Feb 24 Sat
Jesus performed healings on the Sabbath. Doing so, he was condemned by the Pharisees, for no work was to be done on the Sabbath. Once “the ruler of the synagogue, … said to the people, ‘There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.’” (Luke 13:10-14)
The synagogue leader was correct. There are six other days on which Jesus could heal people, and so, people should come to Him on those days to be healed – and so keep sacred the Sabbath rest.
Even God, in six days created everything, and rested on the seventh day; then, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it (Gen 2:2). If such is the case, why did Jesus heal on the Sabbath?
Obviously, Jesus knew exactly why – and why, in so doing, He was not breaking the Third Commandment, even if He seemed to be doing so. Think of these two points:
First, Genesis states that everything God created was “very good.”
Second, after Adam and Eve sinned, God’s creation was now stained by sin and contaminated with death. It was no longer “very good.”
What was God to do? Was He to allow sin and death to have the final word? That would not be suitable for the all-good God. God must do something.
He begins His new work – the work of re-creation; particularly, the healing and the re-creation of death-cursed humanity. This preparation finds its culmination in the Father sending his Son into the world.
As God first created everything good through his WORD, so God now re-creates everything good through His incarnate WORD. Through Jesus the Father makes all things new.
On the Cross, Jesus willingly offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice to the Father, thus achieving the forgiveness of sin. So pleased was the Father that He gloriously raised Jesus, His beloved Son, from the dead.
On Good Friday, Jesus put the old sin-cursed creation to death. Having completed this work, He, on Saturday, took his Sabbath rest. On Sunday, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the Father raised Him gloriously from the dead, and thus obtained His everlasting Sabbath rest in heaven.
The risen Jesus builds the new creation, prefigured and signified in His Sabbath healings. Moreover, on Pentecost, the risen Lord Jesus poured out his Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, and so gave birth to the Church, which baptizes in the Holy Spirit.
Through baptism, we die with Christ. Our sin-cursed nature is put to death, and we rise as a new creation in Christ, sharing in his risen and glorified humanity through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
The Sabbath works that Christians do in Christ on earth merit the everlasting Sabbath rest in Christ in heaven.
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