She Keeps her first Sabbath in Eighteen Years
Luke 13:10-17
Notice that the LORD not only states keeping the Sabbath, but He also provides the rationale for keeping it. The LORD Himself rested from His work on the Seventh Day after creating the heavens and the earth. We don’t know exactly how He observed the Sabbath, but one could think of a Ancient Near East monarch resting in the garden outside the palace. We should perhaps think of Eden as being God’s garden next to His palace in which He could enjoy it in the cool of the day. He took the time to enjoy the beauty of the garden. He set Adam and Eve to maintain the garden and would commune with them in the evenings, both for fellowship and to give them instruction as needed. Adam and Eve participated in the glory of this garden of rest and also needed time to reflect on the improvements to this garden.
When Adam and Eve fell, all of creation was cursed. The earth was cursed. Man was sentenced to hard labor. this labor also fell upon man’s domesticated animals such as oxen and donkeys. The toil of the labor necessitated the Sabbath so that man and animal could regain their strength from the hard week.
Despite the strict commandment, Israel failed to observe the Sabbath scrupulously. Their failure led to the seventy-year captivity of Judah mentioned in Jeremiah 29:10 and other places. Israel had failed to properly observe the Sabbath from the time of Saul some 490 years earlier. So the land would be granted a 70 year rest from harvest.
After some of the Jews returned from Babylon, they were determined not to anger God and more by desecrating the Sabbath as well as breaking any of the commandments of the Torah. Part of what a group called the Pharisees did was to try to put a hedge around the Law. If they observed these traditions, then they could not break God’s Law. This became quite a burden. One only need read one of their disputations called “Berakoth” to realize what a burden was imposed upon the keeping of the Sabbath. In this tractate, a discussion emerged how a man in his house could give bread to a beggar outside without either of them breaking the Sabbath. This discussion takes up many pages of small print, but finally they figured a way how to do it. They did a lot of mental labor to come up with a solution. But methinks it would have been easier to simply open the door and give the man a loaf of bread.
These Sabbath rules were in full force on this day when Jesus came to the synagogue. Jesus had a reputation as a “Sabbath-breaker.” He had healed others on the Sabbath. In this incident, there was a woman who had been bent over so severely that she could not get up. Jesus later added that this bondage came from Satan. She had spent eighteen years in this condition. But somehow, she was able to come to the synagogue on the Sabbath day. How did she get there? One has the idea that she would have needed help which would have required these people to do work on the Sabbath. Or did they drop her off before Sunset the day before so that they could keep the Sabbath and let her lay there all night?
A person so crippled and bound would find it hard to enjoy rest, even on the Sabbath. So Jesus saw here and called her to come to Him. Now this woman was crippled, so either some had to help her, or she had to struggle to get there as Jesus had not yet healed her. In either case, work was done. Then Jesus proclaimed her free from her infirmity. Immediately she straightened up and glorified God, She finally had rest after eighteen long years.
Of course, the ruler of the synagogue found no rest in what happened. It was his job to maintain order in the synagogue. In his mind the Sabbath had been desecrated. He was indignant. He does not directly address Jesus but instead tells the people that there were seven days in a week on could come for healing but not on the Sabbath.
The ruler of the synagogue did not realize that there was another way the Sabbath could be broken, Isaiah 1:13 says: “Bring no more futile sacrifices; Incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies— I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting.” One could try to keep the outward form of the Sabbath but desecrate it in his heart by failing to discern why there is a Sabbath day in the first place. If the ruler of the synagogue had been more sensitive to the purpose of the Sabbath rather than outward conformity, he would not have made so galling a mistake.
Jesus immediately calls out the ruler for his attitude. We must remember that Jesus, the Son of God, is the means through the Trinity created the heavens and the earth. As such, it was He who spoke the Law to Moses. So as the author of the Law itself, He knew what he meant by keeping the Sabbath. So here he gives context to the commandment to keep the Sabbath day just as he had 1500 years earlier at Sinai. The ruler should have known better. Jesus tells them that on the Sabbath day, they do work by loosing their ox or donkey to led them to water. This gives rest and refreshment to these animals. They were not breaking the Sabbath by doing so. they were actually fulfilling the Sabbath by helping their animals find rest rather than have them suffer from thirst all day long.
One might also know that the ruler of the synagogue worked on the Sabbath day. But this was rightfully excused because the people of God needed to be fed from the words of the Scripture. They needed to find rest in worship. So, inasmuch as those in charge of the synagogue were doing this, they were keeping the Sabbath.
