THE SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY
4 October Anno +Domini 2009
"Jesus Is the Sabbathâ€
Luke 14:1-11
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
The Pharisees were watching Jesus carefully. They were hanging on His every word and focusing on His every deed, not because they sought to learn from Him, but solely because they hoped to witness Him make a mistake, so they could pounce on Him and prove Him to be a fraud. Worse than that, the Pharisees continually plotted and schemed behind the scenes to try to come up with ways they could trap Jesus. How many times in the Gospels do we see them putting Jesus to the test in the hope that they could reveal Him to be a fool and a liar?
But, Jesus is always wise to their game. He sees right into their hearts. He is always one step ahead of them, for He knows what they plot in secret. The Pharisees have no chance. They're messing with God Himself, come in the Flesh to save and rescue sinners. They cannot outsmart God. But, oh how they try, again and again and again.
So it is that Jesus goes to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees. He marches right into the enemy's camp, fully aware of the evil they have planned for Him. He is not afraid. He knows what will happen even before He arrives. He is there to proclaim the Truth. He is the Truth. He is not there to negotiate with His enemies. There will be no compromises. He will sign no peace treaties with them. He is there to reveal their sins to them by means of the Law and to point them to their only source of rescue, Himself.
But, the Pharisees are watching carefully, hoping that Jesus will goof up. They're especially interested when the man with dropsy appears on the scene. What will Jesus do? It is the Sabbath, after all. They know the Sabbath laws. Will Jesus break the Sabbath laws? But, even as these questions are dancing around in their heads, Jesus, knowing their hearts and minds, beats them to the punch and puts the question to them: "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?â€
They weren't expecting that. What does that mean? What game is Jesus trying to play here? This is how it is with those who are so accustomed to lies and deceit, so used to plotting and scheming behind the scenes. They think others are just like them. They hear a simple, straight-forward question and wonder what the catch must be. That's one of the reasons the lawyers and Pharisees, experts in the Law, remain silent when Jesus asks this simple question about the Law. They don't want to be trapped.
The other reason is that they know that giving the easy, correct answer will be an exercise in condemning themselves. The answer to Jesus' question is, "No, it is not lawful to heal on the Sabbath. God has told us not to do any work on this day.†But, they know they haven't kept the Sabbath perfectly. They know how many times they have cheated, how many times they have stretched the rules in secret. They're not only experts in the Law, but they had also become experts at getting around the Law, of doing their misdeeds in the dark, while masquerading as righteous ones in the light of day. They were hypocrites and they knew it. So, they remained silent.
Then Jesus makes a bold move. He takes the man with dropsy and heals him and sends him away. The lawyers and Pharisees should react by tearing their robes and crying out, "Sabbath breaker!†This was the chance for which they had been waiting. Here's their chance to pounce on Jesus. He has broken the Law. Finally, they got Him. He made the mistake they were hoping He'd make.
But, they just sit there in silence. The Law has rendered them impotent. It has accused them. They know they haven't lived up to it. To accuse Jesus of breaking the Law is to accuse themselves. And Jesus makes sure to drive this home by asking them, "Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?†They have no reply.
Now, here's the interesting thing about this account. Jesus is guilty of breaking the Sabbath. The Law says no labor on the Sabbath, and He does the work of healing. So, Jesus breaks the Sabbath. It is not that He has violated the Sabbath or sinned. But, He has broken it, stopped it, put it to an end. That's why He came. To put an end to the Law and its accusations against sinners. He accomplishes that by submitting to death on a cross. His Blood satisfies the Law and all its demands. The Sabbath Day and all its regulations are no longer necessary, for the One to whom the Sabbath pointed has arrived on the scene. Jesus reinterprets the Sabbath in terms of Himself. He is the Sabbath. Is it lawful for Him to heal on the Sabbath? Absolutely. That's why He came. And His coming was the whole point of the Sabbath in the first place.
But, don't misunderstand this, dear friends. Do not hear me saying that the Law is now abolished. It is not. Not one jot or tittle will pass away from the Law. The Law remains in full force. Jesus did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it.
