Sermon - Trinity XVII 2023 - Luke 14:1-11

Christ Healeth the Dropsical Man, Emile Rouargue, 1795-1865

The sabbath is a day of healing

1. The Sabbath in ancient Israel was a day of healing when they:

1.  rested from work and 

2. assembled to hear God’s Word.

2. The Sabbath is fulfilled in Christ, but its fruits of rest and assembly continue today.

When you are ill or injured one of the most important parts of healing is rest. We understand this instinctually since it’s part of our daily rhythm of life: waking and sleeping. God created this daily rhythm by creating night and day. God also created a weekly day of rest every 7th day, called the Sabbath day. Rest is so important that God even gave the ground rest every 7th year, when He instructed the Israelites to let the land lie fallow. From what I understand this was an agricultural practice up until the last few hundred years since it was considered good for the soil. 

The point of all of this is that God created the Sabbath day of rest to be a day of healing. Jesus’ question was perplexing to the Pharisees because they didn’t understand the meaning of the Sabbath. “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” By the time of Jesus the Pharisees had made the Sabbath into a work that man had to do, with special rules about what you could or couldn’t do on the Sabbath. For the Pharisees, the Sabbath was all about what they had to not do. The focus was on their actions (or inactions as it were). 

But listen to the actual instruction given to the Israelites in Leviticus 23: “Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to the LORD in all your dwelling places.” There are two details I’d like to point out from this: First, this was a day to rest from work. Second, this was a day to assemble to hear God’s Word. Both of these aspects are with the understanding that the sabbath is a day of healing.

That the Israelites rested from work one day a week perhaps seems a bit trite to us who live in a culture with a five day workweek and weekends and multiple weeks of vacation every year. But there were numerous cultural and lifestyle differences between then and now. For one thing, today we have the ability to store more food long-term with refrigeration, dehydration, and canning. Thus very few people today actually produce most of their own food, whereas the Israelites largely produced everything that they ate on a daily basis. So, to take a day of rest from their labor meant that they had to have faith in God’s providence, that He would provide for them in spite of their resting.

Another cultural difference is that the Israelites weren’t as busy as we are today. Of course they worked hard and had long days, but they didn’t have so many distractions like we do which increase our busy-ness. In a way they had more time for daily leisure than we do. At the same time, their work was often more physically strenuous, and taking a day of rest from work was meant to be healing for their bodies, a gift from God. As Jesus explained: “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”

It’s also important to recognize that the Sabbath wasn’t just a day to sit around and twiddle thumbs or to fill the day with worldly actions. It was a day of solemn rest, it was a holy convocation. This was a day for the Israelites to assemble in order to engage themselves in godly endeavors, such as hearing God’s Word or otherwise engaging in christian education. 

For instance, the Israelites were commanded in the 3rd Commandment: “You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.” Evidently one of the things they were to remember on this is that God rescued them from their slavery in Egypt. 

Additionally, the Israelites were instructed, that: “these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” Thus, when the family is sitting in their homes, such as they would be doing for at least part of the Sabbath, they were to be teaching the word of God and handing down the traditions of the faith. The Sabbath was for solemn rest, a holy assembly, not for doing whatever profane things they wanted. Because God made the Sabbath for man’s healing, not just physical healing, but spiritual healing.

So when Jesus dined with the Pharisees on a Sabbath, remember, “The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” He joined them not to take His own rest, but in order to heal those present with Him. Physically He healed a man who had dropsy, a type of water retention sickness. It was an illness associated with wealth, probably a result of a rich diet and little exercise. In other words it was an illness that likely could’ve been prevented with a lifestyle change, and as such was at least partly the man’s own fault. To some extent, it was thus also a spiritual malady. Nevertheless, Jesus healed the man and sent him away, because Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath who came to heal.

But after performing a miraculous healing, Jesus also taught the Pharisees on the Sabbath so that He might heal them spiritually. He noticed their pride when “He noticed how they chose the places of honor.” So He taught them humility, concluding: “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” This lesson on humility maybe seems disconnected from Jesus’ teaching on the Sabbath, but it’s actually directly connected.

In their pride, the Pharisees had turned the Sabbath day of healing rest into a work that they had to perform. But the Sabbath isn’t a day for pride. Instead, the Sabbath is a day for humility, when God’s people recognize their weakness and frailty, and so find their healing rest in God on this day. Since their bodies were weak from laboring all week, they humbly trusted in God to provide for them this day so that their bodies could heal. Additionally, their souls were weak and needed to receive healing through God’s Word.

But what about us? We Christians don’t gather on the 7th day of the week anymore and observe the Sabbath. How does any of this talk about the Sabbath apply to us? The Sabbath is fulfilled in Christ, but its fruits of solemn rest and holy convocation continue among us still today.

Today we Christians gather on Sundays because that is the day when Jesus rose from the dead. This has been a tradition among Christians since very shortly after Jesus’ resurrection. The Sabbath day of rest was fulfilled when Jesus rested on the Sabbath in the tomb and then awakened on the next day. We’re not obligated to keep the Sabbath day of rest the same way that the ancient Israelites were since Jesus fulfilled this law for us.

However, Jesus’ work of Sabbath healing continues among us today, but in a more complete and full way. We continue to remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy when we fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it. In humility we recognize that we are frail and weak, exhausted from the cares of this world, and that we need to find our solemn rest in Jesus. Thus, it’s not just once a week when we are to find solemn rest in Jesus, but every day. In Christian freedom we have declared a holy convocation every Sunday morning, so that we Christians can humbly assemble in this holy place to hear the Word of God and receive healing rest from Him.

Additionally, all of our rest is defined by Christ. Often when we think of resting, we picture the profane and the worldly. We binge watch TV or social media, we watch games or go drinking, we go fishing or spend the day in our pajamas. While those things aren’t inherently sinful, they’re also not the point of Sabbath rest. The healing we need isn’t found in the pleasures of life, but in Christ Jesus. The rest we need is a break from the sinful world around us, not more of it.

This morning you have humbled yourself to join this holy convocation and solemn assembly, where we rest in the word of God and are refreshed with His holy sacraments. You who are wearied by the changes and chances of life have come to rest in the arms of your loving Father. This place isn’t like the world around us, and that’s on purpose. Here things move more slowly. No flashing screens nor pop-culture music. We take our time and savor the silent moments. We reflect on God’s gifts.

The church throughout the ages has intentionally cultivated an environment of Sabbath rest here in the sanctuary every week. The same type of Sabbath rest can be cultivated in our homes as well. Before you turn on a screen in the morning, say a prayer or open a Bible. Carve out opportunities through the day for silence and reflection. Put a Bible near where you eat so that you’re reminded to read it. Hang good Christian art on your walls to keep Christ before your eyes at all times. In so cultivating this culture of Sabbath rest in our homes, we learn to humble ourselves, seeing that we are frail and tired, and we submit ourselves to God’s healing rest which is found in Him alone. Jesus is Lord of our resting, and promises to heal us when we rest in Him. Jesus bids us join Him, to: “Come away and rest a while.”