What did HE say? (continued)

Not on the Sabbath (part 2)

As background for our theme, we discussed yesterday Jesus’ perspective and attitude toward the religious rulers in His day. We know that it is a contentious relationship and we also know from the gospels that there were some among the religious leaders that did see Jesus message as a new ideal for the people and who believed that the Master was from God. The many miracles should have been enough to convince all and any but such was not the case; they were so entrenched in their way of doing things and their way of looking at the world that it became impossible for them to accept any change. Even though what was happening was prophesied about and written of in their sacred books, they could not see it. And it was not that they were not looking; they were just refusing to recognize that they could be wrong in their approach to God and that Jesus could be right.

In fact, the religious rulers used their same sacred books to claim that it could not be possible for Jesus to be the Christ because of where He was from. In an exchange between Nicodemus, (whom we wrote of before in our series Born Again) who was one of the rulers, and his peers we find: “Nicodemus saith unto them, (he that came  to Jesus by night, being one of them,) Doth our law judge any man, before it hear him, and know what he doeth?  They answered and said unto him, Art thou also of Galilee? Search , and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet” Their claim is in error however as according to their own books and tradition there were at least two prophets from Galilee; Jonah and Elijah. There is an example here for us as well. Scripture is long and sometimes confusing and we should never profess to know it. It is constantly revealing new things to us, some right and some wrong, as revelation which we must always understand are subject to the personality and beliefs of the one receiving it. None is pure and all need to be proved against a true sense of righteousness and His words.

The contentions between the rulers and the Christ are real and active and in several places the people looked to stone or kill the Master. Now when we read the people in this context we should see that they are either the rulers and their underlings or those that are incited by the rulers. Continuing with, or getting to, the sabbath, we know that this is one of the Ten Commandments of God and we may have some vague idea of its purpose but there is no real explanation of it other than the accounts in Exodus and Deuteronomy. From there on it is just the sabbath, the seventh day of a week that begins on Sunday and therefore always a Saturday. The only logical purposes for this can be found in the law itself and that is to force a rest for all the people and the animals, some of which would likely get no rest without the law, and to set it aside as a day for the Lord. Like much in their religion, and for that matter in most religions, this became a mechanical, letter of the law, occurrence with a list of do’s and don’ts which persist to this day. There was originally a list of 39 things that could not be done on the sabbath and which has been modified by various groups to accommodate our mechanical and electronic society. Today not all Jews observe the sabbath as their religion has gone the way of most with numerous differing sects observing and believing different things.

In Jesus’ time however there was a rather uniform religion for the people and although we know there were more than one set of beliefs by sect we do not know, without research, that they believed any differently than we see in the New Testament. They observed the sabbath, though no longer under the penalty of death and this perhaps is thanks to Roman rule over them prohibiting them from such things. Comes now Jesus who does what they believe should not be done and, as it appears, does them intentionally on a sabbath day. Some examples may be helpful:

