What Was Lawful on the Sabbath? (Luke 14:1-4)

In Luke 14:3 Jesus asked lawyers what was lawful on the Sabbath. They were experts in the law. This is their language! They were always deciding what is and isn’t lawful. If anyone should’ve been able to answer this question it was them. But they couldn’t answer, because they created a complex system of rules that made the Sabbath a burden instead of a blessing. Learn why doing good was appropriate and lawful on the Sabbath. Table of ContentsFamily Worship Guide for What Was Lawful on the Sabbath?Sermon Notes for What Was Lawful on the Sabbath?Lesson One: It is easy to add rules to God’s commands.Lesson Two: The Mishnah was a commentary on God’s law, the Gemara was a commentary on the Mishnah, and the Talmud combined the Mishnah and Gemara.Lesson Three: The rules added to the Sabbath made it a burden.Lesson Four: The Sabbath was about doing good.Lesson Five: Jesus fulfilled the Sabbath and the Pharisees violated it. https://youtu.be/GIh6Vbvmrdg In Luke 14:3 Jesus asked what was lawful on the Sabbath. Learn why doing good was appropriate and lawful on the Sabbath. Family Worship Guide for What Was Lawful on the Sabbath? Directions: Read the verses and then answer the questions: Day 1: Luke 14:1-4, Exodus 20:8-11—Why did the Pharisees invite Jesus over for a meal? Why do you think they invited the man with dropsy? Why were the Pharisees watching Jesus so intently? Why did the Pharisees have so much trouble answering the first question Jesus asked? Day 2: Mark 2:27, Matthew 22:35-39, Romans 13:8-10, Galatians 5:14—Why do you think it is so easy to add rules to God’s law? Can you think of any rules you have added to God’s law? Are all of them good or should some of them be removed? How did the rules that the religious leaders added to the Sabbath make it a burden? How does the New Testament simplify the Old Testament law? Day 3: Matthew 12:12, Psalm 121:3-4, John 5:16-17, Luke 14:5-6—What was the purpose of the Sabbath? What was acceptable on the Sabbath? What was unacceptable? What does it mean that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath? How did Jesus fulfill the Sabbath and how did the religious leaders violate it? Sermon Notes for What Was Lawful on the Sabbath? The title of this morning’s sermon is, “What Was Lawful on the Sabbath?” On Sunday mornings we’re working our way through Luke’s gospel verse by verse and we find ourselves at chapter 14, verses 1-6. Please stand with me for the reading of God’s Word. We will start at verse 22 for context… Luke 14:1 One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. 2 And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. 3 And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” 4 But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. 5 And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” 6 And they could not reply to these things. You may be seated. Let’s pray. Just like many people look for fellowship after the worship service on Sunday, in Jesus’s day many people looked for fellowship after the synagogue service on the Sabbath. Look what happened on this particular Sabbath… Luke 14:1 One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully.  The Pharisees were the ultra-orthodox sect of Judaism who lived by a very strict code. With the exception of a few of them, such as Nicodemus or the one in the previous chapter who warned Jesus that his life was in danger, they were the worst opposition Jesus faced during his earthly ministry. But even though Jesus had some of His greatest disputes with the Pharisees, He still associated with them, not to be one of them, but to love them and show them a godly example. You’re tempted to say, “How kind of this Pharisee to invite Jesus for dinner!” Nope! This ruler of the Pharisees invited Jesus, but it wasn’t for fellowship. Notice it says they were watching him. Multiple Pharisees are present and they were watching him to see him do something so they can condemn him. The Pharisees had good reason to watch Jesus on the Sabbath, because it seemed to be his most popular day to heal people. Listen to how busy Jesus has been on the Sabbath up to this point: In Luke 4:31-37 he cast out a demon on the Sabbath In Luke 4:38-39 he healed Peter’s mother-in-law’s high fever on the Sabbath In Luke 6:1-5 he allowed his disciples to pluck grain on the Sabbath In Luke 6:6-10 he healed the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath In John 5:1-9 he healed the lame man on the Sabbath In Luke 13:10-17 he healed the woman who was bent over on the Sabbath In John 9 he healed the blind man on the Sabbath And they are expecting him to heal someone else on the Sabbath. Look at verse two… Luke 14:2 And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy.  