So, what of the Sabbath? Are we still required to keep the third commandment to remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy? Yes, we are. But, Jesus has fulfilled and reinterpreted its meaning for us. We are no longer bound to set aside one day of the week to rest and meditate upon God's Word. We do not have to refrain from any physical labor from Friday at 6:00 p.m. until Saturday at 6:00 p.m. No, one day a week simply won't do. We are bound to keep the Sabbath daily, hourly, minute by minute. We should fear and love God so that we do no despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it. That is not simply fulfilled if we show up for Church on Sunday. That is something we are called to do every day. To remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy is a daily activity, an hourly activity, a minute by minute activity.
I always get a kick out of the Seventh-Day Adventists, and others, when they accuse us of doing away with the Sabbath Day regulations. They think that we're guilty of picking and choosing which Laws we want to keep and which we'd like to discard, since we don't demand worship and full rest on Saturdays. They think we're trying to get away with something. We're not. Our position, based on our Lord's Word, is that the Sabbath is to be kept always - every single day. We live in the Sabbath. We're always expected to keep it holy. To think that you can fulfill the Sabbath Day regulations by refraining from physical labor and worshipping on Saturdays is to fall back into the deception of the Pharisees.
Jesus does not come to sugar coat the Law or lessen its demands. He comes to preach it in its full sternness. He comes to reveal to sinners their inability to keep it, so that they will rely not on themselves, but on Him. So He says, "You've heard it said that you should not murder, but I tell you that, if you are angry with your brother, you have committed murder in your heart†and "You've heard it said that you should not commit adultery, but I tell you that, if you have lusted after another, you have committed adultery in your heart.†The point is that you are deceiving yourself if you think you have kept any of God's Laws. You haven't. You can't. The aim of the Law is to accuse us and render us impotent, for we have never lived up to it - not even close.
And the "You†there is not just aimed at the Pharisees, but at us. We have not kept the Law. We have not remembered the Sabbath by keeping it holy. We have not loved God with our whole heart and our neighbors as ourselves. We have been guilty of breaking every one of God's commandments. And it wouldn't even matter if we had been successful at keeping this or that commandment, which we haven't, since to break any part of God's Law is to break all of God's Law. The Law demands perfection. Not sometimes, but always. Repent!
The truth is that we have all been guilty of skirting around the Law, thinking we've gotten away with something we haven't. We have all looked for the minimum requirements of the Law, thinking that by fulfilling them we have succeeded. We think those Old Testament believers had it a lot tougher than we do. They were required to set aside a whole day for God, and we only have to give Him a little over an hour a week. They were required to give 10% of their blessings back to God, but we don't have to give Him anything. We have missed the point. The Law demands our all. There are no minimum requirements. You want to fulfill the Law, then go and sell everything you have, give it all to Jesus, and follow Him. Who among us is willing to do such a thing? Repent! We are pretenders, every bit as much as the Pharisees were, for we do our dirty deeds in the dark and put on a show of righteousness in front of others in the light of day.
But, the same Lord Jesus Christ, who would have us gaze into the mirror of His holy Law to see our sins, has taken our sins away. He fulfilled the Law in our place with His perfect life. And, He paid the price for all of our sins, all of our breaking of His perfect Law, with His perfect sacrifice on the cross. There, dear Christian, is your only hope. Jesus is your rescue, your Savior, your salvation. Humble yourselves before Him. Acknowledge and confess your sins, for the one who humbles himself before Him will not only be forgiven and restored, but exalted and given a place of honor to sit with Him at His Feast.
Ultimately, the grave mistake of the Pharisees was not that they were sinners, but that they refused to acknowledge as much. Don't make that mistake, my friends. A humble and contrite heart the Lord does not despise. Come and feast at His Table as those who know they don't deserve to do so. Come and receive the Divine Gifts He desires to give. And, depart in peace, not to go out and knowingly and willingly break His Laws and live as you please, but to be His instruments of love and peace in this dead and dying world, striving with all your might to love God and neighbor, and living in daily repentance and faith. Lord, grant this unto us all. In Jesus' Holy and Precious Name. Amen.
Now the peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, unto life everlasting. Amen.