Our text for today is from Luke 14:1-4, a portion our Holy Gospel for today. Let me read it again: “One Sabbath, when [Jesus] 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.” Here ends our text.
Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath. Was this lawful for Him to do or not? Today we will learn what the Sabbath meant in the Old Testament and what it means today. Sabbath means “rest.” We will especially learn that Jesus is our source of peace and rest from sin and death.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He brought everything into existence in six days. After created Adam and Eve on the sixth day—Friday—all of creation was finished. Looking back on creation, God said, “It is very good.” There was nothing more to create. God put into creation the laws that govern the whole universe.
And so, on the seventh day, God rested. This does not mean that God was tired or needed a day to relax. Rather, it means that His work of creation was finished. He delighted in all that He had made.
For six days, Adam and Eve were to work. They were to tend the garden of Eden and to have dominion over creation. But when Saturday came, they rested, just as God had rested. Their rest helped them to relax, but it also provided a day to remember all that God had done for them.
God gave the Third Commandment to Israel through Moses, saying, “Remember the Sabbath day, to 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. On it you shall not do any work … For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day” (Exodus 20:8–11).
So, they were to work for six days, but on Saturday they were to do no work. They were to remember that God is the Creator, that He gave them life, and that He sustains their life with daily bread.
So also, today. There is nothing wrong with working. As a matter of fact, it is good that we provide for the family and nourish the family. Be faithful in the vocation as student in school or in college. Be faithful in the employment or in taking care of the family. However, on Sunday, take time off of physical work, come to church, hear God’s Word, and delight in God’s creation. By doing this, we reflect what God Himself did on the seventh day of creation.
This morning, we remember our Creator. We are remined that He gave us life, and He sustains our life with daily bread. At the beginning of our worship service, we confessed Psalm 128:4, “Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” We also confessed in the Nicene Creed that our one God is “the Maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible.”
This morning, God is working. He teaches us His Word. He cleanses us from all sin. He strengthens our faith in Christ, and He nourishes us with Christ’s body and blood. We receive these gifts, and we give Him thanksgiving and praise.
When we go home today and spend time with family or friends, we will appreciate the wonders of God’s creation and its complexity. We are thankful that God has given us our body and that He preserves our lives with daily bread.
In Deuteronomy, God expands on the Third Commandment, saying that Israel should remember the Sabbath day because “you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm” (Deut. 5:15). On the Sabbath, they were not only to remember God as their creator, but they are also to remember that God redeemed them from slavery in Egypt.
The Third Commandment in the Old Testament pointed forward to the coming Savior. He will defeat death and the devil. He will be their rest. He will give them rest for their souls. He would bring order to the fallen world. He would be their source of peace and rest. He would be the Lord of the Sabbath.
When Jesus appeared, He was that promised Savior—the Son of God in human flesh. Through His miracles, Jesus brought order to our fallen world. He cleansed lepers, gave hearing to the deaf, stilled the storm, and even raised the dead.
In our Holy Gospel for today, we learn of a man who had dropsy. His joints were filled with fluid, and he was in pain. What does Jesus do? Does He say, “I’m sorry, I can’t heal you—it’s the Sabbath. You’ll have to come back tomorrow”? He doesn’t say this.
Instead, Jesus asks the Pharisees, in essence, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” The Pharisees should have answered, “Yes, Jesus. Go ahead and heal this man. He is in pain, and you can restore him. It is the loving thing to do. Afterall, you are the promised Savior. You came to redeem us from sin, death, and the devil. The Sabbath was made for us so that we rest from our work and focus on You as our Creator and Redeemer. You are the Lord of the Sabbath. When a child or an animal falls into a well on the Sabbath, we pull them out immediately. Healing this man is just as important. So, yes, Jesus. Go ahead and heal this man.”
But the Pharisees did not say this because they did not want Jesus’ popularity to increase. They did not believe that He was the promised Savior, the Son of God in human flesh. To them, healing on the Sabbath was breaking the law. It was a sin, and so, if Jesus broke the law, then He deserves death.
You see, the Pharisees were so focused on the law that they lost sight of Jesus, who came to be their Redeemer. They thought they could earn God’s favor by fulfilling the law. They added one man-made rule after another to the Third Commandment, hoping to avoid breaking it. They were very legalistic. In doing so, they failed to see Jesus as their true source of rest. They thought that they could keep the law outwardly, but without faith in Christ, their rest on the Sabbath meant nothing.
The Ten Commandments are good and necessary for us. They teach us right from wrong. They reveal God’s will. They curb evil in the home, in school, and in society. They bring order to our world.
But we must be careful not to focus so much on the law that we lose sight of Jesus as our Savior. We must be careful not to be so legalistic that we lose sight of the Gospel. Our obedience to the law does not win favor with God. Rather, Christ’s work of redemption on the cross has already won God’s favor for us. We receive the benefits of His cross and resurrection through faith in Him not through the law or through our good works.
God’s law also shows us our sin. It is like a mirror revealing what we have done wrong. We cannot fulfill the law perfectly. We are called to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and to love our neighbor as ourselves, but we fall short every day. We are sinners in need of grace and forgiveness.
Spiritually speaking, we are like the man with dropsy. We are burdened with the sickness of sin. We are in pain as we live in a fallen world. Things don’t go our way. We are afflicted by aging and the troubles of this world. We are weary and heavy-laden.
So yes, we strive to live according to God’s law, to live moral and upright lives, but Christianity is not merely a religion of morals and ethics. Christianity is about God, our Creator and Redeemer. It is about Jesus, who died upon the cross and rose again. It is about poor, miserable sinners like us receiving the Gospel and the forgiveness of sins. Then, as forgiven sinners, we joyfully love our neighbor. We gladly follow the Ten Commandments, not to be saved, but out of love for the neighbor.
Jesus said in our Gospel today, “He who humbles himself will be exalted.” If anyone was truly humble, it was Jesus. Though He is Lord of all, He became a servant. As He said, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:28).
Jesus was human, like us in every way, yet without sin. He placed Himself under the law and obeyed it perfectly. On Good Friday, the sixth day of the week, Jesus was nail to a cross. Crucifixion was the most humiliating kind of death. Before Jesus died, He said, “It is finished.” The work of salvation is finished. Then, He bowed his head and died. Then, his body was laid in a tomb on Saturday—the Sabbath. Jesus’ body rested in the tomb all of Saturday fulfilling the Sabbath.
“He who humbles himself will be exalted” (v 11). Jesus humbled Himself through His death on the cross, and therefore God the Father exalted Him, raising Him from the dead. Because Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday, worship was changed from Saturday to Sunday. Worship on Sunday testifies to His resurrection.
Jesus once said, “Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest; rest for your soul” (Matt 11:28). Sabbath means “rest.” This is our day of rest. We rest in Jesus and in His precious Gospel. We rest knowing that our sin is paid for and that heaven is open for us and for all who believe.
Today is God’s workday. He speaks, He forgives, He cleanses, and He feeds us. He reminds us that He is our Creator and that He redeemed us with the blood of Christ. As poor sinners, we receive His gifts of life and salvation, and we respond with thanksgiving and praise. This is why we call it the Divine Service—because God, who is divine, serves us with His precious Gospel and the Lord’s Supper.
By God’s grace, do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it, making worship the most important part of our lives. And may we, with true humility love our neighbor, just as God in Christ has loved us.
To God our Creator and Redeemer be all the glory now and forevermore. Amen.