Luke wrote this gospel as well as Acts. He was a doctor and traveling companion of the apostle Paul. He gives us his professional opinion that this man has dropsy, which is an abnormal accumulation of body fluids because of kidney trouble, a heart ailment, or liver disease. It was painful and would leave parts of the body swollen, such as a leg, arm, or hand. The word for dropsy comes from the Greek words for “water” and “face” or “countenance” because the disease often made a person look bloated in the face. Today we call it edema. So you look at this and say, “Well, it sure was nice of the Pharisee to invite him over. Maybe they felt sorry for him and wanted to bless him.” No. If you walked into this luncheon you would say, “The Pharisees are here, and it makes sense that Jesus is here, because they would invite prominent people, which Jesus was…but why in the world is this man with dropsy here?” He would never be invited to something like this, because the thinking of the day was if someone had a deformity, disability, or sickness, they must have been a terrible sinner and they were being punished by God. There was no way the religious leaders would invite a man like this to their dinner. If you write in your Bible you can circle the words him who had dropsy and write, “Bait.” More than likely, the man with dropsy was invited to provoke Jesus into healing him, which they would see as a violation of the Sabbath. Consider the Pharisees’ heartlessness and hypocrisy… Their heartlessness is shown in that they used this man as part of their wicked plan to catch Jesus. They know Jesus. They know His character. They know He’s healed countless people…probably on the Sabbath more than any other day. So, they’re expecting Him to heal this man. They knew that if they put a hurting man like this in Jesus’s presence, He would heal him. Their hypocrisy can be seen when we try to answer this question… Did the Pharisees want Jesus to heal this man? We want to say, “No they didn’t, because that would violate the Sabbath.” But they did want him to, because that would violate the Sabbath and then they would have a reason to condemn him. So look what Jesus says… Luke 14:3 And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?”  Jesus didn’t immediately heal him. First, He asked this question. It sounds odd to say Jesus responded to [them], because there’s no record of them saying anything. So, what did he respond to? He responded to their thoughts. He knew they were watching him and wanted to see if he’d heal, so he asked them this question. And it really should not have been difficult for them to answer. Look at the words, “Is it lawful?” Verse 3 says he was asking lawyers. Don’t think of lawyers in courtrooms. The lawyers in Jesus’s day were the experts in the law. This is their language! They’re always deciding what is and isn’t lawful. He’s asking them to share their expertise. If anyone should’ve been able to answer this question it’s them! But they couldn’t answer because if they said it is unlawful to heal on the Sabbath, they would look unmerciful and cruel. It was one thing to sit around and interpret God’s Law during a theological discussion or debate, but it was something else entirely to apply those conclusions when they would have a detrimental effect on a hurting person. But they also couldn’t say it is lawful to heal on the Sabbath because that would make them look bad for two reasons: First, they would be permitting him to break one of their rules. Second, if they said it’s lawful to heal on the Sabbath it’s going to cause people to wonder why they never healed on the Sabbath. Jesus was the One doing all the miraculous healing, not them. Basically, they must either make Jesus look good or make themselves look bad, so look what happened… Luke 14:4 But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away.  No fanfare; nothing fancy. No ceremony or hocus-pocus in Jesus’s healing ministry. He simply did it, and the man was completely well. Because the man’s dropsy affected his appearance, he would have immediately looked better. There was no question whether Jesus truly healed him. It wasn’t a hurting knee or back. It was a remarkable miracle. And notice Jesus didn’t just heal him and let him remain at the Pharisee’s house, or even leave on his own. Jesus sent him away. It was like, “You’ve already suffered enough being here with these cruel people who have been using you. Go ahead and see your family and friends and enjoy your new health.” Now let’s answer the question Jesus asked: is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? They thought it wasn’t, because they’d added so much to God’s commands…and this brings us to lesson one…