Again with the Sabbath?!

Introduction

If you’ve ever had kids, you’ve probably experienced what I like to call, “The Favorite Song Sickness.” And it affects kids differently than it does adults. When kids experience “The Favorite Song Sickness,” they are just sick until they hear their favorite song. There’s this longing deep inside to hear the song and that longing—that sickness goes away when the song comes on, but immediately comes back when the song is over. In some ways the 8-track brought this about, but it really started with the cassette tape, and got worse with the CD and worse with the mp3 player, and now is at its extreme with streaming devices. In one of the classes I subbed for, one girl was talking to another that she had listened to a certain Taylor Swift song over 70 times in a row!

Now, I said it affects kids differently than adults. The kids are sick until they hear the song, but we adults, we just get sick of the song! All we want is for the song to be over, but with streaming now, we are in a dungeon called the minivan, listening to Taylor Swift over and over again. And all we want is for it to be over; but like Sysiphus, once the boulder is pushed up, it rolls down and it starts all over again!

Hearing the same thing over and over again can be a bit annoying. It’s the “broken record,” that keeps repeating itself, repeating itself, repeating itself. And its tiresome.

This morning, we are once again talking about Jesus healing on the Sabbath day. Again with the Sabbath?! (Incidentally, if you didn’t know, when you put the question mark and exclamation mark together, it forms its own punctuation called the “interrobang.”). But how else do we learn the important lesson if it is only given to us once? So far, we’ve seen the disciples plucking grain on the Sabbath, a man healed of a withered hand on the Sabbath, and a woman straightened on the Sabbath. Now we have another story about the Sabbath. But one of the main differences in this story is that the healing is almost a side note. It’s barely mentioned. It’s Jesus’ questions that are the main theme in this narrative.

As we go through this narrative of healing, I want us to begin to ask ourselves the same two types of questions that Jesus asks of the people at the dinner. They’re really similar questions that caused the Pharisees to be silent. The two questions I want us to consider this morning is “What discourages us from acting?” And then I want to ask the opposite, “What encourages us to act?”

What Discourages Us from Acting?

What Encourages Us to Act?

Luke 14:1–6 ESV

One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. And he said to 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?” And they could not reply to these things.

What Discourages Us from Acting?

The first question that I want us to be asking ourselves comes out of the question that Jesus asked the Pharisees. So let’s look again at what’s taking place in the text, so that we can see the type of question Jesus is asking.

Luke 14:1–3 ESV

One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?”

Some of us might remember having revival services back in the day when a visiting preacher would come in and preach for a week or so, sometimes longer. And usually he would be invited to one of the church member’s house either before or after the revival service. This was similar to what probably happened at this time. Jesus is slowly making his way to Jerusalem. He’s teaching here and there and everywhere as he does. And it is likely that Jesus taught in one of the synagogues along the way on this particular day. And after synagogue was over, Jesus was most likely invited to this particular ruler of the Pharisee’s house to eat. It’s hard to know exactly what Luke meant has a ruler of the Pharisees. It could mean that he was part of the Sanhedrin Council or it could just mean that he was a man of influence among the Pharisees; or most likely, he was both.

So Jesus goes to this man’s house along with a bunch of other Pharisees. And they’re watching him like a hawk to see if he is going to mess up. Is he going to say something wrong? Is he going to do something wrong? And it even seems like, they had a plant to make sure it happened.

While we can’t be sure because it doesn’t explicitly say so, it reads like the man with dropsy was a plant. Again, Luke used the word, “Behold.” He wants Theophilus to notice this man, but he gives no explanation as to where he comes from. He is just there. The woman at the synagogue who was bent over had a reason to be at synagogue. In fact, all the other healings on the sabbath happened at synagogue. This one happens at the house of a Pharisee.

It reads as if he was planted there to catch Jesus doing something unlawful. Look at verse three. No one has said a word. Everyone is watching Jesus to see if he’ll incriminate himself. Suddenly, there’s a man with dropsy. No one says anything; they’re just watching, and Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees. He responded to them. He replied to them. They didn’t say anything, but their actions spoke louder than words.

And so he asked them, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” Literally, he asked, “Is it authorized to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” Luke used that word “authorized” or “authority” quite a bit in his Gospel Account. Between the noun “authority” and the verb “authorize,” Luke used it 21 times. That’s more than any other Gospel writer.

