Jesus is such a Savior that He would even heal someone on the Sabbath! It's illegal, you know. Doing any work on the Sabbath. Says so in the Law. In Exodus. If anyone profanes the Sabbath, they are to be put to death. Jesus is at dinner with the Pharisees and experts in the Law. They know Exodus. They know the penalty for breaking the Sabbath. Here's their chance to get the goods on Jesus. A guy comes in with dropsy. It's like edema, swelling, too much fluid in your body. Makes you weak and it hurts. Will Jesus heal this guy? On the Sabbath? If he does, there's the proof. There's the evidence that He's no Messiah. No Christ. He's a lawbreaker. A God despiser. A theological crook and charlatan. If He does it, then they'll have the proof they need to drag Him in front of the whole Council and vote for a death sentence. Because the Law is clear: profane the Sabbath and you die. What's he going to do? They're watching.
And of course Jesus is going to heal him. After all, if the Pharisees had an ox or a donkey that fell into a pit wouldn't they rescue it? Even if it was the Sabbath.? If your kid skinned a knee on a Sunday, you'd put a bandaid on them wouldn't you? Salvation doesn't wait for any day. It comes where Jesus is. If it's the Sabbath and a man is sick, Jesus heals Him. Simple as that. But, as those who came to Catechism on Wednesday learned again this past week, the Sabbath isn't about what DAY you worship. It's about hearing God's Word. It's about being where Christ is, healing and saving and forgiving. Christ isn't breaking the Sabbath, He's keeping it by healing a man who suffers from dropsy. That's what the Sabbath is: having Christ's Word heal us from our sin. Forgiveness. Life. Mercy. Salvation. The reason the Sabbath was so important in the Old Testament was that the Lord wanted His people to know Him and learn His Word. Those who broke the Sabbath weren't just breaking a rule; they were despising God's Word, saying “I don't care to learn God's Word.” And I'm sure they had all the same excuses we do: other plans, sleeping in, on vacation, obligations, etc., etc. It doesn't matter. The funny thing is this, although it's not really so funny: The commandment to keep the Sabbath was not given so that we could judge others. It was given so that we would learn to love God's Word as the most precious and holy treasure. By trying to find a way to get Jesus in trouble, the Pharisees weren't keeping the Sabbath; on the contrary, they were breaking it by showing just how much they despised God's Word, even His Word-made-flesh!
That's how we use the Law too. As a measuring stick not really of how well we're doing before God but of how much BETTER we're doing than someone else. We grab hold of the commandments not learn our sins, but to point out the sins of others and make ourselves feel better. It's like that old complaint that “Stores didn't used to be open on Sundays.” Do we say that because we're concerned that those who have to work need to still hear God's Word? Or are we just patting ourselves on the back because WE go to church on Sundays and those people don't. Pick any commandment. Do we learn that we don't love God and that we don't love our neighbor? Or do we learn that we love God and our neighbor a lot more than “that guy” over there. It's a shame, isn't it, that the guy was caught stealing from his job. We shake our heads as we rob God and put scraps into His offering plate. We shake our heads at how that person's kid acts because we know we've raised ours so much better. We fight with our spouses because they don't measure up in our marriages; they don't try like we do to make things work. And on and on it goes. Whatever the commandments say, we're sure we're keeping them and someone else isn't. In fact, if it were us at that dinner, we'd be offended at Jesus too. We'd kill Him. He doesn't do what we know He should. We'd cry for Him to be crucified! And we do with our sins wherein we judge others and don't repent ourselves.
That's why Jesus gives us the religion He does. The religion that humbles the exalted and exalts the humble. He who is the most exalted, first of all, top spot, Son of God, has all honor and authority, comes to take the back seat on the bus. The low spot at the feast. The place not of honor but of dishonor, the kid's table, the back room. The cross. There, the cross, Jesus is not first of all but least of all. Despised, mocked, looked down on. Look at the Lord nailed to the tree! That's what happens to Sabbath breakers! But Jesus doesn't die because HE broke the Sabbath. He dies because you did. He dies because you despise God's Word. He dies because you think you're better than others. He dies because you think you can keep the commandments and are sure no one else is even trying. Yes, He dies because you want to kill anyone who isn't like you. As good as you. As holy as you. As perfect as you. As obedient as you. But Jesus, on the cross, is as SINFUL as you. In fact, He IS your sins. Not His. Yours. And there, on the cross, death for yours sins. The Sabbath is kept. The Law is kept. The Law is fulfilled. Your sins are covered with blood and washed away. There, on the cross, the swollen dropsy of your sins is relieved by the water that gushes from Jesus to wash you clean in the font. On the cross, Jesus goes to the bottom, to bring you up to the top.
That's right. Your sins put you at the bottom. Our judging others is the way in which we like to scramble to the head of the table and say, “I'm the most important.” But your sins put you last. They would bring the Lord to say, “Not at MY table! Get out of here you filthy mooch!” But now, by the blood of Jesus, by the washing of water and the Word in Baptism, by Absolution and the Gospel, Jesus is saying to you: “You're way down there? Because of your sins? I've taken care of your sins. Come up here, to the place of honor, the most important place, with Me at the right hand of the Father! Come on! I've reserved this spot for you!” It's why we practice Closed Communion, you know. Because no one can just come and take a spot at the table. You don't just show up and claim a spot. No, you are invited. Beginning in your Baptism and by the instruction in God's Word, hard-boiled sinners who learn that they are no better than anyone else, but in fact, worse—such sinners are invited to come to the place of honor, around Christ's altar, where they are given the holy feast of Jesus' Body and Blood. In learning that we are sinners, that we confess our sins, that we don't put ourselves above others and that we deserve nothing from the Lord, we learn to expect the low spot. And the Lord says, “No. The high spot. The place of honor. My place. You are last in your sins but now you are first because I became last for you. Come up higher because I am your Savior.”
Jesus heals the man with dropsy because He is the Savior. But He also does it in front of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to show what the Sabbath is really all about, knowing full well that they are going to use that against Him to kill Him. He knows that it is really they who are breaking the Sabbath and that He is the One who is going to pay the consequences. And that's what it means that He is our Savior. He knows that because of our sins, He will die. And He does it because He loves His Father and because by doing so He's going to take you from the low spot at the Lord's table to the high spot. Jesus knows that by Him keeping the Sabbath, your breaking the Sabbath will be forgiven. In fact, His keeping all of the commandments means all of your breaking them is going to be wiped out. Jesus knows that by humbling Himself, He will exalt you. That's what makes Him your Savior. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
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