Sabbath: More than a Rule

Introduction

Our scripture this morning comes from Luke 13:10-17

Luke 13:10–17 NIV

10 On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, 11 and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” 13 Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God. 14 Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.” 15 The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? 16 Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?” 17 When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.

“We have most likely all been in a church that has a sign on the door: No food or drink in the sanctuary. You can understand why—it keeps the carpet clean, it keeps the pews from getting stained.

But what if I told you about a man who was visiting church for the very first time. He was nervous, he didn’t know anyone, and he wasn’t sure if he’d even be welcome. On the way in, he carried the only comfort he had—his morning cup of coffee.

Before he even made it to a pew, someone stopped him at the door and said, ‘Sorry, you can’t bring that in here. You’ll have to throw it away.’

That man turned around, tossed his coffee in the trash, and walked right back to his car. He never even made it inside the sanctuary.

Now, the rule was there for a reason: to keep the church clean. But the deeper purpose of church isn’t clean carpet—it’s a welcoming spirit. The rule became more important than the person.

That’s exactly what Jesus was confronting when He healed on the Sabbath. Today we are going to look deeper than the traditional day of rest definition of the Sabbath.”

We have heard this story before. Religious leaders were offended by Jesus’ “work” on the Sabbath.

Why were they so offended?

Because the Sabbath is one of the “big 10.”

It is one of the ten commandments!

So what in the world was Jesus doing breaking one of the big 10?

Well, to answer that, we need to look back at the history of the Sabbath.

The Sabbath in the Old Testament

The first mention of a Sabbath, or rest, day is in Genesis 2:1–2 “1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. 2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.”

So we know that God finished his work, he rested, then he blessed the seventh day and made it Holy.

He made it Holy because he rested! What does this Hebrew word “rested” mean?

It means to cease, to put an end to, or to stop.

We gain more insight to how God felt after he finished creation in Exodus 31:17 “17 It will be a sign between me and the Israelites forever, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’ ””

Wait a minute - God was “refreshed?” As if somehow he needed to take a break?

This is not typically how we picture God!

It is as if creating the heavens and the earth was some sort of manual labor that God’s body needed physical rest from.

We know that God does not have a physical body that gets tired like we do, but the point is, if God needed rest from his work, then so do we!

God gave us the Sabbath as a way to cease from labor, striving, and endless work.

Because God set aside the seventh day for himself at creation, we can assume that this was a rule for all mankind, not just Israel.

On the seventh day, man is grateful for the rest he receives from God, and in fact, all time is a gift from God.

Observing the sabbath is a way to acknowledge God’s claim on our life!

Because all time belongs to God, we are under his authority as well.

In Exodus 20:10 God made the Sabbath an official rule for the Israelites to follow: “10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns.”

Notice that God commands rest for servants and animals as well. This is compassion!

God showed his compassion to all by giving everything rest on the Sabbath.

In Deuteronomy, the rule of the seventh day is reiterated, but we see a different reason for Sabbath:

Deuteronomy 5:12–15 “12 “Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns, so that your male and female servants may rest, as you do. 15 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.”

In this passage God presents the day of rest as a remembrance of redemption!

God rescued Israel from slavery, therefore he is commanding Israel to use the Sabbath day to remember God’s provision, compassion, and love for his people.

For Israel, God was not only their creator, but their redeemer as well. He redeemed them from Egypt and called them his own.

The Sabbath day was designed to point to both of these realities.

One more note about the Sabbath in the Old Testament:

Exodus has something further to say about it:

Exodus 31:12–16 “12 Then the Lord said to Moses, 13 “Say to the Israelites, ‘You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the Lord, who makes you holy. 14 “ ‘Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Anyone who desecrates it is to be put to death; those who do any work on that day must be cut off from their people. 15 For six days work is to be done, but the seventh day is a day of sabbath rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day is to be put to death. 16 The Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, celebrating it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant.’ ””

We are beginning to see why breaking the Sabbath was such a big deal to the teachers and Pharisees in Jesus’ day.

