Trinity 17
Beloved. In today’s Gospel we again see Jesus having a run in with the religious leaders of the Jews. One Sabbath day, when Jesus went into the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat bread. And we get the distinct impression that this was a set up: they were watching him closely. Right in front of him was a man who was suffering from swelling of his body. They wanted to see what Jesus would do: would He heal the man and by that—in their mind—break the Third Commandment by doing work on the Sabbath Day? They thought that if Jesus would break the Third Commandment by healing the man that there is no way He could be the long promised Messiah. Jesus sees right through that; He sees their trap; He sees their hypocrisy and calls them out on it: Jesus addressed the legal experts and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” But they were silent, answering “yes” in their hearts since works of love were allowed according to the OT Law. So he took hold of the man, healed him, and let him go.
By the thoughts and actions of the religious leaders of the Jews, we see here a wrong use of God’s holy Law. They were trying to use the holy Law of God to make themselves look good; they were trying to use the Law of God to try to gain heaven by their supposed perfect keeping of it; in short, they misused the holy Law of God and became self-righteous. The self-righteous—like those Pharisees in today’s Gospel—insist on their external/ outward works and their own self-chosen piety and neglect love and mercy.
So what about the Sabbath—there still is that 3rd Commandment after all: Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. What was going on was that they were looking at the outward form of the commandment—not doing any work and making that the focus of the commandment. But by that they were neglecting the commandment’s higher sense—keeping the day holy/ separate/ different from the other days of the week by gathering together for worship—by gladly hearing God’s word and praising Him with fellow believers.
The word “Sabbath” means “rest”. Yes, the Sabbath day was to be a day of rest to allow people to hear God’s word and to praise Him; it was not meant to be made more tiring or more work by observing all sorts of minute rules and always looking behind your back, lest you do some forbidden “work”. Jesus also said at another time [Mk. 2.27]: The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.
The really wonderful thing about the 3rd Commandment in particular is that it is also a prophecy. The Sabbath day pointed to the rest the faithful would have in the coming Messiah. In Him—in Jesus—there true spiritual rest, rest of conscience and rest of soul. For the OT people, they were reminded of the rest they would have from the Law and its accusations; the Messiah would save His people and rescue them from their sins. They would have peace and rest before God. As they rested from their work and given the opportunity to hear God’s word, they were reminded of the rest they would have in conscience by the work of the coming Savior.
The Sabbath Day for the OT faithful was Saturday, the seventh day, the day God had rested from creating. But for the Christian today, our Sabbath Day is Sunday. Jesus has fulfilled the prophecy that OT Sabbath Law pointed forward to. Jesus brought our rest and peace of conscience by the forgiveness of our sins. He did that on the cross; Jesus rested in the tomb but rose again on Easter Sunday from the dead. That’s God’s absolution/ pronouncement of forgiveness on the world. On Sunday, we remember our rest—our certain and completed rest that Jesus brought us by the forgiveness of sin and reconciling us sinners to the holy God. Certainly for this reason, from the earliest days of the apostles, the Christians have observed Sunday as the day of rest—the day set aside to hear God’s word and to gather together with our fellow Christians.
Although the outward form of the 3rd Commandment was only for the Jews—the rest from work on Saturday—the inward spiritual sense of the 3rd Commandment remains for us Christians—to hold God’s word sacred and gladly hear and learn it.
That’s why, in that sense, our text from St. Isaiah, as he is quoting the Lord, is still fitting. “If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”
We do not observe Sunday as a divine command but as an ordinance of the Church that we do willingly for the sake of Christian love and peace. Again remember Jesus’ words: The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. We need that time around God’s holy word and sacrament for our spiritual good. How blessed we are that we have set times to hear God’s word and to receive His gifts and blessings in the word and sacrament. Look how the Lord describes it in our text: If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable. He calls the OT Sabbath “holy”—and if the OT Sabbath was holy what about our Sundays and holy days in which we are in the presence of the risen and ascended Jesus and hear Him speaking to us in His word and literally giving Himself to us in the Blessed Sacrament, giving us here the forgiveness of our sin and eternal life. If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, here as we gather around our Lord’s word and sacrament, we are standing on holy ground; as we come to church, we are standing on holy ground—the very place God is, like He told Moses at the burning bush [Ex. 3.5]: Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. The point for us is this: all days are equal but certain days are chosen for the sake of the word and prayer. Let us treasure those days and times. Let us make the whole day separate/ different from other days. Turn back your foot from the Sabbath, that is, don’t tread on the holy days with a foot occupied with its everyday work, at best making your time around God’s word something rushed and incidental. But let your time around God’s word leaven and influence your whole day—and then let that influence the other days of the week. After the sermon we have a few moments to ponder/ meditate on what we have heard and let it soak in. Let it begin there and permeate your whole week. Let our Sundays and holy days be times we let God’s word and gifts “soak in” and not fill them with all sorts of other things diluting or preventing the word from soaking in or making the day “common” like any other. Let them be different/ stand out.
