When people talk about miracles, they typically think of healing miracles. One day the tumor is there; the next day, it’s no longer. Someone prays for a blind man and he regains his sight. Miracles are supernatural events that offer hope and healing to people in need.
We started a series on Miracles on Easter with the resurrection. We are exploring a series of four miracles that Jesus over the course of these four weeks. But today, I want to tell you a story straight from the Gospel of Luke that I’m calling “When a Miracle Makes You Mad.” Instead of celebration and leaping, the miracle Jesus performs leaves people silent in fuming.
Let’s jump right into today’s story…
One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. 2 And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. 3 And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” 4 But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. 5 And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” 6 And they could not reply to these things.” (Luke 14:1-6)
When a miracle makes you mad. It’s so odd just to say those words, “Mad at a miracle.” I’ve prayed for miracles thousands of times to happen and nothing happened. My friends suffered. Good people went throughout life hurting. Or worse, some close friends even died. Miracles don’t automatically happen because you follow Christ and they don’t always happen when we ask God for His favor. The people in this story were mad because Jesus performed a miracle. But in our day, we are often angry because He doesn’t perform a miracle.
Sermon Preview
Today, I want to tell the story… the story of three people – Jesus, the miracle-worker, the religious leaders, and a diseased man. And you’ll see two emotional reactions for us and we’ll see two life lessons. Along with way, I’ll even share with you one of Grimm’s fairy tales ?.
The Main Characters
It was a common practice in Jesus’ day to invite someone over for dinner after the synagogue service. And one of the leaders of the Pharisees has Jesus over for dinner at his home. Now, this is one of five miracles that Jesus does on the Sabbath. And it’s important to note that the meal would have been prepared the day before because no cooking was permitted on the Sabbath. The mood is anything but relaxed. The Pharisees have a close eye on Jesus. In addition to Jesus and the Pharisees was a man with dropsy. Dropsy is an old description of simply someone who had fluid building up in their body. The fluid could be in the abdomen area or around the chest. The person eating with Jesus could have been suffering from heart failure or kidney serious – it was serious. And it’s here that things get interesting. But let’s back up for a moment.
What is the Sabbath? The Sabbath was a day of worship and rest. One day every week, God told His people to reserve a day for worship and rest. It was a special day set aside. God Himself rested during the seven days of Creation (Genesis 2:2-3). He also included the Sabbath in the Ten Commandments. God promised tremendous blessing to those who kept the Sabbath (Isaiah 56:2, 6; 58:13-14)
Breaking the Sabbath was big deal for the people of ancient Israel. Anyone intentionally breaking the Sabbath was to be put to death (Exodus 31:14-15; 35:2; Numbers 15:32-36). An example of this was when God’s miracle of giving manna and quail to the people of Israel. They had left Egypt and were on their way to their permanent home. They were traveling in the desert when God literally dropped manna and quail down from the skies to feed them (Exodus 16; Numbers 11). God told them not to collect manna or quail on the Sabbath but to collect enough the day before to last them for two days. The Old Testament specifically mentions four types of work that you weren’t allowed to do on the Sabbath:
WORK PROHIBITED ON THE SABBATH
Kindling a fire Exodus 35:3
Gathering manna Exodus 16:23–29
Selling goods Nehemiah 10:31; 13:15–22
Bearing burdens Jeremiah 17:19–27
Jesus and the Sabbath
The Gospel of Luke tells us it was Jesus’ custom to be in the synagogue on the Sabbath (Luke 4:16, 31; 13:10). Remember the female followers of Jesus even broke off preparing Jesus’ dead body after the crucifixion until after the Sabbath was over (Luke 23:54, 56). Luke says it so elegantly and efficiently when it notes that the people didn’t come to Jesus for healing until the sun went down on the Sabbath (Luke 4:40-41; Mark 1:32-34). Everyone religiously observed the Sabbath in Jesus’ day so much so that people knew not to bother Jesus no matter how bad they hurt until the sun went down. Or, until the Sabbath was over. Sounds Simple… What Is the Controversy? Someone has counted up the commands of the Old Testament and discovered they were 613 commandments in total. By the time these preachers of Jesus’ day were finished, they had expanded this to approximately 6,000 rules. For every rule God laid down in the Old Testament, the religious leaders of Israel had essentially made nine more. The ordinary person couldn’t tell what was from God and what was manmade.
Take the Sabbath for example. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day regulated how far you could walk on the Sabbath – no more than 1,640 feet. If you visit Israel as a tourist, you’ll discover they are still very serious about the Shabbat. For example, you cannot tear a paper towel on Shabbat. Things that are attached – through glue, sewing, or even perforation – cannot be unattached for a purpose on Shabbat. This would involve taking something in one form and carefully dividing it up into another for some use, thus creating something anew.
Back to the Story
Again, this is one of five miracles Jesus performed on the Sabbath. Just a little before our story, Jesus encounters a woman who hade hurting for 18 years. Jesus, being full of compassion, healed the woman and did so on the Sabbath. But notice the religious leaders reaction: But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.” (Luke 13:14) Still on another occasion, Jesus encountered a man with a withered hand. Look at their reaction: “But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.” (Luke 6:11) Whether they were “indignant” or “filled with fury,” you get the picture. There is a new kind of evil on these pages and one that may have not thought of. No doubt there’s hurt when natural disaster comes our way and there’s pain when disabilities arrive at our doorstep. But here’s a new kind of evil here – a religious evil. Evil is so Evil that it twists even good things, even the very words of God. Evil works itself like a sock that is pulled inside out. What else would call it when an ambulance pulls up to your home to save your loved one and religious people tell the driver to go away? “Come back tomorrow!”
