11th Sunday after Pentecost

Honor the Sabbath day and keep it holy.
It’s one of the ten commandments:
A command from God that is on par with not making idols and not murdering.

It’s not a sort of “legalistic” rule:
Like not wearing mixed fibers.
Instead, it’s one of the primary commands from our Lord.

So what do we do with today’s lesson:
Where Jesus seems to be breaking one of the primary tenants of our faith?

To see what Jesus seems to be on about with the Sabbath:
It helps to see how Luke has framed it.

This is not the first time that Jesus has had a Sabbath question in Luke’s Gospel.

Earlier, in chapter 6,
We get two instances of apparent “Sabbath Breaking”:
Once: when the disciples pluck grain on the sabbath:
And then right after when Jesus heals a man’s hand on the Sabbath.

Fascinatingly, in Luke:
We do NOT get the words from Jesus that Mark and Matthew record during the episode
of plucking grain:
Jesus does not (in Luke’s Gospel) say “The sabbath was made for man, not man for the
sabbath”

Instead, in Luke:
The focus is on Jesus being the Lord of the Sabbath.

In other words:
The focus of all of this Sabbath talk in Luke,
Is an affirmation of Jesus’ divine status.
Luke is trying to say that the Sabbath flows from HIS command:
Not the other way around.

We, however, not being God: do NOT get to make the same claim.
We are not Lords of the Sabbath:
Only Jesus is.

And so , keeping that in mind:
we get to the episode today.
Jesus heals on the Sabbath:

He heals a woman who had been infirm for 18 years:
A woman who had been rendered invisible by her illness:
An illness that that people at the time thought she “deserved” because of her sin.

When the synagogue leaders challenge Jesus on healing the woman:
We are not seeing a debate about the validity of the ten commandments:
We’re seeing a debate about interpretation of the law.

There were some who wanted a very strict interpretation of not doing any work: that
would prevent even healing.

But there was also a school of interpretation that was laxer:
Allowing healing on the Sabbath.
Perhaps Jesus was taking the side of this more lax interpretation.

OR:
Maybe Jesus is not even taking this more lax approach.
Perhaps there is something that flows out of what he said earlier in Luke:
that he was the Lord of the Sabbath.

The prohibition against healing dealt with the practicing of medical arts.
But Jesus Is not healing through human medicine:
Certainly it does not seem that he is exerting himself significantly

(perhaps equivalent to the minimal effort of untying an ox or donkey to allow them to
drink)

Jesus is Lord of the sabbath:
He is the Son of God and this is an exercise of his power that is no different from what
for all other humans would be the normal course of living life.
To heal for Jesus is no different from breathing.
It’s effortless for him.

All this is to say that this healing actually serves the PURPOSE of the Sabbath.
This woman: wracked with pain:
Was never able to truly experience Sabbath rest.

By her being healed, she could live into this day of rest:
And more than that:
To recognize that the sabbath: is to also recognize the ultimate sabbath for all creation:
The rest and wholeness of all things: promised in the New Creation.

In this case: the commandment to keep the sabbath is a matter of freedom for humans:
One that Jesus himself affirms the significance of by freeing this woman to be able to
finally TRULY have her sabbath rest.
And Jesus: as Lord of the Sabbath:
Provides this rest and relief to her.

But we might also wonder what this has to do with us?
We don’t have the effortless ability to heal:
And we certainly aren’t the Lords of the Sabbath.

Further complicating things,
Is that we live in a 21 st century, consumerist America.

For many of us, other than perhaps going to church in the morning:
Sunday, the Christian sabbath:
Is basically like any other day:
Or at least just like any other weekend.

We don’t have to worry about businesses being closed on Sunday:
We can carry on as though it were any other day.

So I think the challenge to us from this story is not to say “Observing the sabbath
doesn’t matter.”
But to recognize that it is SO important that Jesus himself made sure that Sabbath rest
and relief was available to EVERYONE.
It’s so important: that we should strive to help those who currently cannot observe it:
Be able to participate in the Sabbaths relief and rest.

This story is about a conviction:
A conviction that “All people deserve to have Sabbath rest.”

We should look at our lives and ask how we can hallow the Lord’s day:
Allow it to be a day during the week in which our attention is directed especially toward
God:
And remember that All human beings need (and deserve) rest.

ALL human beings:
Not some.
Not just those who have the have the luxury of a five day work week.
Not just those who WE think “deserve it.”
But rest and relief for all humans.

So that, as today’s collect says:
That God’s church, being gathered together in unity by the holy spirit, may show forth
God’s power among ALL Peoples.” Amen.