“Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” – Luke 14:3b

This post is an edited down manuscript of a sermon that I delivered at Unity Reformed Church on Sunday, March 17. If you’d prefer to listen to the message instead, you can find an audio recording here: https://www.unityref.com/downloads

Sabbath, Symbolism & Sharing Rest – A Lenten Homily on Luke 14:1-24

There are certain objects, symbols, or even ideas that, for a variety of reasons, have changed their meaning over time. Here’s just one such example:

If you were to ask someone in the 1960’s or 70’s what the word “NERF” meant, they might respond to you by saying that it’s slang for the foam wrappings or even just the metal running board or roll cages of drag racers, Jeeps and other offroad vehicles. Ask a kid the same question five years later and they’d tell you that NERF was a type of football or basketball, maybe. If you fast-forward a few decades and asked a kid in the 90’s what NERF meant, they’d unquestionably tell you that NERF is a type of toy dart gun. They might even say that NERF makes bow and arrow toys too.

But, ask a kid in the late 2000’s or 2010’s and they might explain that word NERF is a verb. Video game companies or game testers would sometimes discover that a character in their game was made to be too strong, and if a kid chose to play as that character, they’d have big advantage over their friends. They’d then fix this problem by “nerfing” that character in order to balance things out a bit. That character was nerfed. Its abilities were lessened.

From an off-roading protection product, to a sports ball, to a dart gun, to a slang term in video game culture, the meaning behind the word NERF has changed significantly in the past few decades.

The word Sabbath, however, in the 1600 or so years between Moses and Jesus, has changed quite a bit more. If fact, if we were to continue to use the term, we might even say that the idea of Sabbath was nerfed.

That, and the implications of such, are what we will be exploring together by way of Luke 14:1-24.

Action: Jesus both heals on, and asks a question about, the Sabbath (Luke 14:1-6)

Luke 14 records the sixth and final Sabbath controversy in Luke’s Gospel.

That is, before this episode, we can find five other similar stories.

In Luke 4, Jesus heals a man with an unclean spirit on the Sabbath. He was in a synagogue when he did so, and the news of that event spread far and wide. Later in the same chapter, Jesus heals Peter’s mother on the Sabbath. In Luke 6, Jesus and his disciples stopped to pluck and eat some grain in a field on the Sabbath and had a confrontation with a group of Pharisees because of it. Later in that same chapter, Jesus heals a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath and again faces the disdain of the religious elite. In Luke 13, Jesus heals a crippled woman and is confronted by the leader of a synagogue, who says to both Jesus and the watching crowd: “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured and not on the Sabbath day!”

And again, Luke 14, the one we just read, is the last one of the book.

At this point in the Gospel story, Jesus and his disciples are aware that there are nefarious actors out to trap Jesus in a misinterpretation of the Law so that they can bring forth heresy charges. In most of these Sabbath confrontations such characters show up in some form or another. But the Gospel author also likely stacked these stories in such a way to remind his listeners and readers, us, that Jesus was communicating something about the Sabbath itself that should not be ignored.

Jesus is invited to a dinner party. And this was a dinner party at a very well-to-do person’s house. A Pharisee of high honor.

Two things then happen in quick succession. First, we’re told that Jesus was being carefully watched. We are next told that a man suffering with abnormal swelling appeared in front of him almost out of nowhere, it seems. A trap!

But Jesus knew and anticipated this. And in response to the man’s appearance, Jesus asks a few familiar questions: “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” Or maybe a bit more personal, “if one of your kids or animals falls into a well, wouldn’t you rescue them even if it was the Sabbath?”

Doesn’t God desire mercy and not sacrifice?

They give no answer, nor do they comment when Jesus heals the sickness affecting the child of God they were using as bait.

Before we continue on, I want us to take a quick detour for a moment so that we might think a bit deeper about Jesus’ first question in 14:3, as well as why the Pharisees thought about Sabbath the way they did in first century Palestine. Is it permissible to do good, or to heal, on the Sabbath? What is the Sabbath for?

The Sabbath, in a nutshell, was understood to be a day of rest for the people of God. Friday evening to Saturday evening.