• “At that time Jesus went  on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do  that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day“. Here, Jesus is confronted by the Pharisees for picking fruit and He goes on to tell them of what King David had done many years before and how their own priests profane the sabbath by their activities. The Master goes on to say: “But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple. But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day“. (Matthew 12:1-2, 6-8). Now Jesus does not say here that the sabbath should no longer be observed; He does say that to do things that are prudent to do are not against the law and that mercy should be a part of the sabbath equation as well.
• Directly from this encounter with the Pharisees, Jesus enters into the local synagogue where He finds a man with a withered hand. They ask the Master: “….is it lawful to heal on the sabbath days? that they might accuse him. And he said  unto them, What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out? How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days” (Matthew 12:10-12). Jesus heals this man and, ignoring what the Master has said to them, they left and held council against Him. Jesus message is clear here saying you would save your sheep from the pit then why not cure a man today as well. After the Pharisees leave Jesus, knowing that they were against Him, left as well “and great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all” (Matthew 12:15) and this, of course, on the sabbath as well.
• “And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was  bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said  unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day, and said  unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day” (Luke 13:10-14). Here again opportunity presented itself to the Master and He seized it and He heals the woman. To the rulers comments about this He says: “thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day? ” (Luke 13:15-16). From this, with the peoples attention firmly on Him, the Master goes into a teaching on the Kingdom of God.
• “And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the sabbath day, that they watched him. And, behold, there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy. And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day? And they held their peace. And he took  him, and healed him, and let him go; And answered them, saying, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath day? And they could not answer him again to these things” (Luke 14:1-6). Here the situation is a bit different. The Master is an invited guest at the home of one of the rulers and the man with the dropsy (a disease of swelling due to body fluids) is most likely either a guest or is one of lawyers or Pharisees. Interesting that there is no complaint regarding healing this man although Jesus did ask for comment. He went on to teach them on seeking the highest place when invited which is Luke’s version of yesterday’s Quote of the Day.
• Then there is the healing of the man “which had  an infirmity thirty and eight years” at the pool at Bethesda. This too is on the sabbath day and here He picks out this man from among the many “impotent folk , of blind, halt, withered, waiting for  the moving of the water“. Here the rulers accost the man who is healed telling him that “it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed” because he had picked it up an walked away after being healed. They then seek to kill the Master when they find it was His doing that the man was healed. Jesus’ reply to them is “My Father worketh hither to, and I work” (John 5:3, 5, 17).
• “And as Jesus passed by, he saw  a man which was blind from his birth ….. he (Jesus) spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, ….. He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing ….. And it was  the sabbath day when Jesus made  the clay, and opened his eyes” (John 9:1-14 parts omitted). Here again the rulers accost the man who was healed and in disbelief they inquire of him and his parents. They cast the man out of the synagogue and here the Master takes the opportunity to teach some of the Pharisees who hear Him about His truth of being blind.

So we have here six instances where the Master heals on the sabbath and in all but the one at a Pharisees home, He is criticized for it. We must assume that these people talked among themselves based on what we read throughout the gospels yet they could not and would not see the message that He was giving to them about healing and the sabbath. Not only by His words did He tell them the reality of the sabbath but by examples from scripture as well as we see above. There is one more place where the Master discourses with the rulers about the sabbath; it is a time where they are seeking to kill Him at the feast.

“Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him. Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law? Why go ye about to kill me? The people answered and said , Thou hast a devil: who goeth about to kill thee? Jesus answered and said unto them, I have done one work, and ye all marvel. Moses therefore gave  unto you circumcision; (not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers;) and ye on the sabbath day circumcise a man. If a man on the sabbath day receive circumcision, that  the law of Moses should not be broken; are ye angry at me, because I have made  a man every whit whole on the sabbath day? Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment” (John 7:16-24).

Two key parts of the above segment from the Gospel of John (bolded) are a key to His message about the sabbath and these are equally true for us today and in all arenas of religious life. If we are doing His will, we are in His Presence and we know because what we do is in accordance with His word. For us this means that we are disciples. Had the rulers and the Pharisees been doing His will and not their own they would never had questioned any of the good works that the Master did and this was their place to be, doing His will. The other is important to us all because even if and when we are not doing His will in conscious work or if we are unsure of where we are we can still, when we have to judge what we see, judge righteous judgment.

Note on the Quote of the Day

This daily blog also has a Quote of the Day which may not be in any way related to the essay. Many of these will be from the Bible and some just prayers or meditations that may have an influence on you and are in line with the subject matter of this blog. As the quote will change daily and will not store with the post, it is repeated in this section with the book reference and comment.

Today’s Quote of the Day is from World Goodwill. The values listed here are plain ordinary Christian values that go largely ignored by much of the Christian world who, in their zeal to be ‘God’s people’, devalue the lives of others who do not believe the same way and who in many ways eschew any philosophy that will bring world cooperation for fear of a world religion.

Values to Live By

A Love of Truth—essential
for a just, inclusive and progressive society;

A Sense of Justice—recognition
of the rights and needs, of all.

Spirit of Cooperation—based
on active goodwill and the principle of right human
relationships;

A Sense of Personal Responsibility—for
group, community and national affairs;

Serving the Common Good— through
the sacrifice of selfishness. Only what is good for all
is good for each one.

The world of the future depends on what each one of us chooses to do today.