If you turn back … from doing your pleasure on my holy day…; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly. Notice something else the Lord says: what the Sabbath/ our holy days are not. They are not only for hearing God’s word and offering Him our prayers and praises. They are also a time to refocus our life as a life of repentance. Especially our holy days are to be marked by our self-denial—not seeking what pleases our natural/ sinful heart, putting down our own desires to strive to do the will of God, not speaking as vain and foolish things. Our Sundays and holy days will also be marked as different/ separate as we strive to live a more holy life. And by God’s grace, our life of holiness will increase—not only on Sunday but throughout the week. And on the flip side, make part of each day like Sunday and holy days by setting apart time each day for reading your bible or solid devotional books, for pondering what you have read, and for prayer and praise of the Lord, and when offered here at church—Bible Study.
And call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable. What is interesting is the word translated honorable has behind it the idea of “glory”. That means that the Lord has invested holy days with the splendor of His own glory. And why? –Because He is there in our midst in church, in His word and sacrament. The whole day is glorious because of that! Let it be different/ stand out from all the rest.
Of course not everybody has Sunday off. Think of the early Christians living in the pagan Roman world. Especially the slaves—they had no days off. Even in Christian lands vital services had to go on—medical, police, military, etc. and Christians did not have Sundays off. In our increasingly secularized Western world, Sunday is becoming “just another day” and people have to work for all kinds of frivolous services. Think of Christians in Moslem lands today—Sunday is a work day. So for those that do not have the opportunity on Sunday, let another day serve as a day in particular to read and ponder God’s holy word, and if there is an opportunity to gather with fellow Christians at church for Bible study, for example, take it. You do what you can to hold God’s word sacred and gladly hear and learn it because that’s what this 3rd Commandment is all about.
It was for their spiritual good that God gave His OT people the holy Ten Commandments, and it is for our spiritual good we still have the inward essence of the 3rd Commandment to hold God’s word sacred and gladly hear and learn it. After giving the commandment, God tells the Israelites [Dt. 5.15]: And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. The point? –Simply this: the Israelites were to remember the saving acts of God. What happens to us as we gather together in worship around our Lord’s word and sacrament? We are remembering and re-experiencing the saving acts of God: we are reminded of Jesus and His saving work, we actually receive the forgiveness of our sins in the Gospel and absolution, we actually receive the true body of Jesus that was cursed for our sin and the very blood that was poured out for our forgiveness—we are not just remembering a distant event, it is if we are there as Jesus sacrificed Himself for us. We join our praise with that of our fellow Christians and the saints in heaven, together with the angels. We are there with our fellow Christians and God is in our midst with His gifts, graces and blessings.
What makes Sunday and holy days such a joy for the Christian? The Lord tells us in our text: then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken. Being with our fellow Christians, holding His word sacred and gladly hearing and receiving it, being in the Lord’s presence receiving His gifts, our soul finds true rest and refreshment. With the forgiveness of sins we have received in the absolution and sacrament, we have a good, peaceful conscience and rejoice in the Lord—we are, in Jesus, reconciled to God, His dear children and heirs of heaven. And I will make you ride on the heights of the earth: Jesus has conquered for us and has put our enemies—sin, death, devil and hell—under our feet and in Jesus we tread them underfoot and look forward to our heavenly homeland of eternal peace and rest with all the saints, angels before the holy Triune God. I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. And in that glorious certainty, with our eyes turned away from secular and mundane and focused on heaven we now live lives of faith and good works looking forward to that glorious praise of God we will be able to give to Him for all eternity. What a joy for us now rightly to remember the Sabbath Day, keeping it holy by gladly hearing and learning God’s word. INJ