Keeping the Sabbath

Hi there,

If you heard my sermon yesterday, you know I picked a little bit on the Pharisees, in particular their trying to maintain the Sabbath. I didn't have enough time to fully explore that idea yesterday, so I wanted to flesh out a few things here for those that are interested.
The keeping of the Sabbath is an idea most of us have some knowledge of, even if we don't know how to do it exactly. It starts in Genesis 2 where God sets aside the last day of Creation for rest. And, as God does, so are we asked to do. One day a week we shouldn't "work", we should rest and rejoice in the wonder of God's creation. This idea continues in the 10 Commandments, Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. But, like I said yesterday, what did that mean? You see a few times in Scripture some definition of what we should or should not do on our day of rest. For instance, Nehemiah 13 is where we get justification for most of the "blue laws" that say you cannot buy or sell anything on the Sabbath day.
But, for the Pharisees it wasn't enough. Scripture says we shouldn't carry a heavy burden on the Sabbath, but it didn't say how much that burden could be. So, they actually tried to determine how much weight you could carry before you were working. It might seem crazy to us, but I think their heart was in the right place. Anyway, all of this leads up to our story.
Jesus heals a man on the Sabbath, and the Pharisees are so enraged they plot to kill Jesus. Why? And why does Jesus say you could rescue an animal from a well on the Sabbath? Why not heal a man?
The answer is found in this question: Was it necessary? The Pharisees did believe that in case of an emergency you should save someone's life on the Sabbath, even if that required "work". Apparently this even applied to livestock. They said better to profane one Sabbath, and allow countless more to be celebrated. But what Jesus did was different.
He willfully flaunted His work on the Sabbath when it wasn't "necessary." Jesus could have performed His miracle on the following day. The man had been suffering for so long, but he wasn't dying. So, there was no need to heal him on the Sabbath day. It wasn't necessary, in their opinion. Jesus' disregard for their careful logic clearly drove them over the edge as their reaction shows. But it also shows what Jesus was about.
From a logical persepctive, the Pharisees were right. This man didn't "need" his hand healed that day. It could have waited. But that's not Jesus' perspective. He had a chance to change a man's life forever. His life, not just his hand but his whole life, was able to be restored by one word from Jesus. And that new life was not going to wait. Not another day, not another hour. It was going to start immediately. And whatever barrier might have been in place to prevent it was of no consequence to Jesus. New life was coming to another child of God. Who would ever want to wait for that to happen?!
So, there you have it. A bit more than what we did yesterday. Hope it helps, or at least provides a few more answers for you. And maybe even some questions as well.

Enjoy the Sun, and the Son :)

Bill