Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
(Proper 17C)
August 31, 2025
Text:
Luke 14:1-14
What is the Sabbath for? Why did God give it? Sanctify it?
Command it?
The word, “Sabbath” (Hebrew: שַׁבָּת),
means, “rest.” As you know, God Himself
set the pattern on the final day of Creation week: “on the seventh day God
finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all
his work that he had done” (Gen. 2:2; ESV).
God didn’t rest because He was tired out from all that labor. He rested so as to claim the day for rest
in Himself. He sanctified it…
consecrated it. “So God
blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his
work that he had done in creation” (v. 3).
And now, the pinnacle of God’s creation, man, was to follow God’s
example. In fact, God commanded it for
His people, Israel. The Third
Commandment: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your
work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your
son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your
livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates” (Ex. 20:8-10).
In the Old Testament, the Sabbath
rule was to cease from work. Why? First of all, so everybody could have a
break. We all need times of rest and
renewal. Give your kids a break from the
chores. Give your servants (we might
say, employees) a break from their duties.
Give your animals, your beasts of burden, a break from their labor. Second, so you have time for God’s gifts and
meditation on His Word. Everyone gathers
for the Sabbath Seder, and we talk about the great things God has done. And third, as an exercise of faith. I’m confessing that, even if I don’t go out and
work today, God will still bless me, and provide for me my daily bread, all the
things I need for this body and life.
So, we might sum it all up and say, the Sabbath was given as an
opportunity to rest in God’s gracious gifts. To recognize that God is our sufficiency. Everything we need, we have in God.
Of course, all of this pointed to
something even greater. That is, seventh
day Sabbath was a shadow of its fulfillment in our Lord Jesus Christ. In the week of New Creation, Holy Week, where
did God finish all His work? On
the cross. Good Friday. The sixth day. “It is finished,” Jesus said, and then
bowed His head and gave up His spirit (John 19:30). And then, what did He do on the seventh day,
the Sabbath? He rested. Where?
In the tomb. Thus
fulfilling the Third Commandment for us, transforming the Sabbath from a mere
day of the week into our whole reality.
See, in the New Testament, in the aftermath of our Lord’s death and
resurrection, our Sabbath is no longer a day, but a Man: Our Lord Jesus
Christ.
Jesus is our Sabbath rest. We rest in Him, now, every day, all day,
always. How so? By faith. By faith, we know and trust that He
has conquered our enemies, sin, death, the devil, the world, and our own sinful
nature. He gives us rest from
these. AND, He gives us rest from
this constant striving to be righteous, to justify ourselves…
before God, before others, and in our own sight. You know how this goes. I am forever excusing and justifying my words
and actions before others. I tell my
stories so that I look good, and others, not so much. I want everyone to admire me, and think that
I am the smartest, most able, most put-together person in the room. I fret over how I look to others. I fret over how I look to myself. I avoid looking at my faults and blemishes in
the mirror. I make sure my social media
posts, and the photos I share, are flashy, and lead others to think my life is
great. I regularly think of others…
well, frankly, as jerks or idiots.
Especially in comparison with me.
I tear others down in my own mind, to make me feel better about myself. And so on, and so forth. You do it, too. It is the never ending, ever accelerating
treadmill of pharisaism, isn’t it?
Self-justification.
Self-righteousness. And it’s
exhausting. You know, it’ll kill you, in
the end.
Jesus gives you rest from all
that. Jesus scoops you up off the
treadmill of self-justification, and holds you fast in His
justification… the forgiveness of all your sins (He paid for them all on the
cross!), His declaration that you are righteous with an alien
righteousness (that is, an outside-of-you righteousness, His
righteousness, given to you as a gift), and then, the reward of that
justification… eternal life, the resurrection of your body, wholeness, health,
peace, joy… Shalom… because He is risen from the dead. And you are baptized into Him. Into His death, and so, into His life.
To observe the Sabbath, then, in the
New Testament, is to rest in that. It is
to receive Jesus and all His gifts. So
Dr. Luther teaches us in the Small Catechism: “Remember the Sabbath
day by keeping it holy. What does
this mean? We should fear and love
God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and
gladly hear and learn it.”[1] Whenever we have opportunity. Especially when the Church gathers on the
Lord’s Day. But really, every
day. Every day in His Word. Every day, commending all things to Him in
prayer, knowing that He cares for us, and will answer. Every day, walking in our Baptism, putting to
death self-justifying Adam, emerging and arising as those whose justification
is in Christ alone. Every day in
Jesus.
Is it lawful to heal on the
Sabbath day? You’d better believe
it! That’s what the Sabbath is all
about. Healing and wholeness, salvation
and life, forgiveness of sins and justification in Jesus Christ alone, who is,
Himself, our Sabbath. When Jesus healed
the man with dropsy (painful swelling, edema, probably caused by all sorts of
other nasty problems), He’s giving the man Sabbath. He’s relieving the burden. Pulling a child… or even an ox… out of a pit
(who of us would not do that on the Sabbath?), gives that child, or that
ox, Sabbath. And, note this:
Inviting the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind… those who can’t pay you
back… to receive of your hospitality, gives them Sabbath. By the way, Jesus is not forbidding you from
having your friends and family, or rich people, over for dinner. In fact, such may even be Sabbath for
them, especially if you give them Jesus by talking about Him, living in Him,
saying a Table prayer, decorating your home with Christian artifacts, like
Bibles, crucifixes, biblical paintings, and such. Jesus is not forbidding that. He’s just saying that the spirit of
Sabbath is relieving burdens, and the heavier the burden, the greater the
Sabbath. You, who have received unimaginable
Sabbath in Jesus Christ, now radiate that Sabbath to others as you
relieve their burdens, and bestow grace and generosity in the Name of Christ.
Now, note this, too. That takes humility. The opposite of Sabbath is pride. Pride is a return to the old treadmill
of self-justification. Humility,
though, claims nothing for itself. It
doesn’t play that game anymore. Humility
has no problem taking its place among the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the
blind. Even tax collectors and
sinners. Because humility says of
itself, “I’m one of them.” Pride takes
the seat of honor at the feast, and sets itself up for a fall. But humility goes and takes the lowest place,
confessing… what?... “I, a poor, miserable sinner.” And then, the Host, Jesus, comes and says, “Friend,
move up higher” (Luke 14:10). That
is, “I forgive you all your sins! Come
and take your place at my Table for the Feast of feasts!” “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the
mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,” Peter
tells us (1 Peter 5:6). That is what
happens when we confess that we are nothing, and have nothing. And then, Christ comes to us to be our
Everything!
That is Sabbath! And, once again, our God sets the
pattern. Who is the One who took the
lowest place, and was, therefore, told by God to move up higher? Oh… you know.
Jesus Christ. He took His
seat with us, in our flesh, in our sin, and misery, and death. Took our place on the cross, and in the
tomb. And now He is risen from the dead,
exalted by God, seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. Beloved, He did all this for you. That you, being humbled, might thus be
exalted. So here you are, resting in
Him, holding His Word sacred, and gladly hearing and learning it… at His
bidding, seated in the place of honor, at the Marriage Feast of the Lamb in His
Kingdom, which has no end. Because, in
fact… that’s what the Sabbath is for.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
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