Jesus asked the Pharisees if it was lawful, if it was authorized, to heal on the Sabbath day. Authorized by what? By the law or by their traditions? Because the law would allow it! The real question that Jesus is asking is, “What is holding you back?” Is it the actual law that is holding you back or is it your interpretation of the law? What is discouraging you from acting?” And we see in verse 4 that the Pharisees were silent.

It wasn’t that they had no response, but that they chose not to respond. It wasn’t that they couldn’t answer him; it was that they wouldn’t answer him. In this moment, this wasn’t about them. It wasn’t even really about the man with dropsy. It was about Jesus. He was the one being scrutinized, not them.

Jesus gave them the answer that they would not give him.

Luke 14:4 ESV

But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away.

Remember that the one thing that Luke wanted Theophilus and all his readers to understand was that Jesus had the authority. Do a word search for “authority” in your Bible app and you will see that Luke says over and over again that Jesus was the man with authority. Jesus, more than anyone, knew what was authorized and what was not. So the fact that he healed the man, proved it was lawful. And just as a reminder, the healing isn’t the main event in this story. It happened in 11 words in English—only 6 words in Greek. The main event was the questioning.

What was it that discouraged the Pharisees and lawyers from acting, or wanting others to act when they couldn’t? After all, they had no power to heal the man of dropsy. But they begrudged the one who could heal him for doing so. What led them to that?

It often is depicted as if the Pharisees were hard-hearted jerks who loved to see others miserable. But that isn’t the case. They certainly had a pride problem, but probably for good reason. The people elevated them. They held themselves to a high standard of holiness and the people respected them for it. Outward holiness was of great importance.

Think about it this way: these Pharisees were the celebrity pastors of their day. If they were alive today, many of these men would be all over social media. They would be the pastors that all the regular pastors want to sound like. They’re the ones that all the seminary students aspire to be like. No one can know the heart, but we can see the fruit, and so outward appearances are everything.

They had to weigh their options carefully lest word got around that they said or did something unlawful—unauthorized. To heal on the Sabbath could be seen as work. So I can’t heal, but I also can’t support those who do the work on the Sabbath. In fact, I have to come out against that person.

This happens quite often in ministry. A pastor, and it doesn’t have to be a celebrity pastor, but a normal only known by his own congregation and community pastor. A pastor sees or hears of injustice done toward a person. Injustice goes against God’s Word. It goes against God’s will. Does he say something or not? What if he says something? Some might say that he’s gone woke! He can’t take the chance of being called woke so he best not say anything. If he supported some other pastor who did say something, then he’s thrown in to that camp of wokeness too! So he either says nothing or he condemns that pastor for being woke. Meanwhile, there is nothing woke about calling out injustice when injustice has been done. It’s not only okay; it’s lawful. We’ve been given the authority to say it!

Many Christians refuse to go to dark places, not because they’re callous-hearted people who want people to perish in their sins. They generally refuse because they have a reputation to maintain. What will other’s think about me? What will other’s say? Will I lose my Christian witness? Yet we are told,

Ephesians 5:11–14 ESV

Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

There are many works that are done in darkness. And we are called not to participate in those works. They are unfruitful and shameful. But as Darrell Bock stated, “this is not a prohibition of having relationships with unbelievers, but only of sharing in their deeds. The call of the Great Commission assumes engagement with those outside the faith.” We certainly aren’t to commit adultery or get drunk or get high or steal. Those would be the works of darkness. But we are to come beside the adulterer, the drunkards, the stoner, the thief, and expose their darkness with the light of the gospel.

People won’t understand. They will be upset. They will label you as something you aren’t, just like they did Jesus. He’s a drunkard and a glutton and a friend of sinners.

And this isn’t an individual Christian problem, but a church-problem as well. I am convinced that churches have exchanged the power of God for cheap parlor tricks. It’s easier to bring in a Christian magician than go out and do Christian ministry. Rather than go out and do the hard work of the kingdom, we want to attract people to our doors and the kingdom. But it’s the kingdom ministry that attracts people to the kingdom message. It’s the kingdom work that confirms the kingdom word. They will know we are Jesus’s disciples by our love. They will praise our Father in heaven by our light. They will listen to our message because of our ministry. But that means being in our communities as individuals and as a church body living the power of God and giving the proclamation of God.

The question is what is discouraging us from acting? Often times it is our reputation. Authorization, lawfulness for us is more about acceptance by our peers rather than actually thinking through if the law itself allows us to act.

What Encourages Us to Act?

