Sermon: Covenantal Collapse
Text: Luke 14:1-11
Occasion: Trinity XVII
Who: Mark Woolsey
When: Sunday, Sep 21, 2008 (which is really Trinity XVIII)
Where: Providence Reformed Episcopal Church
Luke 14:1-11, NKJV: Now it happened, as He went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath, that they watched Him closely. And behold, there was a certain man before Him who had dropsy. And Jesus, answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"
But they kept silent. And He took him and healed him, and let him go. Then He answered them, saying, "Which of you, having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?" And they could not answer Him regarding these things.
So He told a parable to those who were invited, when He noted how they chose the best places, saying to them, "When you are invited by anyone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place, lest one more honorable than you be invited by him; and he who invited you and him come and say to you, ’Give place to this man,’ and then you begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes he may say to you, ’Friend, go up higher.’ Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at table with you. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
Collect: Lord, we pray thee that thy grace may always both precede and follow us, and make us continually to be given to all good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
I. Intro
[fiddle w/a couple of pencils]
(1) Which is easier, to perform an operation or to gather firewood?
(2) Why do we worship on Sunday when it is clear from the 10 commandments we recite each week that Saturday is the day of rest and holy assembly?
(3) What is the relationship of the first two questions to each other, and with today’s Gospel lesson?
(4) How do I keep this parish from falling asleep while I answer these questions?
Let me partially answer the last question first. There are periods of church history that if you could not answer these questions, you would be killed. Executed. You know, having a gun put to your head does wonders for your attention span, don’t you think? No ADD on the guillotine. Even today to misunderstand the principles behind these questions is to misunderstand who Christ Himself is, and to invite eternal disaster. So I invite you today to see these questions as providing a fresh, but completely orthodox, view of our Scripture passage.
II. Dropsy
First, how many of you know what "dropsy" is?
[drop stuff now]
Some of you may have heard of the ontological and teleological arguments for the existence of God. If He were ever to cure me of my tendency to run over and drop things, I think that healing would form the basis for the "clumsilogical" argument of His existence and would be proof enough to convince even the most ardent Pharisee. But alas, the dropsy that our Lord cured was not clumsiness; it’s something much more serious. The New Unger’s Bible Dictionary defines it as:
... a symptom of a number of diseases, mostly of the heart, liver, kidneys, and brain, causing collections of water in the cavities of the body, or on its surface, or in the limbs. (New Unger’s Bible Dictionary, p306)
Basically, you swell up. I don’t think it’s particularly pleasant. Jesus healed this man, but He did so on the Sabbath, which is what got Him in a LOT of trouble.
III. Setting the Stage
As anybody who has had any familiarity with the Gospels knows, Jesus and the Pharisees were not on the best of speaking terms. Have you ever experienced a tense relationship with someone? One that has a long history of insults, offenses, anger, and the like? This is especially egregious in a family relationship where there is no way out, day after day. Each time you see this person it just takes one little word, or perhaps simply a glance, and you are at each other’s throats like cats and dogs. Jesus’ family was like that. No, I don’t mean Joseph and Mary; I’m talking about Abraham’s big family, the Hebrews, that Jesus both created and was born into. Listen to St John:
Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your bed and walk." And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked.
And that day was the Sabbath. ... For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath. (John 5:8-16)
What is it that inspires such vitriol, such caustic responses? They wanted to kill Jesus because He healed on the Sabbath? What could possibly be going through their minds? Well, let’s try some Old Testament passages, which was the Bible of the day. First, from Exodus:
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. (Ex 20:8-11)
You hear this every week in our liturgy. It seems clear enough. Listen to Jeremiah expound on this theme:
Thus says the LORD: "Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; nor carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, nor do any work, but hallow the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers. But they did not obey nor incline their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear nor receive instruction. And it shall be, if you heed Me carefully," says the LORD, "to bring no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work in it, then shall enter the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, accompanied by the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city shall remain forever. And they shall come from the cities of Judah and from the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin and from the lowland, from the mountains and from the South, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, bringing sacrifices of praise to the house of the LORD. But if you will not heed Me to hallow the Sabbath day, such as not carrying a burden when entering the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched." (Jer 17:21-27)
Perhaps you are thinking, well, the Jews had to observe the Sabbath alright, and it looks like God was somewhat of a stickler about it, but God’s not going to kill anybody for failing to rest, is He? Otherwise it’s sort of like signs you see from time to time in your boss’ office:
The beatings will continue until moral improves
God’s not exactly endearing Himself to us if He threatens this kind of treatment. But consider the following passage, and listen to God’s explicit instructions:
Now while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to all the congregation. They put him under guard, because it had not been explained what should be done to him. Then the LORD said to Moses, "The man must surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp." So, as the LORD commanded Moses, all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him with stones, and he died. (Num 15:32-36)
Capital punishment for working on the Sabbath was not the Pharisees’ idea; it came straight from the Lord’s mouth. So I’ll repeat here my first question,
Which is easier, to perform an operation or to gather firewood?
If gathering sticks on the Sabbath requires the death penalty, then what about "operating" on a man, especially when he was not in any immediate danger? Isn’t that harder? Isn’t that even more work?
Consider Nehemiah:
In those days I saw people in Judah treading wine presses on the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and loading donkeys with wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. And I warned them about the day on which they were selling provisions. Men of Tyre dwelt there also, who brought in fish and all kinds of goods, and sold them on the Sabbath to the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem. Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said to them, "What evil thing is this that you do, by which you profane the Sabbath day? Did not your fathers do thus, and did not our God bring all this disaster on us and on this city? Yet you bring added wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath." So it was, at the gates of Jerusalem, as it began to be dark before the Sabbath, that I commanded the gates to be shut, and charged that they must not be opened till after the Sabbath. Then I posted some of my servants at the gates, so that no burdens would be brought in on the Sabbath day. Now the merchants and sellers of all kinds of wares lodged outside Jerusalem once or twice. Then I warned them, and said to them, "Why do you spend the night around the wall? If you do so again, I will lay hands on you!" From that time on they came no more on the Sabbath. (Neh 13:15-21)
When Nehemiah was promising to "lay hands" on the Sabbath-breakers, I don’t think he was planning on ordaining them to the priesthood!
So, God Himself had ordained that Sabbath stick-gatherers were to be executed, and "operating" on a dropsy patient - and dropsy, as serious as it is, is not immediately life-threatening - was obviously harder and more work than stick-gathering. Put yourself in the position of the Pharisees, those charged with teaching and enforcing the Law of God. What would you do?
And He entered the synagogue again ... on the Sabbath ... . And He said to the man with the withered hand ..., "Stretch out your hand" ... and his hand was restored ... . Then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him. (Mark 3:1-6)
IV. The Mystery Deepens
So, our Lord is a repeated Sabbath-breaker, and a serious one at that. At least, that’s how it appears. However, let’s say that He kept the Sabbath in all strictness per the Scripture. Furthermore, let’s say He even "went the extra mile"; not only did He not gather sticks, but He didn’t even pick Himself up out of bed. He did everything required, and even more, except in one little detail. Let’s suppose He was just one day late. He rigidly observed the day of rest week in and week out, but it was shifted out 24 hours. On Saturday He would be frolicking around, lifting weights, jogging, healing the sick, doing work, and the NEXT day of the week He would rest. Do you think that would satisfy His enemies, or even Scriptural requirements? Of course not. Part of Sabbath observance is that it’s done on the Sabbath. Then what in the world are we doing, who claim to believe and practice what the Bible tells us to? Do we observe the Sabbath day at the end of the week? Actually, it starts Friday sundown and goes to Saturday sundown. How many of you did that yesterday? Refrained travelling? Refused purchasing? Rested completely? Resisted activity? On the contrary, I’ll bet that while not all of you were at your week-day jobs, you probably exerted quite a bit of effort. Why has the church failed to uphold the Sabbath? Why don’t I just read the Nonalogue (the 9 commandments) every week, skipping the fourth? Nor is this some obscure commandment buried deep in Zephaniah, wherever that book is. This is part of the 10 commandments, for crying out loud. We all know in Mark 7:19 that our Lord specifically obseleted observance of the kosher laws, such as don’t eat pig, squid, or slugs. We are free to eat any or all of those now. In fact, I know it’s quite a relief to many of you that slugs are no longer on the banned food list ;-). But there’s no such parallel passage for the abrogation of the observance of the Sabbath. Are the Seventh Day Adventists right after all? Are we guilty of the greatest hypocrisy when we declare God’s judgment on all fornicators (a violation of the 7th commandment), and then go out and do all kinds of work on Saturday (a violation of the 4th)? As Jesus asked rhetorically,
Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? (Luke 14:3)
V. A Kinder, Gentler Moses
One way that some try to understand this conundrum is that they view Jesus as a kind of Moses-lite. The Old Testament God is harsh and cruel, but Jesus came to correct our notions of who God is. He’s not really a God of judgment, but a God of love. Moses said,
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe (Ex 21:24)
whereas Jesus said,
You have heard that it was said, ’An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. (Mat 5:38-39)
Jesus becomes a kinder, gentler Moses. But I ask you, which is easier, to strike back at those who hurt you, or to refuse retribution? Jesus didn’t soften the Law, He intensified it. He made it harder to keep. Adultery was not simply the act of fornication; it was the desire of the heart with or without the act. Nor was Jesus particularly soft, either. He talked more about Hell than any other person in the Bible.