And as we’ve already talked about in this Lenten series, Sabbath laws find their origin way back in the book of Exodus. Exodus 20:8-11, or the fourth of the Ten Commandments, reads:

“Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and consecrated it.”

It’s also important to note that these laws were given to God’s people immediately after their escape from Pharoah in Egypt.

While slaves for hundreds of years, the people of Israel were subjugated to difficult work with little relief. The demand of bricks and straw for the Pharoah’s building projects was always growing. God’s people had no break from their arduous toil. Sabbath was the Lord’s gracious response to this. God, their new king, wasn’t going to treat them like Pharoah did. He instead would gift them rest. And, through Torah-law, God also built rest into their way of living so that they might become trained out of that terrible but addictive system they were once governed by in Egypt.

So again, Sabbath, at its most basic level, meant that Israel was to set aside the seventh day of the week for rest. It was to be a sign of God’s provision, benevolence, and grace. It was to be a gift, a relief from the burden of their labor.

But there’s more to Sabbath than even this. That is, it wasn’t meant to just be a weekly practice.

On the seventh day of the week, Israel was called to rest for the day. On the seventh year, everyone in Israel was called to take the entire year off from working in their fields and vineyards. God would provide their food needs and the land itself would be able to experience rest. And if anyone had been sold into slavery or indentured servitude, they were to be released from their bondage on that seventh year with their debts wiped completely clean. In addition to this, they were to be given a lavish gift of produce stock on the day of their release.

These laws show up in a number of places, but here’s how Deuteronomy 15:7-14 puts it:

“If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community in any of your towns within the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbor. You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be. Be careful that you do not entertain a mean thought, thinking, ‘The seventh year, the year of remission, is near,’ and therefore view your needy neighbor with hostility and give nothing; your neighbor might cry to the Lord against you, and you would incur guilt. Give liberally and be ungrudging when you do so, for on this account the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. There will always be poor people in the land. I therefore command you, ‘Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.’ If a member of your community, whether a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you and works for you six years, in the seventh year you shall set that person free. And when you send a male slave out from you a free person, you shall not send him out empty-handed. Provide for them liberally out of your flock, your threshing floor, and your winepress, thus giving to them some of the bounty with which the Lord your God has blessed you.”

But, you know, what’s crazy to me is that this isn’t where things stop. If all of this wasn’t generous enough, once seven sets of seven years took place, a special year of the LORD was to be held. This Jubilee year, as Leviticus 25 calls it, was one in which all of Israel was to rest from their labors. They were to give the land rest. They were to give their animals rest. They were to free slaves and wipe financial debts. And, if families had to lease or sell their land in order to make ends meet within that 50-year period, the family’s land was to be gifted back to them.

When Israel was rescued from Egypt and relocated into Canaan, each Israelites family was given an allotment within the tribal territories. These Sabbath and Jubilee years made sure that no one could seize control like Pharoah by buying up all the land in order to create a feudal state or a monopoly. Everyone was graced with God’s goodness. It wasn’t just for the powerful to enjoy.

Sabbath was a day of rest. It was also a year of rest, both physically and economically. Sabbath was a gift to be received and a gift to give with hands wide open. 

But remember that there are certain objects, symbols, or even ideas that, for a number of reasons, change over time. And in the 1600 years between the books of the Law and the events of the Gospels, the way Sabbath was practiced shifted quite dramatically.

Because of exile and the subsequent loss of Israel’s claim on the land of Canaan, Sabbath stopped being about community rest and economic relief. It instead morphed into an observation of personal piety. The Jubilee year stuff, the debt release stuff, and the laws about sharing gifts were all shelved. This was partly because it was almost impossible to follow these laws in the way they were originally written without political control of their own fields and cities. And religious leaders in the hundred or so years before Christ attempted to guide God’s people towards a sort-of personalized Sabbath observance by way of a set of new extrabiblical oral laws that got around the no-land problem. But these weren’t of the Bible and fell short.

