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Exodus 20:8-11 8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Luke 6:5-11 5 Then Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” 6 On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled. 7 The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. 8 But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Get up and stand in front of everyone.” So he got up and stood there. 9 Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?” 10 He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was completely restored. 11 But they were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.
We are going to be talking a great deal about the Sabbath so I thought I would start by telling you about with one man’s respect for the Sabbath. He said, “Out of respect for traditional Christianity, I take Sundays off. Out of respect for Jews, I take Saturdays off. Out of respect for Muslims, I take Fridays off. And to show my own spirituality, I take Mondays through Thursdays off too.” This was written by one of my professors who is known as a remarkable theologian and has published many books but also has a sense of humor.
Jesus’ ministry often highlighted the tension between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law, particularly concerning the Sabbath. In several instances, Jesus healed individuals on the Sabbath, prompting criticism from religious leaders who viewed such acts as violations of Sabbath rest.
In our scripture today Jesus encounters a man with a withered hand in the synagogue. The Pharisees watch closely to see if He will heal on the Sabbath, hoping to accuse Him. Jesus responds by asking, “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?” He then heals the man, demonstrating that doing good and saving life aligns with God’s intentions for the Sabbath.
Let’s start with our first statement. Jesus said, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” What did he mean by this? Jesus is proclaiming that He is the One who has authority even over the rules and regulations that govern the Sabbath day.
As such, Jesus was proclaiming to the world, especially to the legalistic Pharisees, that He was greater than the Law and above the laws of the Mosaic Covenant because, as God in flesh, He is the author of those laws. He had the authority to overrule the Pharisees’ traditions and regulations because as the Son of God he had created the Sabbath. One of the reasons He came was to reestablish the Sabbath’s purpose as a day for restoration and blessing rather than burdensome restriction. Furthermore, Jesus claimed the authority to correctly interpret the meaning of the Sabbath and all the laws pertaining to it.
So let’s take some time to look at the law in question. The original law is part of the Ten Commandments. We heard it today in our reading from Exodus. 8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
God has set apart one day in seven in which we gather together to rest from our worldly labors in order to worship and show love and mercy to others. That is how Scripture characterizes the Sabbath. It is to be a day of delight and joy and comfort.
The Sabbath is to be a holy rest, in which there is a living relationship and connection with our heavenly Father. The work that is to be done should be done on the first six days of the week, so that the Sabbath, which comes on the seventh day, may be free for the worship and service of God.
That’s it. There is no mention of not healing. There is no mention of all that the Pharisees added to it.
The Pharisees, in addition to Torah, believed in an oral tradition that God gave to Moses along with the Torah, making its interpretations and applications as authoritative as the Torah. These traditions are the basis for Judaism today.
Compare the original commandment to the complexity and micromanaging of the Pharisees’ rules with the original law in God’s Word. The Pharisees had strict laws regarding how to observe the Sabbath, which included 39 categories of forbidden activities.
The Pharisees’ Sabbath restrictions forbade the following activities: writing, erasing, and tearing; conducting business transactions; shopping; cooking, baking, or kindling a fire; gardening; doing laundry; carrying anything for more than six feet in a public area; moving anything with your hand, even indirectly such as with a broom. You could move things with your elbow or your breath, but not with your hand. And this is just a partial list.
According to all the rules and regulations the Pharisees had added to the original law, healing on the Sabbath was forbidden because it was classified as ‘work’.
Let’s look at what happens in our scripture. Jesus was in a synagogue on another Sabbath and was teaching. This had become his custom, to go to the various synagogues in Galilee and teach on the Sabbath There Jesus saw a man ‘whose right hand was shriveled’.
Over and over we see Jesus come into conflict with the Pharisees. They are the ‘bad guys’ of many gospel accounts.
Luke tells us that the Pharisees and teachers of the law were already looking for a reason to accuse Jesus. Jesus came to the synagogue to worship God, his father. He taught the people about God’s love. Why did the Pharisees come to synagogue? Was it to be taught? Was it to worship? No. It was to spy on Jesus. That is why there were there that day. The Jewish teachers and authorities were trying to find fault in Jesus’ practices and teachings.
Jesus threatened their religious system and their way of life He pointed out the hypocrisy that was connected with their practice. The lack of respect He had for the religious traditions of the Pharisees incensed the religious leaders. Jesus ignored these oral traditions, which they observed so minutely. It was Jesus’ disregard for their traditions concerning the Sabbath that caused the most outrage. God had commanded the Sabbath to be a day of rest from labors and a time to worship Him. The religious leaders insisted on all types of restrictions to the Sabbath turning it from a day of rest to a heavy burden.
