Pharisaic Freedom

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.