Download Keeping the Sabbath Unholy Luke 13:10

Keeping the Sabbath Unholy
Luke 13:10-17
NUCC Traditional
21 August 2016
*PRAY*
I wish the story would have ended another way. Yes, it was the Sabbath. But
even on the Sabbath people become sick, or continue to be sick. Jesus notices a
woman, hunched over, obviously one who had been ill for a long time. You will note,
however, that once again we are not given the most basic information about this
woman, her name. But Jesus is merciful and he takes the initiative to call her over and
lay his hands on her. By these gracious acts, the woman is healed on the spot. Her
body is straightened again, and she praises God for God's goodness.
From here on, I wish the story would have ended another way. Wouldn't it have
been nice if all the people standing around witnessing this scene could have joined the
woman in praising God for God's goodness? Indeed, the whole idea of worshiping a
loving God on the Sabbath could have been reinforced in a powerful way.
But that is not what happened. As soon as Jesus finishes this miraculous
healing, the keepers of the Sabbath, the religious leaders, become indignant. The ruler
of the synagogue reminds everyone that there are six other days in the week when such
deeds of healing could be done; even such a kind deed as healing was not allowable on
the seventh day. Healing was considered work, and, as every good Jew knew (how
could they forget it?), the Sabbath means no work.
[1]
Jesus, of course, is stirred up by this heartless interpretation. He reminds the
religious leaders of their double standard in this matter: how they regularly go about
caring for their own animals on the Sabbath by giving them water, but are seemingly
unable to accept a similar propriety of caring for sick human beings on the Sabbath. In
the eyes of the crowd taking this all in, Jesus put the religious leaders to shame and
gained the crowd's admiration for what he had done and said. A perfectly beautiful
situation ends by being elevated to a level of tension and conflict.
Why? Because Jesus healed, on the Sabbath, a woman who scripture tells us
had been suffering for 18 years. Why should she endure one more day? If healing
someone after 18 years of physical and emotional suffering, if straightening who had
been bent over and ignored by people and overlooked by society, if healing someone
on the Sabbath frees them to not endure any of this one moment longer, but makes
that Sabbath day unholy, then I think the Sabbath should be kept unholy. Because if
freeing people from what holds them back means that we aren’t bound by the
rules of tradition, then we are following the ways of Jesus.
Jesus wasn’t concerned with “keeping” the Sabbath. Jesus was concerned with
incarnating the Sabbath — making Sabbath joy, Sabbath peace, Sabbath freedom,
Sabbath compassion, a living, vital experience in the lives of his followers.
Jesus came to declare the in-breaking of the realm of God. And, furthermore, the
realm of God doesn’t take a day off. God’s presence doesn’t pull back from people
every seventh day. The Sabbath was established to enable people a time to
intentionally seek out and encounter the divine in everyday life.
[2]
Let’s not forget that Jesus’ first public appearance in his ministry was in the
synagogue on the Sabbath. It was there that he defined his mission and his message,
using the words of the prophet Isaiah which were echoed in the Magnificat of his mother
Mary, a song he had heard sung many times, starting in the womb:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good
news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of
sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
(Luke 4:18-19)
This good news doesn’t wait for Monday. Releasing captives doesn’t wait for
Monday. New sight doesn’t wait for Monday. Healing shouldn’t wait for Monday.
In August of 2010, Oliver Thomas penned an article in USA Today offering his
thoughts on “Why Do We Need Religion?” Thomas concluded that, at best, religion
gave people “a reason to live,” it made us more moral, and that good religion is always
“life affirming.”
I believe the problem with Thomas’ article, and his conclusions, is that he ends
up equating “religion” with morality. He argues that “religion makes it easier to be
decent. The positive core values, mutual accountability and constant striving for selfimprovement help one to be a better person.”
It seems to me that Mr. Thomas needs a crash course in Christianity 101.
Christianity is not a morality. Christianity is not about getting people to follow a code of
right conduct, or to follow certain rules. Christianity isn’t concerned with bringing some
[3]
sort of moral balance to the universe. Christianity is about being in right relationship.
Right relationship with each other, right relationship with your family. Right relationship
with your friends. Right relationship with Jesus. Right relationship with God.
“Religions” have rules. Christianity has a Redeemer. Religions have faith in moral
systems. Christianity has faith in Christ. Faith in forgiveness. Faith in God’s grace.
Shortly before I moved here in 2013, a report by the National Golf Foundation
declared the Naples-Marco Island area number one for golfing. At the time, our
population was 324,424 and there were 1,530 holes of golf meaning there are 212
people per hole.
And when I arrived I was asked by many people if I played golf. I refer you to last
week’s sermon where I openly confessed that I simply am not good at sports, including
bowling or golf.
But it is fitting that in the game of golf, a game often played in defiance of the
Sabbath (except by members of Naples UCC), that a truly bad shot, a whack into the
water, a slice into an impenetrable bramble bush, a ball that simply disappears into thin
air, can be erased by a “mulligan.”
Now, if I was to play sports, it seems that golf might be my kind of sport, because
“mulligans” are my kind of maneuver. A “mulligan” is a gift of grace, a “second chance,”
a “do-over” that is neither earned nor expected. A “mulligan” makes it possible for a
player to stay in the game despite having made a significant error.
And isn’t that life and isn’t that faith? We are all on this journey together. We
make mistakes along the way, and yet we follow the ways of Jesus, who is not afraid to
[4]
break with tradition, but not simply for the sake of breaking with tradition. Jesus did it
rather to look into the eyes of someone who has physically hurt for 18 years, and been
pushed to the margins just as long, and say: “You are loved and you are healed.” It
seems to be the rest of us who get anxious about rules, and about who is in and who is
out. But not Jesus; no, Jesus observes the Sabbath and keeps it unholy. And we might
be wise to do exactly the same.
[5]