you. And then because he was righteous in every thought, word, and deed, God raised him from the dead on the Third Day. 

He is now risen! He is risen indeed! Hallelujah!

God has made all things right through his Word that became flesh.

While God’s command to remember the Sabbath by keeping it holy instituted the practice of resting from the work of this world every seventh day, the Third Commandment actually points us to this great Sabbath truth, the day God rested from his work of redemption. The forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are the gifts of God now offered to you on account of Jesus. Through these gifts he gives us rest for our souls through the ministry of his son. 

As Saint Paul told the Ephesians ... I therefore urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Eph 4:1-4). 

The Word of God sets all things right ... in Jesus’ name.