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Luke 14:1-6 Make sure you read it before we chat.
Here’s a link if you need one: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2014%3A%201-6&version=NLT
Jesus must have presented some serious confusion for the Pharisees. They were religious authorities, very well educated and influential. Along comes Jesus, a literal nobody. He knew the scriptures like no one they had ever met. He seemed to deeply respect scripture, and people followed him. On the one hand, he would have been a great ally. But he kept saying things that didn’t sit well with them. He suggested that they misinterpreted the scriptures. He even accused them of using their position as religious scholars for their own gain. Still, he had remarkable insight… He was their very own, first century train wreck. They didn’t want to watch, but they couldn’t look away. So even though he often made them look foolish and insulted them, they kept looking for opportunities to engage with him. I’m sure at times they only spoke to him in the hope of tripping him up and saving their reputation. But it seems some of them were inescapably fascinated by his knowledge and passion for the scriptures to which they were also devoted.
So once again Jesus has been invited to one of their homes, and they are watching him. I think by now they had one of two goals. Get him onboard, on their team, or get him out of their hair. This isn’t the first time a sick person came to Jesus on the Sabbath. Was he hoping that they might have thought about previous encounters and agreed with his assertion that there was a spirit of the law that superceded the letter of it? He gives them the opportunity to speak up. He wants them to recognize that healing on the Sabbath is a beautiful reflection of the heart of God, but no one speaks up. He tries to reason with them because he knows that if the one in need was one of their animals they would help regardless of the day, but nobody bites.
Ya know what? Let’s talk about the Sabbath for a minute or two. Once again, I can’t stress this enough, I’m not some brilliant scholar. I’m just a girl, ok heading towards being an old lady, with the Bible and the Holy Spirit so do your own homework ok?
But here’s what I notice about the Sabbath. From my observation, Sabbath is something God set up before sin even entered the world. After creation was complete and humans were placed on the earth, we are told that God rested. The creation account says God did all of his creating in six days, and yes, the creation account is a poem and the Hebrew word translated day can be translated in other ways. I’m not here to debate whether or not God created the world in six days consisting of 24 hours each. I’ll say this much, the God I see in scripture certainly could have, but wise Jesus-loving, scripture honouring people hold different interpretations and I don’t currently see why I need to “die on this hill.”
What is relevant to this discussion is that, after creating for six days, we are told God rested on the seventh day and because he did so he set the day apart as unlike any other day. He declared it holy. This resting, and setting the day apart as something special happened before people sinned and the world stopped operating as God designed it to operate. Rejoice my fellow nap-lovers! Resting is something humans were designed to do!
It also seems like it was “common practise” among the descendants of Abraham to treat the seventh day of each week as something special and avoid work. We observe this in Exodus 16 when God sends this flakey substance that blankets the ground as the dew is evaporating each morning. The family of Israel has left Egypt and is wandering in the desert with nothing to eat so God sends this food they have never seen before. They call it manna which is simply the translation of “What is it?”
The thing is God sends it six days a week, not the seventh day, just the first six. Each day any leftover manna goes funky and inedible if you keep it for more than a day, but on day six they were to collect twice as much so they could use it on day six and seven. The manna collected on day six kept just fine for use on the seventh day. Why did God do this? Moses explains, the seventh day is to be a day of rest, a day unlike the other days. A day where we are to focus on God.
So we have this “Law” God gave his people before the ten commandments (which are given in Exodus 20) for which he set an example at the beginning of creation.
It’s fair to say the Sabbath day is a day like no other day because the law to keep the Sabbath is like no other law. When the law in the form of the ten commandments is given to Israel a little later, the rule about the Sabbath (command four of ten) is to remember it. Remembering suggests they were already aware of it. It also offers more detail than most of the commandments. It says you have six days to get stuff done, six days to do things for yourself. On the seventh day EVERYONE rests, even the animals. The seventh day is dedicated to God. We are told he blessed the seventh day. The Sabbath day is something special. Frankly, I don’t think we treat it seriously enough in the modern world. It’s a day dedicated to God, not me. It’s a day for not working, a day to rest and focus on God.
As Christians we know that we are not under the law. The point of the law was to show us we couldn’t keep it. We aren’t trying to have lives that strictly follow each rule. We are to live the way people live when they are grateful that they worship a God who found a way to offer us peace even though we couldn’t live up to his standards. We do live in ways that reflect the law but we don’t do it to earn heaven, we do it because we are deeply thankful that God gave us his goodness.
So for you and I, honestly, we need to give greater consideration to what the Sabbath is and how we “remember” it. If it doesn’t look any different than the other six days of our lives, it’s safe to say we are off track. I’ll be super honest right here and now. I am not getting this right. But it’s something I am working on. It’s something I am trying to understand. For one thing, Sunday naps are almost non-negotiable. (It’s possible that adjustment has been an easier one than many in my life). What does it mean to not work? I don’t even know. But here is something I think might be helpful. Whenever the Sabbath comes up it is described as a day “dedicated to God.” So when you are decided what to do and what not to do on a Sabbath day, ask yourself, is this something I can dedicate to God?
This is a pretty good filter, and if the Pharisees had used it, I think they would have interpreted things differently. For example, healing someone who has been suffering for a long time? That’s the kind of thing that just makes sense on a day dedicated to God.