If you remember the title of this sermon, I implied that this woman had not kept the Sabbath for 18 years. She might have been in the synagogue every Sabbath for all I know. And if she needed assistance, I am not implying that they did not keep the Sabbath. In fact they were helping this woman, a child of Abraham, come. But she was not free to enjoy the Sabbath because of her condition. For the first time in eighteen years she had rest from her infirmity. She was now free to praise God in the worship of the LORD. How much better a Sabbath than that enjoyed by the domesticated animals.
We have seen that there are two purposes for the Sabbath. We mentioned that one of these was to give physical refreshment to laborers so that they could renew their physical strength for the toil of the week ahead. The same is true for giving the oxen and donkeys rest. By taking this rest, the loss of production on the Sabbath day was more than made up in the increased productivity of the next six days. This alone makes it important to observe. If this day off can be the official Sabbath, well and good. But hospitals have to treat patients on the Sabbath which means doctors, nurses, and staff must needs labor on these days. But these workers still need a physical Sabbath, even if their day off is some other day of the week. This Sabbath must be observed for the good of man and his health.
Most Christian churches have moved the Sabbath from the day called “Saturday” to Sunday. Some scruple that the seventh day of the week must not be changed. I don’t wish to condemn either practice so long as it is done in faith and that the LORD be remembered and worshiped on that day. I will note that perhaps the weekly Sabbath of rest remain on Saturday as it has always been, Then when the church meets on the first day of the week in which we remember the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, we are offering out firstfruits of our renewed strength for service. We are then offering God the best of the week and not the rest. I know that neither side of this Sabbath controversy will agree with this idea. But consider it anyway. Let the weekly Sabbath be for the renewal of the body and the christian Sabbath on Sunday be for the renewing of ourselves in worship and learning from the Word. A refreshed body affects the mind. The body at rest is able to concentrate better.
When we look at Jesus and His example here, we see another purpose for the Sabbath. This is that in our service to the Lord we bring rest to those who are bound. Jesus often healed on the Sabbath which in a sense came at the expense of the refreshment of His own body. Mark 1 presents what seems to be a very long day in the life of Jesus. All of these events may not have happened on the same day. for example, if his calling of the fishermen happened the same day He cast out the demons from the man from the synagogue at Capernaum, then the disciples would have been fishing on the Sabbath as the Sabbath started at sundown the day before. But just the events at the synagogue that day, followed by many who came for healing, and finally the healing of Peter’s mother in law would have been an exhausting day. Jesus got no rest that day. But in the evening, he went out of the city to take Sabbath with the Father. In our ministry to others, we must not let the business of ministry choke out this second aspect of keeping the Sabbath or we shall certainly burn out and our love grow cold.
We realize that the commission to bring rest to a troubled world will interfere with our physical need of rest. It is ironic in that bringing the Gospel which brings rest to troubled people, we ourselves are spent. Just think of the day where Mark records Jesus telling the disciples to come to a desert place for refreshment. The disciples were physically and emotionally exhausted. then they saw the multitudes coming by the thousands to them. Jesus taught them all. It was a long day. Then Jesus showed concern for the physical weariness and hunger of those who had travelled miles to come, lest they faint. so His exhausted disciples then had to serve 5000 men plus women and children an gather up the leftovers. Then afterwards, they entered their boat and rowed against the wind all night long. What weariness! We can think of all that the disciples would suffer for the sake of Jesus. Too often, they had no time to physically rest on any regular basis. But Paul and Silas could observe the spiritual Sabbath in a Philippian jail. Their bodies were hardly at rest fastened into the wood of the stocks and suffering from the many stripes they received. Yet they took rest in singing hymns of praise to God. We should try to find time to physically rest as we are able. But sometimes this is impossible considering the urgency of the mission.
Remember that Jesus kept the Law perfectly, which means He could not have broken the Sabbath. The Rabbis did feel that God was exempt from the Sabbath because the whole universe would fall apart otherwise. Jesus could have claimed divine privilege and not have broken the Sabbath. But He was fully human as well. He had a body which grew hungry and weary. So Jesus could not have broken the Sabbath in His human nature either for which there is no exemption. We must realize that as the Book of Hebrews notes: “There remains a Sabbath for the people of God (Hebrews 4:9). There the lost “Sabbaths” will be made up. There will be no further need of rest from physical labor any more as our perfected bodies will no longer grow weary. It will instead be the Sabbath of reflection and worship of God, unfettered from earthly cares. This does not mean that we will not have tasks like Adam and Eve had in the garden. But these will not be to our weariness. Let us therefore labor to enter that rest (Hebrews 4:11). Let all of our earthly worship anticipate this Sabbath, a type of the true Sabbath.
