Sermon for the seventeenth Sunday after Trinity
Is it lawful
to heal on the Sabbath day?
No-one has an answer.
Nor does any
answer Jesus
when He asks them
whether they would
rescue their ox or their ass
- expensive and highly useful animals
- from a pit
on the Sabbath day.
This is rather surprising.
Jesus is sitting
eating with
the chief Pharisee
and,
one would presume,
the Pharisee social set.
All doctors of the law.
And they have no answer.
This is worrying.
[PAUSE]
In writing His laws
in Deuteronomy,
God tells people
that if they have a problem
too difficult for the law
they are to ask the priests.
The priests
are to interpret the Law of God.
That is what God intended
and this is why it was written down
In the book of Deuteronomy.
So why can't the Pharisees answer?
[PAUSE]
They are not priests.
Well not necessarily.
The Pharisees
are a Jewish sect
who practice rigorous observation
of the Jewish law.
They are very well versed
in the details of the Law of Moses
and they are fixed
on keeping Judaism pure.
This is why they are respected
in Jewish Society.
Their practices
are meant to be exemplary
and the height of social etiquette.
They are meant to be
the morally superior
declaring what's right.
But they aren't priests
- not all of them.
[PAUSE]
Our Lord
has one intention
to bring people back to God,
to offer them salvation
at His hands
to show them what Love really is.
Yes, that is one intention.
And He is the priest
of the New Covenant.
This is how He not only keeps the Law
but teaches it as to what it means.
He shows us
that the Sabbath
is not something that needs
minute regulation
because the Sabbath
is given for the good of man,
not man for the good of the Sabbath.
The Sabbath rest
represents freedom
from slavery.
It represents the end
of back-breaking,
soul-destroying,
endless miserable
labour under
indifferent, uncaring
and often malicious masters.
Of course it's lawful
to heal on the Sabbath
and it's clear to anyone
who seeks the kingdom of God.
[PAUSE]
The Pharisees
have assumed more authority
than they are entitled.
Thus they are enslaving people
by micromanaging
the Sabbath to the extent
that they are not permitting people
to be free to deal with
the extraordinary circumstances
of life.
And yet it seems
that if no-one is looking
they will haul
their ox and ass
out of a pit
and pretend
nothing has happened.
This is why Our Lord says,
"what they say, do,
but what they do, do not."
The Pharisees have walked
into the wedding feast of the Lamb
and,
in claiming the same authority
as the priests,
have sat down.
The trouble is
that the Great High Priest,
the Bridegroom Himself
has seen this
and humiliates them
by sending them to a lower room.
And this is why
the Pharisees hate Jesus:
He exposed them
for the frauds that they are
and ruins their social standing
which they worship
more than their God.
[PAUSE]
To interpret the law of God
we need to be close to God.
This doesn't necessarily mean
getting doctorates
in Theology or Law.
It means seeking first
the Kingdom of God
in our hearts,
spending time
remembering that we need
to be Holy through Christ
and being honest
with our shortcomings.
We can and should study
the word of God as well as we can
but it is in living His word
from the heart
not looking for social acceptance
and respectability,
it is in these that we encounter Him
and find ourselves able
to help others truly
by letting His love speak through us
to them.
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