Sabbath Healing

Jesus said to him, "Get up, pick up your pallet and walk." Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk. Now it was the Sabbath on that day. (John 5:8-9)

I just saw something very exciting in this verse that I have never seen before. I have, like most others, only viewed this mention of the Sabbath as cause to focus on the conflict between Jesus' view of the purpose of the Sabbath and the externally-focused, religious oriented, heavy restrictions amassed around the observance of the Sabbath by the Jews in their attempt to protect it from being desecrated. But suddenly I now see something very different here from just a setup for a showdown over petty rules and traditions that prevented them from seeing the real reasons God gave us the Sabbath.

Jesus stated clearly His mission and purpose for coming to this earth when He quoted from Isaiah during His sermon in the synagogue early on in His ministry.

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." (Luke 4:18-19 NRSV)

When the Sabbath is truly understood for its true purpose and meaning, it will be seen more clearly that what Jesus did with this sick man was at the heart of what the Sabbath is all about. Jesus was only fulfilling His mission statement that He had laid out on a Sabbath not long before in the religious assembly. Not only was it right for Him to preach in church on the Sabbath but it was equally important that He lived out the love and mercy and compassion of God on the Sabbath as a fuller expression of revealing how God feels about us as embodied in this mission statement.

Instead of viewing the Sabbath as a time of restrictions and rules and regulations to appease, God gave the Sabbath as a reserved time in which we are to lay aside anything that distracts our attention from His affections so that we can be ravished in His love for us. This man likely had been responding inwardly to the promptings of the Spirit convicting him that God cared for him more than those around him were willing to believe. That same Spirit led Jesus to place Himself right in front of this man who had been prepped and was ready to receive the grace and the gift of healing right at this point in his life. He unknowingly was longing to follow Jesus even though he did not even know who Jesus was yet.

So when Jesus showed up to invite this man into a new life of relationship with God and experiencing love and wholeness, the sickness that this man was experiencing was a hindrance to him being able to act on his desires to follow God. He was held by the enslavement of sickness, but not only just of his body. Like all of us, he too was trapped in the prison of lies about God that keeps all of us from believing in His love for us. So Jesus came to him to sweep away the obstacles that would prevent him from entering into fuller joy and rest that the Sabbath day was designed to bring to all who would obey God's command regarding it. Healing this man on the Sabbath therefore, is the most logical and practical way Jesus could actually keep the Sabbath. He celebrated it by bringing new life.

In the ensuing discussion that was produced as a result of this healing, some of the most clear and profound truths about God were expounded by Jesus to those who resisted believing the truth about Him and about His Father. The healing and liberation of this sick man on the Sabbath created the opportunity that allowed Jesus to preach some of the most important things that we today still need to grasp and absorb more fully. Not only did this sick man need liberation and wholeness but those who thought they were fine needed healing even more.