Now it is true that Jesus was trying to correct some errors that had arisen concerning Sabbath-keeping. These errors consisted both of hypocrisy and over-burdening. Alfred Edersheim, a converted Jew of the 19th century, in his book, "The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah", details some of the hypocritical and burdensome requirements recorded in the Jewish Mishnah and Talmud. In there we learn that it was a sin to carry a burden of the weight of a fig, but not of a half-fig. However, if you carried the half-fig twice, then that was a desecration.
... if an object was thrown into the air with the left, and caught again with the right hand, this [might involve] sin, though there could be no doubt a man incurred guilt if he caught it with the same hand with which it had been thrown[. B]ut he was not guilty if he caught it in his mouth, since, after being eaten, the object no longer existed, and hence catching with the mouth was as if it had been done by a second person. (Life and Times, p 779)
The chapter in Edersheim’s book where he relates these laws is 10 pages of dense text, and those 10 pages are simply a summary of many more pages in the original Talmud and Mishnah where the actual regulations are expounded upon. To this, Jesus’ response was:
And He said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." (Mark 2:27)
So Jesus did correct some mistaken views of the Sabbath, but that does not explain all of what happened with the Sabbath. It does not explain why it switched from Saturday to Sunday. That was not a correction; that was a change. Jesus not only taught Sabbath, He transformed it.
VI. Covenantal Collapse
Yet it’s not hard to see how the Pharisees got to where they did. If gathering sticks on a Sabbath was so dangerous to a person’s life that he would die, then it is of utmost importance that the Sabbath be well understood so that no breach of it was perpetrated. Sort of like regulations that surround the nuclear power industry. One nuclear accident can ruin a whole day! But what the rabbinic scribes did not realize in all their rules and hair-splitting is that they were guilty of what I call covenantal collapse. Instead of one people and two covenants, they asserted two peoples and one covenant. What do I mean by that?
VII. The Covenants.
Can any of the youth here tell me, from the Westminster Shorter Catechism for Young Children, what is a covenant?
A covenant is an agreement between two or more persons (question 22)
That’s correct. And when it comes to covenants between God and man, how many are there in the Bible? Well, we can talk about a handful at least. There are covenants with Adam, Noah, Moses, and David. Then there’s the New Covenant. But each of these covenants between man and God can be grouped under one of two headings: the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace. Each of the individual covenants is really just a manifestation of one or the other. Most importantly, while these two covenants are interrelated, they are distinct and must never be confused. The Covenant of Works states:
You shall therefore keep My statues and My judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them (Lev 18:5)
while the Covenant of Grace states:
if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. (Ro 10:9)
The first covenant consists of man and God cooperating together while in the second God does all the work. These covenants are not serial. God didn’t first make the Covenant of Works and then decide that He needed something better so He cancelled it and introduced the Covenant of Grace. No, both covenants are in force at all times. The problem comes in when we confuse them as the Pharisees did, and as all men have done down through the ages.
We see the close connection between the covenants and the Sabbath every week when we hear:
Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy (Ex 20:8)
This commandment is embedded in the warp and woof of the Mosiac Covenant.
The Sabbath is not something we use to get in God’s favor; it’s a gift from God. It’s not a means to an end, it is an end in itself:
And He said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." (Mark 2:27)
The Jewish clergy saw the world in the terms of the Jews, and everyone else. God had made a covenant with the Jews. Thus, instead of two covenants (works and grace) and one people (There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. - Gal 3:28), they saw it as two peoples (Jews and Gentiles) and one covenant (works). Not only did they collapse the two covenants into one covenant of works - no covenant of grace - but they missed the fact that in the covenant of grace the Sabbath has a whole new meaning. Christ not only corrected our view of the Sabbath; He converted it. He didn’t just teach it; He transformed it. The world says Sunday is for recreation; I say it is for re-Creation. And it’s right here that lies at the center of the good news. The gospel is found right here!
VIII. Old Covenant, Old Sabbath
Listen to Dr Michael Horton in his book, God of Promise:
Before the fall, the persons and work of Adam and Eve were holy. Even their most mundane daily tasks were part of their mission to extend the kingdom of God throughout all the earth and to confirm all of creation in perfect righteousness. They were to bring their posterity and the whole created order into that Sabbath rest that God himself enjoyed after his six days of labor. (God of Promise, p114)
But what happened? They fell. They were unable to bring the whole created order into that rest. Instead, there were wars, killings, poverty, famine, hatred, and damnation.
IX. New Covenant, New Sabbath
When we move from Old to New Covenant, the kosher laws fall by the wayside. They are no longer needed. The Sabbath, however, makes it across the transition, but in the process it is changed. Listen!:
Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn,
When? After the Sabbath. The first day of the week.