For example, Israelites were told that they couldn’t carry anything on the Sabbath outside of their homes, not even an accidental pebble in their sandal, as that would be work and not rest. Israelites couldn’t buy or cook anything on the Sabbath. Nor could they burn anything like a lamp or a candle to see.[1]

These new extrabiblical laws, written by the fathers of the Pharisees, effectively took the gift out of Sabbath and replaced it with a curse. And by Jesus’ time, Sabbath had completely changed from a principle about compassion and comfort into a strict demand of prohibition and exclusion.

Jesus and the group of Pharisees at the dinner party in Luke 14 had two different understandings on what Sabbath was all about. From Jesus’ perspective, Sabbath was a blessing, and one to share with others. And because of that, of course it was more that appropriate to heal on such a day. Such a thing fell right in line with the heart of God’s laws. Yet, from the perspective of those at the dinner party, Sabbath was more of a chain to be worn. It was a sacrifice. It was a way for those who felt themselves as superior to show dominance over others.

When Jesus asked his question to those at the dinner in 14:3, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” the dinner guest should have responded with a resounding “yes!”

But again, Jesus was only met with silence.

Teaching: Jesus shares wisdom about humility, reciprocity, and warns those who refuse to recognize God’s work in the world (Luke 14:7-24)

With the dinner host and guests all remaining silent after his miracle, Jesus then takes the opportunity to share wisdom to the crowd. Or more specifically, Jesus begins to make comments about the table practices of the Pharisees and their guests.

Now I’m not sure if any of you feel this type of social pressure, but when Tori and I are invited to dinner at someone else’s house, we often both want to return the favor but also feel sometimes that it’s necessary to return it. I know that isn’t true. But growing up, that’s what I was taught was good manners and it’s been hardwired into my brain because of it. If Tori’s boss invites us to a barbeque cookout, we’d try to reciprocate by inviting them a cookout at our place. If some college friends want to grab coffee, or arrange a play date at their house with Tilly our daughter, we are sure to invite them and their kids to ours.

The social pressure we might feel now, however, would pale in comparison to that of the first century world.

Back then, if someone invited you to a dinner as their guest, you were expected to attend. You were also required to reciprocate. If you made an excuse to not show up, or ghosted someone at their dinner party, you’d run risk of dishonoring the dinner host. This was a big no-no. If you attended a party, but then didn’t, in turn, invite the host and guests to a dinner of your own, you’d run risk of dishonoring yourself. And that was even worse. And, even within a dinner party itself, but especially fancy wedding ones, if you sat in the wrong seat, one designated for a guest of honor, you might face ridicule or mockery as Jesus mentions in verses 8-9.

Because of all this, people in the first century often followed a set of unspoken social rules. And one of the key rules was that hosts would only invite people of the same economic or social class to their parties. This was so that everyone could be sure that their gestures of hospitality would be repaid.

Someone of lower status might not be able to invite their hosts to a party of their own. They might not have the means to provide the space or the food. Someone of a higher status, on the other hand, might not even accept an invitation in the first place. In other words, the poor stayed with the poor and the rich stayed with the rich. Or those who already thought of themselves as superior over others stuck together to the exclusion of all else.

That type of attitude was what Jesus was going after in Luke 14:7-24. This may have been the norm, but it wasn’t God-honoring.

And uncoincidentally, considering that this was a Sabbath Jesus was teaching on, this type of attitude did not align with the heart of God’s Sabbath law, something that this group was sure they had a firm grasp of. Sabbath rest was for everyone, not just for the religious elite. And Sabbath, as it was written in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, was an economic leveling and not just for the upper crust. It was about sharing, and not a preoccupation with receiving.

Yet this was something the Pharisees seemed to have grown relatively blind to. They had observed Jesus and heard his teachings about what God’s kingdom would be like, but they were skeptical at best. They knew that Jesus had declared himself as Lord over the Sabbath, and that he read and identified himself with the words in the Isaiah scroll, words which stated: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor (the Jubilee).” (Luke 4:17-21)

Nonetheless, they were having a hard time recognizing Jesus for what he was as Jesus didn’t tolerate the ways that this group had twisted God’s law into that of personal piety alone. The Pharisees had convenient excuses as to why they thought Jesus wasn’t of God. But just like those who made silly excuses to not come to the great banquet in Jesus’ parable in 14:16-20, these Pharisees ran risk of angering the master and having their invitations revoked.