Doing any work would get you cut off and then killed!

This was not a small little rule that you could just overlook!

This was a life and death matter!

The Sabbath in the New Testament

By the time of Jesus, the Sabbath was once again a crucial observance in the Jewish home.

Rabbis instructed the people that on the Sabbath they should praise God for his provision and they should enjoy the best food and drink in the home.

From a people who had lost the law of Moses in the Old Testament, leading to their disobedience and then exile, to the New Testament world of careful observation of the law, the people have come a long way!

Or have they…?

We see Jesus clashing frequently with Pharisees and teachers of the synagogues over this very issue.

But we see Jesus also carefully observing the Sabbath day:

He went to the synagogue, he listened and read the scriptures, he taught and preached. He was faithful to set aside this day as holy to God.

So what was the issue?

The problem was Jesus was doing what the Pharisees considered work on the Sabbath.

The Pharisees accused Jesus’ disciples of harvesting grain on the Sabbath in Mark 2:23–28 “23 One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. 24 The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” 25 He answered, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? 26 In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.” 27 Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.””

Now remember, the Pharisees were all about following the law to the letter.

They believed that if Israel were holy enough, the Messiah would come to them.

So their entire focus was on obedience to the law.

So much so, that they ignored kindness, compassion, and human suffering.

Jesus is trying to remind them why the Sabbath was created in the first place.

Jesus was not breaking the sabbath day as the Pharisees accused him. He was using it for its intended purpose - to set people free!

The Sabbath is a blessing for man! It is a gift from God to humanity.

Jesus exposed the hard hearts of the Pharisees by pointing out their inconsistencies in following the Sabbath law.

Nothing in the Law of Moses forbade healing on the Sabbath, but the Pharisees took it upon themselves to include healing in the work category.

Now, let’s go back to our passage for today.

I want us to notice that it was not this crippled woman who asked to be healed on the Sabbath.

Jesus called out to her and told her to come forward for healing.

Also notice that the synagogue leader did not rebuke Jesus for healing her!

The synagogue leader is fussing at the people! “You have six days for work! Come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath!”

But Jesus shut that down really quickly.

He confronted the leaders with their own behavior: they showed compassion for their animals on the Sabbath.

But they had no compassion for people on the Sabbath.

Aren’t people much more valuable than animals?

Then why shouldn’t this woman be set free on the Sabbath?

Jesus showed them their complete lack of compassion.

They cared about rules, not people!

It says his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted.

Jesus reframed the Sabbath Day for Israel.

He reminded them that it was not about the distance they traveled, whether they picked grain, or whether healing fell into the work category.

The Sabbath is about people.

The Sabbath is a reminder of the compassion God had on his people when he rescued them and the love he still has for his creation.

The Sabbath Today

So now that we have explored the Sabbath from a biblical angle, what does the Sabbath mean for us today?

When Jesus healed on the Sabbath, he set people free from Satan’s grip on them.

The woman from today’s passage was described by Jesus as being “bound by Satan for eighteen long years.”

When Jesus healed her, she was free from the hold Satan had on her.

Just as the Sabbath is a reminder of how God set Israel free from Egypt, the Sabbath is a reminder for us of how Jesus has set us free from Satan, sin and death.

The Sabbath is not just some old-fashioned idea from ancient times.

The Sabbath is a signpost! It is pointing us, reminding us, once a week, of Jesus’ victory over evil.

If we do not observe a Sabbath day, we are in direct disobedience to Jesus.

The Sabbath is a day set aside to enter into the rest of God.

One day, we will enter God’s rest permanently in heaven.

Until that day comes, it is still VERY relevant to observe the Sabbath Day each week until Jesus returns in final victory.

So, we should enjoy physical rest from work once a week - yes.

But also do not neglect to praise God and be thankful for the new covenant he has made through his Son, Jesus Christ.

Like the Israelite redemption from Egypt, we are so grateful for our own redemption from our sins.

And we are grateful for all the good things he has done in our lives.

THIS is the purpose of Sabbath.