Jesus at Bethesda
16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him. 17 Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.” 18 For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. (NIV)
In Exodus 31:17 God calls the Sabbath day “a sign between me and the Israelites forever.” Although most translations use the word “forever” there (as the NIV does), the Hebrew word olam means “unbounded/uncounted time,” or as Professor John C. Jeske put it, an “indefinite futurity.”1 What that means for us is that the “sign” of the Sabbath was to remain as long as the covenant with Israel remained, for an unbounded, indefinite time; in other words, until the Messiah came. But now, Christ had come.
In New Testament times, the Pharisees held an extreme view of Sabbath laws. Any amount of labor that might cause a trickle of sweat, including walking more than 3/4 of a mile (cf. Acts 1:12) was forbidden. Jesus later pointed out that anyone who’s son fell into a well—or even his ox, for that matter—would work as hard as he possibly could to get him out, Sabbath or no Sabbath, and would not be held accountable for breaking the law before God (Luke 14:5). Jesus applied this also to any kind of healing (Luke 14:3) and reminded the Jews that even circumcision was done on the Sabbath (John 7:22).
We need to examine our motives for what we do. Are we doing a thing to serve God (which includes having mercy on other people), or are we doing a thing to serve ourselves? And by “serving ourselves,” we need to remember that that could include rejecting a new idea, or running too quickly toward a new idea, or sticking with the way we’ve always done something.
Of all the things Jesus has rescued us from, maybe the Jewish misapplication of the Sabbath Law is something we should thank him for especially today. Let me put it this way: God has not forbidden us from working up a sweat on the day we have church. And maybe working up a sweat for our Savior, in his service, is just what we need to do. I’m not talking about working instead of worshiping; I’m talking about working for our Lord after we worship him—or in some cases, even while we worship him.
Our Savior is more than Lord of the Sabbath. He is also our rescuer from sin. All our sins are covered by his blood; all our failings are forgiven by him. To be forgiven! To be at peace with God! These are the greatest blessings he gives to us.
1 Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly 99:2 [Spring 2002] p. 138
Something Extra:
Ecclesiastes 1:13
13 I devoted myself to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a heavy burden God has laid on men! (NIV)
Solomon tells us that he spent a great deal of study in the pursuit of “all that is done under heaven.” We know from Scripture that Solomon wrote quite a lot of music, that he wrote many proverbs, and that he personally catalogued plant life and animal life including animals, birds, reptiles and fish (1 Kings 4:32-34). The quest for knowledge and for wisdom is something God has placed in mankind, but we can’t buy that knowledge. We must learn it, scrap by scrap, deduction by deduction, and we must enter into many frustrating dead ends and cul-de-sacs before we really learn anything at all.
But Solomon is coaching us throughout his book: The pursuit of ordinary human knowledge is a very heavy burden indeed if there is no knowledge of the true God. Without the certainty of the resurrection, all learning would be useless and worthless. Without the gospel of forgiveness, all of life would be an impossible burden.
Has God laid a heavy burden on you? Turn right back to him and lay your guilty conscience and your other troubles at his feet. He will give you strength as he pours out his love, his compassion and his healing into your life. Trust to him, and he will carry you.
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. His wife, Kathryn, attended Chapel from 1987-1990 while studying Secondary Education (Theater and Math) at UW-Madison. Kathryn’s father, John Meyer, was also the first man to serve as a Vicar at Chapel.
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