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake;
An earthquake. What does an earthquake do? It changes everything. Violently.
[there was a great earthquake] for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it. His countenance was like lightning and his clothing as white as snow. And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men. But the angel answered and said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. (Mat 28:1-6)
Jesus Christ arose on the first day of the week. Death could not keep Him; and when he came back He shook the very foundations of the earth. The earth changed, death changed, the people changed, history changed, the cosmos changed, and the Sabbath changed. The new Sabbath and the gospel are inextricably linked. You cannot separate them.
What is the book of Revelation? Many of us were brought up to see it as a glimpse into the future - the horoscope of the Bible. Tomorrow’s newspaper. Balderdash. Except for the last two chapters, this is what you see: robes, choir, responsive readings, set prayers, liturgy, procession; why, it’s a worship service! And one very much like what you are in right now. And how does it open?
I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on the island that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day,
When did he say? The Lord’s Day. All of Revelation happened on the Lord’s Day, Sunday, the first day of the week, which has become the day of worship.
and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet, saying, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last (Rev 1:9-11)
Truly the last has become first. The pattern of work hard and then rest on the Sabbath - the last day - has become rest in the work of God on the Lord’s Day - the first day - then work. That, in part, is what our Lord means when He says:
For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath." (Mat 12:1-8)
What’s at stake here is nothing less than the gospel. This is why we don’t celebrate the Jewish festivals of Purim, Passover, and Trumpets. Sabbath is typological in the Old Covenant and eschatological in New. That is, in the Old it looks forward with types and shadows to the coming of our Lord. The postcards of England are wonderful to behold - until you go to England and get to see the country for yourself. While you’re there you don’t purchase postcards to look at them, you look at the real thing. Our faith has passed from shadows to reality, so we cast the sketchy drawings aside and behold the real thing. That’s why, for example, we now have the Eucharist. It’s the real body and blood of our Lord - not the endless repetition of the sacrifice of bulls and goats. The Old covenant is typological - deals in symbols - while the New is eschatological - the real thing from the future is breaking in on us right now. Christ is really here - not carnally, but really. The dim view of Sabbath rest in the Old has become the reality of rest from our works in the New. In the old our sins were passed over - judgment was postponed. In the new, we are actually forgiven by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone.
Listen again to Dr Horton in "God of Promise", this time quoting Robertson:
it is fitting that the new covenant radically alters the Sabbath perspective. The current believer in Christ does not follow the Sabbath pattern of the people of the old covenant. He does not first labor six days, looking hopefully toward rest. Instead, he begins the week by rejoicing in the rest already accomplished by the cosmic event of Christ’s resurrection. Then he enters joyfully into his six days of labor, confident of success through the victory which Christ already has won. (God of Promise, p104)
X. Christ our Sabbath.
Have you ever considered the relationship between the book of Galatians and the book of Hebrews? Both deal with Judaizing Christians. In Galatians St Paul defends justification by faith alone; in Hebrews He defends, among other things, Christ our Sabbath:
For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: "And God rested on the seventh day from all His works"; ... There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest ... Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Heb 4:4-16)
We find mercy where we find Sabbath rest.
XI. Teaching and Healing
We can now, finally, come back to our original Gospel passage and see that Christ not only teaches, but heals. He corrects our view of the Sabbath, and then begins to transform this day by healing the man:
... on the Sabbath ... Jesus spoke to the ... Pharisees, saying, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?" But they kept silent. And He took and healed him ... Then He answered them, saying, "Which of you, having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?" (Luke 14:1-5)
Notice that the very next thing our Lord teaches is on humility - sitting in places of honor, and being told to move up or down in the seating. Why do you think that is linked with the Sabbath observance? Well, for one thing, humility and Sabbath (old and new) go together: Working on Sabbath says you are too important to obey God. It says you can work your own salvation. Look in your heart. Is the Sabbath a burden or blessing? End or means to an end?
And He said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." (Mark 2:27)
The great sin of the Pharisees in this regard was to collapse the two covenants into one, and thus miss the transformation of the old Sabbath into the new. No new Sabbath, no rest from their works. No rest from their works and they are still in their sins. Covenantal collapse was a catastrophe that cost them not only their physical lives (at the hands of the Romans), but also their eternal (at God’s last judgment seat).
XII. Gospel and Sabbath
One last thing. Today we have before you both the Gospel and the Sabbath on this table. In the form of the bread and wine are presented to you the finished work of Christ on the cross. His work for your salvation is complete. He said, "It is finished." (John 19:30) and He meant it. Don’t try to add to His work. Come, taste, and enjoy it.
This is the word of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Soli Deo Gloria!
