You Have a Place at Grace - 9/30/2025

“Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”

The Holy Scriptures record numerous bouts between Jesus and His opponents over the Sabbath. There was something about this day that struck a chord with Jesus’ enemies. Why would anyone be mad over divine miracles?

Perhaps it’s because miracles are work forbidden in the Word of Exodus 20:10: “but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.” However, equating healing with work isn’t a necessary conclusion from Exodus 20:10, and doesn’t fully capture the nature of the problem.

Not long ago I inherited an interesting collection of volumes titled Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Hebraica by 17th century scholar John Lightfoot. His commentary from Jewish teachings cites sources in Judaism supporting cases of healing on the Sabbath. To Lightfoot, healing wasn’t the real problem when the ruler of the Synagogue, speaking with “indignation” said “there are six days on which men ought to work; therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day” (Luke 13:14). On a prior occasion Jesus healed a man with a withered hand, and “they were filled with rage” (Luke 6:11). Indignation and rage over healing on the Sabbath ultimately come “in mere hatred to his person and actions” (Lightfoot).

Jesus’ opponents are playing God when determining laws and interpretations prohibiting the Lord from healing. They want to call the shots in ways no less than demonic when seeking to stop Jesus’ works of restoring fallen creation. But He’s the Lord of the Sabbath (Luke 6:5), not them, and they’re enraged over Jesus being on the scene, stripping them of power and prestige.

The Sabbath is all about healing because it’s about holiness. Holiness from God to us means standing complete before God. It means spiritual healing and thus physical resurrection on the Last Day when death, bodily evils, and the devil’s kingdom are no more. The enemies still hate this work and concoct new rules against gathering in church on Sunday mornings. But Christ isn’t swayed. He still comes to heal and forgive, and calls us to receive. It’s lawful to heal, as Jesus shows time and again, and faith receives this gift. Our sicknesses and suffering are temporary before the Great Physician Who speaks healing in His Word and grants eternal life free from dropsy, blindness, and other pains we know all too well.

-By Rev. Ryan J. Ogrodowicz, “You Have a Place at Grace” September 30, 2025

Grace Lutheran Church - Brenham, Texas

The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod