Is it lawful to cure on the Sabbath or not?
The Jews regard the seventh day or Sabbath as a day set aside for rest and worship. God commanded it to be kept holy, a day of rest as God rested from his work of creation (Gn 2:3). The Sabbath has been instituted as a perpetual covenant for the Israelites (Ex 31:1317). Other than a sign of God’s rest, it is also the sign of the Israelites’ deliverance from the slavery of Egypt, which gave them “rest” from their hard labor. Sabbath rest has even been expanded to nonhuman repose: for animals and land. Animals are to do no work on the Sabbath just like humans (Ex 20:811), and the land is left fallow or uncultivated for it to rest on the sabbatical year. Among God’s creatures, man has a special place at the apex of creation.
The psalmist sings, “You have made him little less than a god, crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him rule over the works of your hands, put all things at his feet” (Ps 8:6-7). Jesus argues with the Pharisees who complain why he cures the man with dropsy on the Sabbath: if they care to pull out a son or an ox that falls into a cistern, how much more would Jesus set free a human being from the bondage of sickness (the fruit of sinfulness)! This is how God shows his care for humanity, the jewel of his creation. To care for creation, especially human beings, is to give glory to God.
FIRST READING • Rom 9:1-5
Brothers and sisters: I speak the truth in Christ, I do not lie; my conscience joins with the Holy Spirit in bearing me witness that I have great sorrow and constant anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, my kindred according to the flesh. They are children of Israel; theirs the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; theirs the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.
Gospel • Lk 14:1-6
On a Sabbath Jesus went to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees, and the people there were observing him carefully. In front of him there was a man suffering from dropsy. Jesus spoke to the scholars of the law and Pharisees in reply, asking, “Is it lawful to cure on the Sabbath or not?” But they kept silent; so he took the man and, after he had healed him, dismissed him. Then he said to them, “Who among you, if your son or ox falls into a cistern, would not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?” But they were unable to answer his question.