“Stretch out your hand”
The question: "What is allowed to do on the Sabbath: to do something good or do something bad?" Jesus makes it clear that failure to do good is evil. Besides, evil by its nature is not a being, but a non-being, that is, absence; evil is the lack of good. So perhaps we should not wonder if we have done any evil, but rather whether our thoughts, words and deeds have not been lacking in goodness. Each of us is rich in good in his own way. If we do not give this good to others when they need it, then there is no good, that is, evil. This selfless giving is the essence of living in Heaven. And Heaven is an eternal Sabbath. No wonder Jesus was so eager to heal on the Sabbath.
Before Jesus came, people thought that God had to be given a lot in order for Him to give something to them. (Today many people think so too). Therefore, they forbade the sick to come to Jesus on the Sabbath for healing. The Sabbath was to be a kind of tribute to God. Meanwhile, on the Sabbath, Jesus said to the man with a withered hand, who was not asking for healing, to extend his hand. A hand is stretched out for something - to receive something, to ask for a gift. Through this healing, Jesus wanted to tell us that there is always time to ask Him for what is very important to us. And that you do not have to buy his favor.
Let us continue our discussion about the Sabbath. Yesterday the words were said: The Sabbath is for man, not man for the Sabbath ... Today Jesus asks even more clearly: What is allowed on the Sabbath? And what is not allowed .... Is it allowed to do something good? Save someone's life? The legalism of the Pharisees became so absurd that it was morally wrong for them to heal a sick - disabled - man ...
The Sabbath commandment and the honor of parents differ from the other commandments because they are not formulated in a negative but in a positive way. We are “not to do something" but "to do something." The commandments before and after these two begin with "you shall not." These two, therefore, constitute the central part of the Decalogue from the book of Deuteronomy. If we write the remaining commandments on two tables, then these two are a kind of hinge connecting these tables.
Shabbat in Hebrew means to stop. However, this commandment applies not only to one day, but to the entire week. For it says: Six days you may labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest (cf. Ex 34:21). It can be said that someone who ... works six days can keep the Sabbath. Now look at today's text in which we have a man with a withered hand (Luke adds with medical accuracy that it was the right hand). The right hand is used to say hello (and thus build relationships) and to work (for most it is the stronger hand). Can one risk saying that this man could not keep the Sabbath because his withered hand prevented him from working for "six days"? Healing on the Sabbath meant that this man would from now on be able to keep the Sabbath.
This commandment organizes time, as we said above. Because it divides time, this time is not the same every day. There is one day that is excluded, that is different from the other six days. The splitting of time already occurs in the book of Genesis when God creates the world. This division is to sort out the chaos. So, this commandment puts chaos in order. A conclusion can be made here: the Sabbath would be pointless if a person did nothing for 6 days. These working days would also be meaningless without the seventh Sabbath day - that is, if there were only work. This state would reflect the Egyptian bondage, where there was not a single day off (slave labor, no stop). And the reason for that day God gives is very clear: " Remember that you too were once slaves in the land of Egypt, and the LORD, your God, brought you out from there with a strong hand and outstretched arm. That is why the LORD, your God, has commanded you to observe the sabbath day". (Dt 5:15)
On this day, everyone is to rest, even slave and animals. This is the purpose of the Sabbath. Everyone is to rest, and the commandment is addressed to the head of the house. He needs to free everyone at home from work. For in its essence, the Sabbath was and is a commandment to protect the freedom of the chosen people. Also, us, because it has not lost any of its actuality. Freedom is linked to a new life, a new creation The justification for the Sabbath in Exodus comes from the fact that God created the world in 6 days and rested the seventh. For us Christians, this new creation is the Resurrection of Christ (celebration of Sunday). It is a celebration of freedom in which a person needs to free others, especially those closest to him.
The Sabbath is not only one day a week (e.g., our Sunday), but also the LIFE ATTITUDE. In the Bible there is a sabbath year, a jubilee year – these results from the Sabbath. The Shabbat asks me the question: Was I like God today? This is about the spirit of the commandment, not the letter. Note also that this commandment does not say whether to do anything specifically for God - though it is YAHWEH's Sabbath. One might even conclude that on the Sabbath, THERE IS NOTHING TO DO for GOD. It is the idols that needs something to be done for them, God does not. Because it is God who does something for man. However, it is given what to do in specific relationships (son, daughter, slave, stranger, animal ...). So, do we work on Sunday or not? Nobody today will question Sunday work for medical services, hospitals, fire brigades, police, other services ...
Let us return to the text about the man with the withered hand. This is a concrete example of the application of the Sabbath commandment as the gospel event happen on the Sabbath. We already clarified the situation of the man who can henceforth keep the Sabbath and has become free from his disease. This is what Jesus did to him, but it is not to the liking of the congregation, who, looking only at the letter of the commandment, sees Jesus breaking the Sabbath. Listen to the questions Jesus asks them? He asks whether something good or bad can be done on the Sabbath. Save life or kill? Is it allowed to do something good on Sunday ...? And if it were a cleaning of a sick person's apartment, because at other times it is impossible ... how many of us would have doubts, because cleaning on Sunday is not "allowed" (although it is not written anywhere). What can be done on Sunday? Think about it for a moment. Do not look for a catalog of works and deeds that are "permitted" and those that are "not permitted." Look at the spirit of the commandment that makes us free. Then we will be filled with joy when we celebrate our Sabbath – Sunday.
Until Tomorrow
fr. george