The Pharisees feared losing their power and authority. They feared that Jesus somehow would lead an insurrection, a revolt against Rome, cause another uprising, and consequently bring a bloodbath, and so they sought to remove Him before He caused them trouble.
Jesus knew how they felt about him and what they were thinking at that moment. Jesus knew the Pharisees were seeking to catch him in violating the Sabbath laws. He told the man with the withered hand to stand up. Jesus made sure this was a public healing in front of the entire synagogue.
Next Jesus questions the Pharisees, “I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?”
In other words He says, “Who really breaks the Sabbath, I, who am preparing to heal a man who has been suffering for years, or you, who are seeking a way to accuse me?”
This was a deeply probing question. It puts his surpassing wisdom on display. His opponents are trapped by it. The revealing of their hypocrisy is inevitable.
He will not only impress upon them that not to do good is of itself to do evil, but at the same time show that they cannot conceal themselves before Him. You see, they couldn’t answer his question without incriminating themselves.
He questioned the Pharisees about the heart of the law, not the letter of the law. This is the most important thing we can take from these verses. Should we follow the letter of the law or the spirit, the heart of the law? Should we show compassion or legality?
In Mark’s account of this healing we are told, “But they remained silent. 5 He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts.”
Jesus said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was completely restored.
Once again the Pharisees show their true colors. An occasion that should’ve left everyone speechless with awe and joy, filled them with fury. Could you imagine witnessing this eye-popping healing and then turning to Jesus in disgust? This should have been a scenario of hope. But no, it wasn’t important to the Pharisees that Jesus had just performed a miracle of healing in front of their eyes. All they cared about was that, according to their laws, Jesus had broken the Sabbath.
Could Jesus have done this differently? The Sabbath ends at sundown. Why didn’t Jesus just wait until then to heal the man? That would have kept the peace between Jesus and the Pharisees. Jesus did a lot of things to anger the religious leaders of His day; no surprise there, but Jesus got angry too…it was called righteous indignation and He was angry with the religious leaders who had made the Sabbath such a heavy burden that I would imagine most people dreaded it’s coming. How tragic because in Mark’s account Jesus said that “the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27-28). What Jesus was saying was that the Sabbath was made for man and that it was meant for our good. Psalm 103 tells us thatGod knows we’re dust and understands how fragile our frame is and knowing us, since He created us, He knows that we need to have one day of rest in seven. God never intended the Sabbath to become a burden but that’s what the religious leaders of Jesus’ day had done. They made that day a burden so that it seemed to everyone that they were weighed down by every possible weight imaginable. In fact, they had added hundreds of other traditions, which they considered to be equal to or, in some cases, greater than the law, that were not in the original Sabbath command. This was exactly the opposite of what God had intended for the Sabbath to be.
In this case, we can see that Jesus specifically healed this man’s hands to illustrate to the Jewish teachers that they were missing the core principles of Moses’ teachings. They were focused on the external rules and rituals while missing the purpose and intent of Moses’ teachings.
Confronted with Jesus’ undeniable power to heal and restore, the religious leaders passed up their chance to reflect on the possibility that they were wrong. Instead, they dug in their heels and doubled down on their untenable position. Their stubbornness is a good reminder for us of our need to examine our beliefs and ensure they are biblical and in line with the Word of God.
The Pharisees were enraged because Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath, which they viewed as a violation of the law requiring the day to be kept holy and free from work. Their anger stemmed from their strict adherence to Sabbath laws, whereas Jesus demonstrated that he was “lord of the Sabbath,” challenging their rigid interpretations and emphasizing the spirit of the law over blind devotion to rules.
Ironically, in their fanatical hatred the Pharisees were really the ones who were breaking the Sabbath, because they were committing murder in their hearts. Rather than preserving life on the Sabbath, they were starting to look for a way to take it.
The healings performed by Jesus on the Sabbath serve as a testament to the Kingdom of God breaking into the world, where mercy, healing, and goodness triumph over legalism and human tradition. Jesus’ emphasis on doing good and saving life on the Sabbath aligns with the prophetic tradition that prioritizes justice, mercy, and faithfulness.
For Christians today, the accounts of Jesus healing on the Sabbath invite reflection on the balance between religious observance and the call to love and serve others. The principle of doing good and showing mercy remains central to Christian ethics, encouraging believers to prioritize compassion and human need in their observance of rest and worship.