Those at the dinner party in Luke 14 had shut their eyes to God’s work in the world. And despite their claimed proximity to God and surety of God’s methods, they were far from Him.

Yet Jesus healed on the Sabbath. And more, Jesus has extended the invitation to those who are poor and low, us, and we have been graciously offered God’s overabundant compassion. We shouldn’t miss this invitation.

And likewise, we shouldn’t miss the invitation to come alongside what God is inviting us to in Jesus, namely, to take up the heart of the Sabbath by offering others around us rest and relief, generosity and grace.

Sharing Rest Today

Before we call it quits, I’d like us to think just a little bit more about how we might join Jesus in offering rest and relief as he calls us to do. And to do so, I’d like us to consider one other symbol that has changed over time, that of the church building.

If you were to ask someone in the first century world what a church building looked like, they likely would have responded to you with a confused expression on their face. Church building? No, groups of Christians met in homes.

The first generation of Christians did meet in the Jerusalem Temple for a while, but this practice mostly went away after the inclusion of the Samaritans and Gentiles. The church building in the first century was the home, and because of this, Christians were well known for their hospitality. They would invite others in. They would offer meals. They would pool their resources together so that they might offer help. Or as Acts 2:45 puts it: “all who believed were together and had all things in common. They would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.”

This is the portrait of church that the New Testament offers us. It was far from perfect. But the church was very much known for its hospitality.

Throughout the years, however, things changed a bit. And this is admittedly a simplification, but if you were to ask someone what a church building looked like in the 4th century A.D, they might point to one of the biggest buildings in town. They might show you a cathedral decorated with ornate art and statues. This would surely be the case if you asked this same question to a person in the Middle Ages. The idea of church morphed from a gathering of believers in homes into a grandiose display of architecture.

And don’t misunderstand what I’m saying. This wasn’t a bad move, per se. It just marked a shifting of values. The church in that time was very concerned with putting on display God’s majesty and sovereignty. Stained glass windows and fantastical basilicas that stood as giants overlooking the crowds below were sights of awe and were built to remind congregations about God’s awesome might.

But it is true that the hospitality the early church was once known for began to take a back seat.

Another symbolic shift happened sometime in the early 1800’s as Jeanne Halgren Kilde argues in her terrific book When Church Became Theater.[2] That is, if you were to ask someone during the Industrial Revolution, or even still today, what church looks like, they’d probably describe not a gathering in homes or a giant cathedral but musicians and a lecturer standing on a stage behind a pulpit.

For a variety of reasons, churches around the world have become more about performance and entertainment. It’s become less about sharing and more about receiving a service. And again, it could be argued that this still the main symbol of the church building even today.

With all of that being said, I want you to dream with me for a moment.

What if when people thought of the word church today, their first thoughts weren’t of superiority, hypocrisy, or even of a place in which they receive a service but instead of a people committed to offering rest to the restless? What if church was synonymous with the rest, relief, generosity and grace found in the Sabbath and offered fully by Jesus?

What if church was primarily known for helping those down on their luck, opening homes for those who are between places to stay, caring for tangible needs alongside spiritual needs, providing food to the hungry and opportunity to those without such, or giving respite in a way that makes clear that nothing is owed in return all because of the example our Lord Jesus gave us?

During a dinner party, Jesus healed on the Sabbath.

But more, Jesus has extended the invitation to his cosmic dinner party, table fellowship with God the Father, to we who are poor and low. We have been graciously offered compassion and salvation.

We shouldn’t miss this invitation.

And we also shouldn’t miss the invitation to come alongside Jesus in order to offer his rest to the restless, hope to the hopeless, and overabundant generosity like that which the Sabbath once stood for.

Let us continue to offer healing, rest, and relief to all with hands wide open like our God has offered to us. 

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[1] Consider the 39 Melakhot in the Talmud: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/39_Melakhot

[2] https://www.amazon.com/When-Church-Became-Theatre-Nineteenth-Century/dp/0195179722