Raised on the Sabbath
Luke 14:1-11
October 4, 2020 anno Domini – Redeemer
The Pharisees were watching Jesus carefully. That sounds like the perfect Sabbath day. This is why you are here. You have set aside your work so that God may work on you. You have come to fix your eyes on Jesus. But the Pharisees weren’t having a good Sabbath. They weren’t watching Jesus for His sake, but for their sake. Jesus was becoming popular. He was showing compassion to people the Pharisees despised. He was touching people they wouldn’t even look at. His bending down to help the lowly was leading to His exaltation among the people. For the Pharisees the Sabbath was about a man showing God how good he was. The Pharisees made much of themselves on the Sabbath. For Jesus the Sabbath was the Lord’s Day to make much of the Lord.
So is the Sabbath, the Lord’s Day, today about you or about Jesus? We’re often like the Pharisees – carefully watching but not receiving. What are you watching today? Are the hymns to your liking? Are people friendly? Is the pastor approachable? Are his sermons light hearted? To be sure we don’t want to portray the church as a morgue, full of lifeless people, lulled to sleep by a brooding introverted pastor, but the Sabbath is not about you. The Sabbath is not for man, but man is for the Sabbath. The Sabbath is for Jesus and Jesus is for you. Is Jesus in the hymns? Does the liturgy proclaim His life, death and resurrection? Is the pastor preaching Christ and Him crucified? Does the service merely echo earth or does it bring you into the heavenly places?
The Pharisees were watching Jesus intently because it was a set up. How do you think that guy with dropsy got into the Pharisee’s house? Dropsy is what we call edema – retention of fluids. In Biblical times it was thought that you got dropsy by wild living, by being sexually promiscuous. There’s no way this dropsy guy gets into the feast for any other reason than to test Jesus. Their host put them at the same table – one little placard said “Jesus of Nazareth” and right next to him the card read, “Bob the Dropsy Guy.”
There’s something else about dropsy that I did not know. Like so many physical ailments it mimics the real cause of all sickness – our sin. When a person has dropsy his body does not properly use water – so that water pools in his legs and extremities and around his vital organs. Because the body is not processing the water the person is very thirsty all the time. However, drinking more water makes the problem worse. That’s how it is with sin. The devil always promises that sin will satisfy us. If you leave your husband you’ll be happy. If you drink this you’ll escape your problems. If you tear down your neighbor you’ll feel better about yourself. If you buy your dream car you’ll be satisfied. No you won’t. Sin leads to more sin. People who divorce once often get divorced twice. Drugs and drinks usually lead to more drugs and drinks. Once you demean one of your neighbors you’ll demean them all. As soon as you get your dream car you’ll have more dreams about more cars. Sin does not quench your thirst for peace or happiness. It only creates more thirst for more sin.
So it’s quite a Sabbath day in the text. The Pharisees want to trip Jesus up. Jesus knows their invitation is a farce. And Bob the dropsy guy wonders what he is doing at the feast. If that’s how it was when Jesus Himself was in attendance you ought not be surprised at the disappointments in your local congregation today.
But even in the midst of all those sinners Jesus does His Sabbath work. From the very beginning the Sabbath was made so people could rest in God’s work – that is what Sabbath means – to rest. At creation God finished all His work on Friday and He rested on the seventh day and commanded His people to rest. Jesus also finished all His work on a Friday. His work was to take away the sin of the world. So after He was loaded up with our sin He marched them to the cross. Then He did His saving work. He suffered hell. He was cut off from His Father and cast out of the land of living. His last words on that Friday were, “It is finished.” Job done. Amen. He gave up His spirit and rested in the tomb on Saturday. He rose again on Sunday to show the result of His work. That’s why we are here today. We gather every Sunday to rest in the resurrection of Jesus.
Jesus’ work and His Sabbath rest lead to the resurrection, which is what He did for the dropsy man. He raised him up. The dropsy guy shouldn’t even have been at the meal. He was invited for all the wrong reasons. But when Jesus gets close to you Jesus will do what He does. “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” The Pharisees have the Sabbath so messed up they can’t even answer a simple question.
This is what happens to all of God’s gifts when we mess with their nature. What is life? What is marriage? What does it mean to be a man or a woman? What’s the purpose of work? The world has so corrupted the nature of these simple things that even the church has succumbed to questioning what God has made clear. Life is Jesus. Marriage is one man united to one woman for one lifetime. A man’s great gift is to be a husband and father – in that order. A woman’s great aspiration should be a wife and then a mother. Your work is to provide your daily bread and serve your neighbor. Does it always work out that way? No, we live in a fallen world. Some couples cannot have children. Not every becomes a husband or wife. Sometimes you lose your job, but that doesn’t mean we change God’s definitions and the nature of His gifts.
The Pharisees could not answer Jesus’ question on the purpose of the Sabbath. They remained silent. Then [Jesus] took [the dropsy guy] and healed him and sent him away. In order to raise the Pharisees Jesus drops the hammer of humiliation on them. What if someone they love, something they value is in trouble? 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? Now they cannot answer, for their hypocrisy convicts them as ours convicts us.
The Son of God became man to raise you from death to life. He did that on a cross outside Jerusalem where He died for your sins. The proof that Jesus is real and that the cross worked is that Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday morning. The reason we gather on Sunday is to be raised from the dead by Jesus. Sometimes we’re Pharisees in the Lord’s house looking carefully for what is wrong and missing Jesus. Sometimes we show up like Bob the dropsy guy – not even knowing why we’re here. Take heart in this – Jesus is here and He knows what He’s doing. If you’re proud He will humble you so that He can raise you up in due time. If you’ve been knocked down by your sins and the trouble of the world He’ll lift you up with His forgiveness and mercy. Rest on this Sabbath in the resurrection. God has raised you to life in name of Jesus. Amen.