TITLE: “The Lord of the Sabbath”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for today is the Gospel lesson just read, with focus on the question of Jesus: “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”

Table manners are a lost art today. I remember as a kid going to my grandparents and having a formal supper, I think it was Thanksgiving. Everything on the table was laid out in a certain way. Even the dessert spoon was in the right place. Everything matched, including the serving bowls. The presentation of the meal was a work of art. Now an important part of this presentation was the table order, where you sat at the table. Frankly, as a ten year old, the whole thing was kind of mysterious to me. But in her mind, it was very clear where each person at the table was supposed to sit. It all made sense, at least in her mind, on how this worked, who sat where and why. And you didn’t mess with it. Why? Because she was the hostess. She set the table, and she could have you sit wherever she wanted to have you sit.

Now what was the most important thing about sitting at this table? The most important thing wasn’t where you sat, whether you were at the head of the table or the other end. The most important thing was that you were at the table. The rest of it sort of worked itself out. But the fact that I, a ten year old kid, was at this amazing feast was a sign that I was a part of the family. I may not be able to understand or appreciate the orange sauce, or the way that the blue/green jello magically matched the color of the tablecloth. But it didn’t matter. I was a part of the family, and so I was at the table.

Now that really works pretty well as a picture of faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. And that is what is going on in our text. Jesus is going to eat bread at a Pharisee’s house, and a man with dropsy appears in the doorway. Now dropsy is a terrible disease where basically your body retains water, you become bloated and disfigured, and can even die from it. It was incredibly painful. This man stands before Jesus. He doesn’t say anything. He just stands there. It is obvious what this man wants and needs. He needs Jesus to heal him.

But this put Jesus, at least in the Pharisees eyes, in a real quandary. Did He break the Sabbath and heal the man? The answer, of course, is yes. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost, to heal the broken and to forgive the sins of the penitent. He healed the man and sent him home.

Now to the religious leadership of His day, this work of Jesus on the Sabbath day was a great affront and insult. They are stunned into silence at Jesus’ healing. Why? They are stunned into silence because Jesus work of blessing and healing on the Sabbath hearkens back to creation, when we hear in Genesis 2 that …on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

Why did God set apart the Sabbath Day, Saturday, and bless it as a day above every day? It was the Day when He blessed His creation, and it was the day He blessed it again with Jesus. God set apart the Sabbath Day because that is the day, if you will, that Jesus rested in the tomb. He died on Good Friday, rested in death on Saturday, and rose from the dead on Easter Sunday. When Jesus healed on the Sabbath, He was saying that He is the Lord of the Sabbath, and that He can bless His creation on the Sabbath day just as He did when He created the world.

Ok. So we have a lot of very interesting stuff going on in this text, but what does it have to do with you? This is what it has to do with you. You spent your life working and striving and trying to get ahead. Like the Pharisees in our text, we are all obsessed with the pecking order of things. We want to be at the head of the table, we want to weasel our way into the top spot. But you can’t do it. No matter how hard you try, you will fail. Like the man with dropsy, your failure before God is obvious to everyone, especially to the One who knows all and sees all. And the more you strive and work and struggle, the more obvious it is that you can’t make it on your own. You are trapped. Just like this man with the dropsy, just like the young man of Nain from last week. You’re trapped, and only the Lord of the Banquet can get you to the table.

But that, dear friends, is the miracle of the Gospel. He does invite you to the table. All of your striving and working and struggling to be more spiritual or more Christian will never get you anywhere in the Christian faith. The only one who can get you to the Table and give you a place of honor is the Lord of the Banquet, Jesus Himself.

His great gift to you today is that He invites you to the banquet. It doesn’t matter whether you’re at the head of the table or the foot of the table. It doesn’t matter how dirty you are or how ill equipped for being at the banquet. You see, that’s not your call. The Lord of the Banquet has called you to His eternal Table. He’s the host. It’s His decision, not yours.

This is very good news for you and I, dear friends. It doesn’t matter where you sit at the Table. The important thing is that you are at the Table, that God has invited you, and that you hear His call and say AMEN to His work of forgiving your sins and bringing you into His eternal presence. This is what St. Paul is talking about when He says in our Epistle: There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

So come to the eternal Table of the Lord. The Table is set. The meal is ready. Come and feast on salvation for all eternity. In Jesus’ name. Amen.