Just like an NFL quarterback who places the perfect spiral between defenders and into the arms of a receiver, Jesus locates His question perfectly: “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” (Luke 14:5) Humans will twist what is evil to make it look like good. The evilness of evil startles and surprises us. Just this week I read of a Rutgers law professor who argues that pedophilia was not a crime but simply a disorder. Evil is evil that it twists even good things, even the law of God. Note: The law of God wasn’t the problem. It was when the law of God was twisted, like a sock, that religion becomes a problem.
I am so grateful for the courage of Jesus. Jesus doesn’t shy away from the “sacred cows” of the religious leaders. He heals on the Sabbath, He drives the moneychangers out of the temple, He offends their sensibilities by dining with tax collectors and “sinners,” and He offends their feelings of superiority in the parable of the Good Samaritan. Real love always stands against deception. Here are two emotional reactions from this important story.
1. Silent Before Jesus
The people around the diner table were silent. They had come there to watch Jesus and he had failed their expectations. He had healed a man when their religious rules told them to watch the man suffer another day. Rather than answer Jesus’ question, they sat in silence.
Personal Story
It was 2006 and I prayed hard for a miracle. I prayed most of the night when I arrived back home exhausted. But nothing had happened. The young man I prayed for lay in a vegetative state for another day, only to die. I prayed for a miracle and silence was all I heard. We sit and hurt in silence. After all, Jesus can do anything. He walks on water and passes straight through walls after His resurrection.
We see a video like Ron Nordell’s story (just a few minutes ago) or Mike O’Neill’s (last week) story, where he should have died on a medevac helicopter and we think… ”Why doesn’t He heal my loved ones?” And we are silent. We think and ponder at the ways of God. We sometimes question and advise God on what to do. Like a replay official, we think, “If only God could see this angle of my life, I just know He would agree with my call.” Many of those who are initially silent before God graduate to the next level…
2. Angry at God
The religious leaders in Jesus’ day didn’t stay silent. Instead, they put emotion where quiet was and they became angry: “This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.” (John 5:18)
The Fisherman and His Wife
No doubt, you’ve heard of Grimm’s fairy tales. More than a century ago, a German fairy tale told the story of a miraculous fish. There once was a poor fisherman who lived with his wife, Ilsebill, in a hovel by the sea. One day the fisherman catches a golden flounder, which claims to be an enchanted prince. The fisherman kindly releases it. When his wife hears the story, she says he ought to have had the flounder grant him a wish. Ilsebill tells him to go back and ask the flounder to grant her wish for a nice house. The fisherman returns to the shore and the flounder grants the wife's wish. The fisherman is pleased with his new wealth, but the wife soon becomes greedy. Everything was fine for a few weeks until she wanted a mansion. No sooner had the fisherman asked for the mansion, than the flounder said, “Your wife is already standing at the door.” No sooner than she lived in the mansion, than she wanted to rule, first as queen, then empress, and finally pope. The whole thing goes on until she cannot sleep. Although she’s pope, she lies awake sleepless. She stares at the moon in her sleepless state and anger consumed her. She shouted, “I cannot stand it! Until I control the sun and moon, I will not rest.” The fisherman’s wife wanted to be God.
Your problem and my problem aren’t simply my loved ones are healed. Your problem and my problem isn’t so much that our parents or our wife dies. Our problem is this: it’s that we question the One who decides. Sometimes goes by from Jesus’ eating with the sick man and the Pharisees. Jesus’ dear friend, Lazarus, lay dying. And Jesus had the nerve to go away from a dying man. Rather than go to His dying friend, Jesus went the opposite direction and stayed away from Bethany until His friend, Lazarus died. While the Bible doesn’t say she was angry, we know that Martha, the sister of Lazarus did question Jesus: “Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” (John 11:21) Your anger and your questions are telling you something. Your anger at God for taking away your eyesight and your health is telling you something about your soul. May I say something to you and be as candid and as sensitive as possible? Whenever we become angry with God for taking something away from us, it’s showing us that God was never our God. Our god was our health. Our god was our sight. Our god was the spouse or the child that died. God wasn’t god.
Here at the end are two life lessons you need to follow Christ.
1. God is Wise
From time to time, Hollywood will make a movie where someone is given God-like powers. And if it weren’t so blasphemous, it would be comical. The last movie I can remember that did this had Jim Carey in it and was called Bruce Almighty. I’m not recommending the movie but there’s a point in it where Carey says, “God should be fired.” Now, Morgan Freeman plays God and Freeman grants Carey the ability to be god for a day. And what Carey does with his newfound powers is so insightful and tragic. Carey takes his powers and during one morning commute to work, he makes all the stoplights turn green. Still later, he takes his power for his personal romantic purposes. He uses his powers selfishly.
If you gave your child your paycheck, you know what they would do with it? You come home to a room full of bubblegum and Halloween candy? They wouldn’t pay the bills, they wouldn’t support charity and the poor. They would buy a red convertible and cruise off down the road. They know have the maturity or the intelligence to spend your paycheck. And you don’t have the maturity or the wisdom to play God.
2. God Can be Trusted
It was last summer when our church journey through the Lord’s Prayer together. And Luke’s gospel tags a story on the end of the famous prayer that has stuck with me. Jesus tells a story about a father who gives his children good gifts: “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13) Your Father gives you what you would have asked for it you knew everything He knows. Jesus tells us that when the Father sees something that is for our good, He will give it to us. Jesus: “You’re asking for a scorpion and I don’t give me children scorpions.”
God is Wise
God Can be Trusted
