#DailyDevotion Should You Be Merciful On The Sabbath?
Luke 14:1-11 Once on a Sabbath Jesus went to the home of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal, and they were watching Him carefully. 2In front of Him was a man who had dropsy. 3This led Jesus to ask the experts in the Law and the Pharisees, “Is it right to heal on a day of rest or not?” 4But they didn’t say anything. So Jesus took hold of the man, made him well, and sent him away. 5“If your son or your ox falls into a well,” He asked them, “won’t anyone of you pull him out immediately on a Sabbath?” 6They couldn’t answer this.
The LORD commanded the Israelites they were to do no work on the Sabbath. Generally, they were not to cook but eat what was prepared the day before. They weren’t to be about doing their jobs. But the Jews it seems did not know what constituted “work.” In their tradition, after the exile from Babylon, made up a number of rules of what constituted work and what did not. Some things they were very nick-picky about. Other things they seemed to find a way out from obeying the law directly. So it seemed and still seems sometimes they are legalistic in keeping the Sabbath and other times very libertine.
Jesus in this lesson exposes the legalistic side of their thinking. The Pharisees were watching Jesus carefully to see if he would break their Sabbath rules. So seeing a man with dropsy in front of him he asks the experts if it is ok for someone to heal on the sabbath or not? They wouldn’t answer him. Why not? Were they afraid their hypocrisy would be exposed? Did they want to test Jesus to see what he would do apart from them answering him? Did they not want to seem merciless? Based on what Jesus says following the healing, I’m betting they didn’t want to show themselves hypocrites and merciless. So Jesus heals the guy, on the Sabbath. Jesus asks if they had a son or ox that fell into a well, wouldn’t rescue it on a Sabbath. They wouldn’t answer him and couldn’t answer him. They knew they were trapped. Jesus would elsewhere teach that the Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath. It was for our benefit the LORD made a day of rest from the work he had to do. It was meant for a day people could listen, hear, and mediate on the Word of the LORD.
Now that we are no longer under the Mosaic Law with all of its rules and regulations concerning the Sabbath what do we do? We no longer have a specific day and time we are commanded to hear God’s Word and receive his gifts since the Law with all of its accusations has been nailed to the cross. Faith in Jesus’ completion of the Law is our Sabbath rest. Through faith in Jesus we have entered the eternal Sabbath rest of the LORD (read Hebrews 3 and 4). The Apostles and early Church, in recognition of the LORD’s resurrection and man’s continued need to hear the Word, fellowship with other believers and receive the Sacrament of the Table chose to meet on the first day of the week. Where possible they met every day. We could choose Tuesday or Thursday. Many people worship on Wednesdays too. The LORD Jesus wants us to be merciful and to take care of our fellows. He also wants us to hear his word, partake of his body and blood and to build up one another in the faith worshiping together. On the odd day you are called to help someone in an emergency during your regular worship time, heed the emergency. Otherwise, come receive the gifts the LORD wants to give on that day and don’t shy away from it.
Heavenly Father, give us thankful hearts you give us mercy by providing us with Word, Sacrament and fellowship so we don’t despise them and let those things so move our hearts to be merciful on the day needing mercy. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.