Happy Sprig break. Happy Sabbath. Since this is our Spring break, let's look at what it means to rest on the Sabbath. God in His loving wisdom instructs us to work and rest equally well. Spring break is the time to rest and recuperate.
Prayer
Dear Lord, thank you for today, your day. Let us come to you and hear your voice this morning. I always fall short to your glory but help me to listen to you and pray through your words:
1 Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong.
2 Do not be quick with your mouth,
do not be hasty in your heart
to utter anything before God.
God is in heaven
and you are on earth,
so let your words be few. (Ecc 5:1-2)
My meditation of the heart and my words of my mouth may be pleasing to you, my rock, my salvation (Psalm 19). I pray in your Son's name. Amen.
The Story
Jesus healed a woman who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years on a Sabbath. The synagogue ruler became indignant and said to the people, "There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath."
This story is a response to the synagogue ruler's charge to Jesus doing something illegal on the Sabbath. Let's hear from Jesus what is Sabbath and how we should do on the Sabbath.
The Sabbath
To Sabbath is to rest from one’s labor. “By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.” (Genesis 2:2). The first recorded command for humans to Sabbath is in Exodus 16:23, and the Sabbath is listed as the fourth commandment in Exodus 20:8–11.
By setting aside a day, we are showing that we are a people who are set aside (holy) and who rest in Jesus. As followers of Jesus we model after what Jesus did on the Sabbath. From our text, these are the things Jesus did on the Sabbath.
- Jesus taught on the Sabbath (10). Is teaching work? NO. Jesus taught on the Sabbath. Teaching on the Sunday is not work but it is God's grace that we can gather together and hear what Jesus had to say. Sinners gather around Jesus and listen to him. By hearing we feel we are welcomed by God and receive the word of eternal life (Luke 15:2). For a while, preparing and delivering the message was a burden. Then I repented and decided to observe the Sabbath. Previously I started my message on Saturday night. As a result, when Sunday morning came, my body was not fully rested and I was tired. I asked God's wisdom and he gave me wisdom. I decided to work early and finish my draft by Tues or Wed by the latest. In this way, I could take time and meditate on the word of God and spend time with our coworkers on Saturday reading the Bible and welcome quests. It is God's wisdom to rest and do work on 6 days and have one day to rest. Delivering the message on Sunday is not a burden to me but I rather enjoy it. God helped me to meditate and have delight in His words. Jesus taught on the Sabbath. Jesus knew how to rest. Let's rest and hear the word of God.
- Jesus freed a woman on the Sabbath (12). Jesus saw her who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. Can you imagine her condition? For eighteen years she suffered this way. The ability to stand straight is so nice. But what bound her? The spirit bound her and gave her so much pain and suffering. To a woman, appearance is very important. After my wife's wisdom tooth was pulled out, her cheek was swollen and she asked me how she looked. I said, "Fine. Those swelling will disappear soon." However, she looked at the mirror several times and was very self conscious. Here in the passage, a woman's whole body was crippled. We cannot imagine how she walked but she somehow came to the house of God. There, she was had to hide from everyone. But Jesus saw her and had pity on her. Jesus knew that it would be very controversial to heal her on the Sabbath. But Jesus called her and had her stand in front of everyone and healed her. This tells us that Jesus is not pragmatic like me. I do not do certain things if I know that it will create much controversies and headaches.
Look at Jesus and how he sees her. In this passage, Jesus is contrasted with the synagogue ruler. This synagogue ruler is God's servant who was supposed to pray for his people but at the core, he did not care for this woman. This man was very upset because Jesus healed her on the Sabbath.
Let's look at verses 15-16.
15The Lord answered him, "You hypocrites! Doesn't each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? 16Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?"
For him his ox and donkey were more valuable than this woman. He had no compassion for this woman.
How you see suffering people reveals about who you are. Here Jesus is teaching that this synagogue ruler is a hypocrite. This ruler knew how to take care of his ox or donkey but he had no pity on this crippled woman. This woman according to Jesus is a daughter of Abraham. This phrase indicates that she was a daughter of God.
How do you look at girls? This is a very challenging passage for me. When I grew up, I lived with my two sisters. They were emotional and not rational. On the other hand, I was very rational and studied chemistry.
I did not understand them. Once my younger sister ran away from home, I was so upset for tearing my mother and father's heart and became angry at her. In this way, I did not see who she was. My anger blinded me to see her. I saw her only as a woman with an 18 year old problem but failed to see her as a daughter of Abraham. It is amazing how Jesus sees us. We are messed up in one way or the other, but Jesus went to Jerusalem for each one of us.
Jesus' perspective is different though. He knows that we are not that good but He wants to accept us as children of God, born by God's word and his Spirit.
This passage teaches us Jesus' ultimate love for us. Jesus did not avoid the situation but confronted our hypocrisy, specifically our value.
What God values is His love for this woman. We are more than following Sabbath laws. Sabbath is there for us to rest, hear His word, be healed, and hear Jesus' affirmation of us as sons and daughters of God by Jesus' death and resurrection. We are God's children. When we are suffering, Jesus is suffering. He does everything to heal us even at the cost of giving His life for us.
I am a man of hypocrisy and try to look good but God sees my heart. As a leader of this ministry, I must repent before God acknowledging my sins of trying to look good.
1 Samuel 12:20 gave me much needed encouragement. It says, "You have done all this evil; yet do not turn away from the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart." I know I am a sinner. I know I am a hypocrite. Can I say, "I am a sinner!" and do nothing? No. Jesus taught me to serve God from my heart. God wants to see where my heart lies. This gave me much freedom to serve God and praise God and enjoy His word.
Even though I am evil but God does not want me to do nothing but rather to serve God from my heart and do His work. It is indeed grace of Jesus. We are evil yet we are so much loved by God. Today I want to learn the gospel of Jesus.
God knows our evil and ungrateful hearts but he wants to accept us as children of God serving God and doing from our hearts.
I thank God who rescued me from a life of "looking good" outside only and enabled me to serve God from my heart. God gave me Sabbath so that I can rest in His word. May God grant each of us His rest during this Spring break and learn to rest and have delight in his word and in his saving grace.
- Jesus made this woman to praise God on the Sabbath After she was healed, she straightened up and praised God. We praise God on the Sabbath for His grace of healing and His grace of going to Jerusalem for us. We praise God for Jesus who was rejected by the teachers of the law. By His rejection, we are healed. So we gather around Jesus and praise Him. We thank God for freeing us from our chronic sicknesses and addictions. We believe Jesus can free us. This is our confidence to come to Jesus. In this way, coming to Sunday is not a burden but this is a joyful day to see Jesus who heals us and welcomes us to His kingdom.
Summary
Let's repent our hard hearts. We have no compassion for the suffering people. Jesus is challenging us to see suffering people from God's perspective. Jesus declared that this woman was a daughter of God. When we suffer from our chronic diseases and addictions, we think that we are abandoned by God. But that's not true. Jesus came to free us by being rejected by the ruler and He paid the ultimate price for our freedom. It is God's grace that frees us. Jesus' death and resurrection is our ultimate freedom.
As we pray for the Easter conference, let's pray that Jesus' death and resurrection and His saving gospel can set us free from all our sicknesses and addictions.
Let's pray.
Dear Lord. Thank you for your word regarding the true meaning of the Sabbath. When you demonstrated the true meaning, you were rejected by the ruler. But your rejection brings us hope and freedom. Please free us from living only before men and valuing material things more than your people. Help us to rest in Your words and praise God for Your saving grace. Help us to live knowing that we are Your sons and daughters, who have been freed by Your healing. Help us to serve you from our hearts. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen
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