LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
The Lord of the Sabbath
The Lord did four miracles on a Saturday day: He healed the man with the withered hand, the bent woman, the paralyzed man from Bethesda, and the man blind from birth. Apart from that, he had a strong dispute with the Pharisees because the disciples gathered grain on the Sabbath.
Every time he performed a miracle on the Sabbath, he had to face the wrath of the Jews, who considered this a transgression of the worst. His annoyance was so great that a couple of times when he was healing on a Saturday, they thought about how to kill him.
However, all the opposition received did not alter his spirit, nor did it prevent him from continuing to do so whenever he thought it was necessary. Not that he sought to antagonize the Jews; but, rather, it was the exercise of his freedom to do it when he wanted. The Lord did not fear the consequences of doing good.
But not only that, the Lord healed on Saturday to also put in its rightful place that observance transformed into a cold rite; to undo all that godlike tangle that had been woven around that ordinance, stripping it of the true spiritual meaning that he had had.
Hadn't the "Sabbath" been, in the beginning, the occasion to admire the perfection of God's work in creation? Does not the Sabbath mean that God invites man in it to rest from his works as He rested from his? Does it not mean that man is reached by the accomplished acts of God, to enter into his rest? No, none of that meant the Sabbath for the Jews anymore, rather, it had been reduced to a grotesque caricature, riddled with absurd prohibitions.
The Lord healed on the Sabbath, not to annoy the Jews, but to remove an outward observance from his throne, and place on him the Lord of the Sabbath, who has preeminence over all things. On Saturday, the Lord of Saturday brought freedom and rest to four souls burdened by sin and its consequences. He brought into the dreary world of men a glimmer of light from his heavenly life.
As always, Jesus the Galilean, in his humility, was despised by men, and scorned to follow instead a useless shadow. They couldn't see it; they only saw that one of his religious toys was threatened with extinction. God free us from the present legalism, and from our propensity to ‘sabbatize’ ourselves, so as never to confuse the mere shadow with the Reality.