But there’s a second question that is being asked by Jesus. It’s the flip-side of the coin. If the first question is what discourages us from acting, then the second is “what encourages us to act?”

Luke 14:5–6 ESV

And he said to 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?” And they could not reply to these things.

Jesus asked a question. This isn’t just an “I gotcha” question. Though it did “get them.” Notice that this time it wasn’t that they would not answer, but that they could not answer. They were stuck between a rock and a hard place. If they gave an answer, they’d be in trouble.

But I said it wasn’t just an “I gotcha” question. It’s a revealing question. What causes the Pharisees to act on the Sabbath? What propels them to act? Some commentators would say that they saw their own son and/or ox as more important than others. There’s probably some truth to that. We saw that same idea with the bent-over woman. They were willing to lead their animals to water. But there’s more to it. Saving someone/thing that has fallen in a well is not something that can be left for another day. If someone or something falls into a well, it’s an urgent matter.

Do you guys remember baby Jessica? Want to feel old? Baby Jessica is now 37 years old! No body cared what day she fell into the well. All anyone cared about was getting to her. All they cared about was her living another day. The urgency of the situation called for action.

The traditions that the Pharisees held to allowed for urgent matters. If someone or something’s life depended upon their acting—even on the Sabbath day—they could act. Otherwise, they were to wait. This was what we saw with that woman at the synagogue. The ruler said that she could have come any other day; Jesus didn’t need to heal her on the Sabbath. It wasn’t an emergency. There was no urgency.

The same can be said about most people alive. We wait until there is an urgent need before we act. We wait until the hurricane hits, a blizzard comes, a war breaks out before we really take any action to help the needy. There are plenty of homeless in the summer, but it really isn’t until temps reach below freezing that we think of helping them out. The urgent brings action.

Urgent matters matter. We aren’t to ignore them. Urgent matters open our eyes to situations we didn’t know existed. But at the same time, urgent matters are urgent because many times they were ignored when they were important.

In this narrative, Jesus shows that there are important matters that could be taken care of at anytime if we’d only act on them. This man had dropsy, another word for it is edema; the building up of fluid in the cells and tissue. This was most likely not going to kill the man that Sabbath day, but Jesus acted anyway. It was an important work but not an urgent one.

There are plenty of important works that the American church ignores and they are important matters moving quickly to the urgent. I’m not simply talking about moral issues like the LGBTQ+ agenda. That has already become an urgent issue. But there are still important issues, like there being nearly 400,000 kids in foster care without enough homes to care for them. About 114,000 kids are waiting for someone to adopt them. One of the first distinguishing acts of the Church was their care for the orphans. That’s not the case any longer.

There are other important matters such as marriage and divorce, abuse, poverty, and so many others that need our attention. Areas where we can bring in the gospel and lead people into the kingdom through discipleship. In 1973 Roe v. Wade caught the evangelical world off guard. It woke us up. The killing of unborn children was an important issue that virtually no one cared about in the evangelical world until Roe v. Wade was decided. And suddenly it became urgent and it took 50 years to overturn it. And it’s still urgent, but many think the battle is over. The same thing happened in 2015 with the Obergefell v. Hodges decision. Suddenly homosexual marriage caused people in the church to become reactionaries. Rather than caring and showing we care (not mad, not angry, but care), when these matters were important; we wait until they’re urgent. And then rather than act, we react. And as one person said, “It’s easier to act like Christian, but much harder to react like Christian.”

We can’t just react toward the urgent. We need to act when it’s important.

Conclusion

As we finish the text this morning, we have come across these two questions. The timing in Jesus’s day was the Sabbath day. And it is like a broken record: on the Sabbath day, on the Sabbath day, on the Sabbath day. And yet there is a reason for the repeat. Rarely does anyone learn something the first time they’re told. We keep seeing these things happening on the Sabbath because we need to be told over and over again, that we are called to do good any and every time we can.

We are to take the initiative to do good. We ought not wait until someone at risk of death before we take that initiative, but take it when we see the need that we can meet. That is part of gospel living and being a gospel witness. We generally are not going to be the ones performing signs and wonders through some miraculous act, but we are the hands and feet of God who can still perform ordinary tasks that will attract a people to Jesus.

So as we leave here this morning, we need to ask ourselves, “what is discouraging us—what is keeping us from acting?” and “What is encouraging us—propelling us—to act?” And ask ourselves, “is this the way Christ saw his actions?” If not, then we need to start aligning our actions, our motives, with his.